My mother smiled.
“Good. Now, are you ready to have some pie, or should I wait a couple minutes before slicing it? It just got out of the oven,” she smiled, clearly hoping to entice me.
Really, there was no other option, so I had some pie.
And thought about ways that I could get my parents married again, since it was apparent they were living in sin.
Chapter 18
The best things in life are the things that have the greatest consequences. Like cake. Calories are a bitch.
- Fact of life
Sawyer
The drive to Kilgore, Texas wasn’t a long one.
What made it feel long, however, was the way Silas was acting.
I had my hands wrapped around his waist, but it could’ve been a tree for all I knew.
Silas was pissed at me, because I insisted that his children needed to know about Shovel being released from prison.
It had been two weeks since I’d found out that the charges against me were dropped.
My records were in the process of being expunged, and I was in contact with the Club’s lawyer who would be helping me with the restitution case against the state.
That’d been Silas’ idea and not mine.
I really just wanted it all to go away.
Yesterday.
The man responsible for it all had been arrested.
And just like eight years ago, the entire town’s attention was once again on me.
And I freakin’ hated it.
It reminded me over and over again about how it felt to have all their scrutiny eight years ago, when the wounds of killing those four people were still fresh.
Not to mention that I’d finally bugged him enough about telling his family that the Shovel guy he’d worried about was still around. He might even be closer than they realized.
He didn’t want to worry his kids unnecessarily, but after a lot of convincing done on my part, he’d finally relented. He didn’t have to be happy about it, though.
And, apparently, he thought it’d be a good idea to tell his kids about this at his grandchild’s baptism.
I walked next to Silas, staring up in awe at the building in front of me.
The church was massive. It was old and beautiful and just so… grand.
“Are you sure it’s OK that I’m here?” I asked Silas nervously.
Silas nodded. “Yeah, I think it’s time for you to meet all of my kids. It’s not ever going to get any easier, and it’s time to just rip the band aid off and get it done.”
I didn’t agree.
From what he’d told me, his kids were all around my age.
I was younger than the eldest two, his sons. His daughter was my age exactly, her birthday only two months after mine.
“Which granddaughter is getting baptized?” I asked once again.
He’d told me earlier, but I couldn’t remember her name.
They all started with a ‘P.’
“Phoebe,” he said again, not batting an eye at my forgetfulness.
He seemed almost preoccupied, as if he didn’t want to be here at all.
What I couldn’t understand was…why?
These were his grandkids for Christ’s sake.
Then I found out about ten minutes later when we tracked down his first-born son, Sam.
He was tall like Silas, built a lot like his dad.
He had black hair, though, compared to Silas’ salt and pepper.
Each had beards, but Sam’s was a little shorter than Silas’.
The moment Sam saw Silas, his demeanor changed.
No longer open like it’d been when he was talking to an older woman in front of him, but completely closed off and unwelcoming.
Silas walked up with me, and I had the urge to wrap Silas into my arms and stop him before he got too close to Sam.
But Silas was fearless, and he walked right up to Sam without any hesitation whatsoever in his step.
But Silas’ eyes went to the woman first as he stopped directly in front of them.
“Leslie,” Silas said, nodding his head slightly. “How are you doing?”
Oh, shit!
This was his ex-wife.
The woman that I couldn’t seem to stop comparing myself to.
Ever since the night he’d told me what had happened with his ex, I have been slightly self-conscious.
I knew that Silas cared about Leslie.
Deeply.
He’d been head over heels in love with her.
Was he still?
Looking at Silas’ face, I couldn’t tell. It was unreadable.
He did that when he didn’t want his emotions examined.
He was good at it, too.
It was something that drove me up the freakin’ wall.
It was hard to gauge Silas at times because of his ability to literally shut down every single emotion that he was feeling.
Other people showed their anger with their words or their demeanor.
You wouldn’t realize Silas was even mad until he threw the first punch.
“Silas,” Leslie said, nodding her head at him. “I’ll see you later, son.”
Silas watched her as she walked away, and then turned back to his son when he could no longer see her.
“Sam, I need to talk to you for a minute,” Silas rumbled softly.
His son, Sam, looked up at him and glared.