Charlotte nodded. “Earlier this morning. I don’t know what he said to her exactly, but Della sounded upset. Of course, when we spoke to her she insisted we shouldn’t be mad at him and told us not to pressure him in any way.”
“That woman is a fucking saint,” Nate muttered.
A sharp rap on the front door interrupted the conversation, prompting Nate to stand up. “I’ll get it.”
Once he was out of earshot, Charlotte lowered her voice and said, “Honestly, Mari? I know Nate’s pissed, but I’m not sure I blame Austin for feeling the way he does.”
Mari was startled. “Really?” She’d figured Charlotte would take her husband’s side on this issue.
“Della is a wonderful woman, don’t get me wrong,” Charlotte said quickly. “When I was younger, I secretly wished that she was my mother—my own mom was a total flake, but that’s a story for another day.”
Mari’s legs were shaky as she walked to the table and sank into the chair Nate had been occupying.
“But that’s a pretty big secret to keep from your son,” Charlotte continued with a sigh. “I mean, I grew up here. I saw the way Henry Bishop treated his family. Austin could have had a real father in his life, someone to look up to, but Della deprived him of that. And now she and Rice expect everything to go back to normal, for Austin to be that open, carefree guy he used to be, and yeah, I guess that does put a lot of pressure on him.”
Mari couldn’t say she disagreed with the other woman’s assessment of the situation.
But that didn’t make Austin’s desertion any less painful.
“I can’t believe he left without saying goodbye. I thought I meant more to him than—” She stopped talking when footsteps sounded from the hall.
A second later Nate entered the kitchen with Rice Bishop at his heels.
“Mari, you remember my uncle Rice, right?” Nate said, glancing in her direction. “I think you met at my mom’s party?”
“Yeah, we met. Briefly.”
Rice cleared his throat and stepped forward. “Can I have a word with you?”
When she realized he was addressing her, Mari furrowed her brow. “Me?”
He nodded. “It won’t take long, I promise.”
“Oh. Um, all right.”
Charlotte quickly got to her feet. “We’ll give you two some privacy. There’s plenty of coffee left if you want to help yourselves.”
After Nate and Charlotte left the room, Rice walked up to the table and sat across from her. There was no mistaking the unhappiness in his eyes.
“I guess you know that Austin left,” Mari said flatly.
“Yes. He left me a message on my cell phone.”
“He did?”
“Believe me, I was as surprised as you are.” Rice rubbed his temples as if warding off a headache. “He apologized for the way he’s been shutting me out, but said he’s not ready for us to start over and that he’s definitely not ready to view me as a father figure.”
As Mari waited for him to continue, she thought she heard the muffled creak of the front door, but then the house went quiet again and she figured she’d imagined it. Either that, or Nate and Charlotte had gone out on the porch.
“I’ve been in love with Della for almost thirty years.”
The confession came so abruptly and was spoken so rapidly that Mari wondered if she’d misheard him. “Pardon me?”
“You heard me.” Rice smiled ruefully. “I was Austin’s age when I met her, twenty-five years old. I’d just come back from the army and was finally going to meet my little brother’s new wife. They’d been married for four years by then. Nate was about three, and the twins were just babies. I took one look at Della and I was a goner.”
“Did she know how you felt about her?” Mari asked curiously.
“Not initially, but I think she figured it out once I started finding any excuse to pay her a visit. Henry had always been a big drinker, and after the boys were born he only got worse. He disappeared for days or weeks at a time, doing God knows what, leaving Della to raise those boys alone. So I’d stop by from time to time to help her out, and the two of us became friends.”
Guilt crept into his expression. “And then, for Nate’s eighth birthday, Henry decided to take the boy on a trip. Again, God knows why. But with him gone, I saw Della transform before my eyes. She was more relaxed, she was laughing all the time, and I fell even harder for her. One night I came over for dinner, and after she put the twins to bed, I ended up telling her how I felt.” He looked embarrassed. “And, well, you know the rest.”
Mari nodded. “You had an affair.”
“We had an affair. But Della broke it off at the end of the summer when Henry came back. By then, she knew she was pregnant, but she begged me to let Henry think the baby was his. I think she was secretly afraid of him. He never raised a hand to her or the boys, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen.” Rice’s gaze darkened. “Our father beat us—did Austin tell you about that?”
She shook her head, unsure of what to say.