His eyes wandered aimlessly around the room. He’d buried Growler Red years ago, and he didn’t like having to dig him up again, but Lolly needed to have a more balanced picture of him.
“Growler was kicked out of the navy for brawling. When he was on the wrestling circuit, they billed him as the Meanest Man in Texas—and he was. He ran a rough bar, sold liquor to underage kids, and knocked me around when he was drunk. I went to school hungry more days than not and started working odd jobs when I was nine to support myself. If it wasn’t for your Aunt Maxie, he probably would have drowned me in the Bosque.” He grimaced. “I didn’t want to be anything like him, and, God help me, I’m not.”
No, he hadn’t wanted to be like his father. He’d modeled himself on Reverend Ed, but he wasn’t going to say that. “Children don’t have to be like their parents. Everyone has a choice.”
Lolly’s eyes went big and round. “He didn’t feed you? He hit you?”
Jase nodded. “Beat me within an inch of my life more than once.” He touched his chest. “You remember that big scar I’ve got here?”
“The one that goes all sorts of directions? You told me you got it from falling off your bike when you were in middle school.”
“Honey, Growler had long since tossed my bicycle in the Bosque. I got this little souvenir when he came home drunk one night and couldn’t get in because I’d locked the door.” He grimaced at the memory. “Let’s just say he wasn’t happy with me.”
Lolly leapt up from the sofa and rushed over to throw her arms around his neck. “Oh, Daddy. I’m so sorry! I love you so much! I’ll never leave you again!”
He hugged her with one arm, gently, because he knew she would be shy about physical contact with him for a while. “Well, not for a long time, I hope.”
“I wish I’d never found out about Marguerite. I just want things to be like they were—you and me and Aunt Maxie.” She glanced back at the couch. “And Laurel, of course.”
“We can’t turn back time, Lolly. What’s done is done. Now, let’s sit back down and talk about where we’re going to go from here, so Laurel doesn’t feel like she’s got a couple of raving lunatics on her hands.”
Lolly returned to the sofa. “Was Marguerite really your teacher, Dad?”
“Yeah. English lit—Oedipus Rex, Romeo and Juliet, all of that.”
“How did it happen—I mean, you and her?”
He wanted to be truthful, but only to a point. Lolly didn’t need to know the unsavory details he’d confessed to Laurel. “I think she filled a gap for me. Marguerite gave me a lot of attention, but it was the wrong kind of attention. I was too young to be carrying on that intense a relationship with anybody, especially a woman more than twice my age.”
“Was she pretty back then, Dad? Her picture in the annual looks kinda sneaky.”
Jase laughed, remembering the sensuously seductive woman Marguerite had been. “She was dazzling, sweetheart. All the boys at Bosque Bend High School were crazy about her.”
Lolly cocked her head to one side. “And she, like, chose you over all of them?”
He didn’t like the direction this conversation was taking. “She shouldn’t have chosen any of us, Lolly. What happened between her and me was wrong. Adults shouldn’t be sexually involved with kids. I was seduced—not forced—but it was still wrong.”
Lolly’s voice turned soft. “Dad, do you hate me because I wanted to find my mother, because I met Marguerite? Are you sorry I was born?”
He’d always known she’d ask that question eventually, and the answer came easy. He risked lifting his hand to smooth her tumbled curls.
“No, baby. I love you and I’ll always love you.” His voice choked. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
*
The phone rang and Laurel hurried off to answer it. The Realtor had told her he might be calling today.
“Hello? Hello? Is this the Harlow residence?” Not her Realtor’s friendly chirp. It was an old man’s voice, breaking with agitation.
“Yes,” she answered, ready to slam down the receiver at the first obscene word.
“I need to speak to Jason Redlander. His aunt gave me this number.”
“May I say who’s calling?”
“An—an old acquaintance. Please, get him for me. It’s very important. Please, Laurel.”
How did he know her name?
She replaced the receiver and returned to the drawing room. “Someone wants you on the phone. He sounds odd. And he knows my name.”
Jase sighed. “Probably someone with another farm to sell. Sorry, but that’s it for Bosque Bend.”
He rose and headed to the den.
Lolly looked toward the hall. “Who do you think is calling Dad?” she asked Laurel.
“I don’t know. I know I’ve heard the voice before, but—”
Hugo started barking again.
“Lolly, we can’t talk over that racket. Would you mind if I let Hugo in the house?”
“Of course not. I love Hugo.”