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“I said I’d do it, didn’t I?”
Sighing, Dani leaned against the back of the couch. “Look, we had a deal. You feed Runt, do the afternoon chores and clear the table, right?”
“Right.”
“I think it’s only fair that you do them the minute they need to be done.”
He looked at her blankly. “Why?”
“Because the cattle, horses and dog need to be fed on time. As for the dishes, I’d like to clean them up and put them away before midnight, okay?”
Cody, wearing his most put-upon expression, sighed loudly. “Things wouldn’t be like this if Dad was home,” the boy said, glancing out of the corner of his eyes for her reaction.
“You don’t know that.”
“You wouldn’t have to work so hard and . . . and . . . neither would I!”
Dani tried to hold onto her patience. “Cody, you have to understand that things never would have worked out between your father and me even if he had stayed on the farm.”
Cody remained silent, staring at the television. As Dani rose from the couch, he muttered, “You never gave him a chance.” And then, seeing his mother stiffen, he said a little louder, “The kids at school say he ran off with another woman. Is that true?”
“Where did you hear that?” she asked. “School’s been out for a couple of months.”
“Is it true?”
Dani’s shoulders slumped and she rubbed her temples. She was too tired to start this kind of conversation with Cody, but saw no way to avoid it. “I think so,” she admitted.
“Why?” Cody turned his accusing brown eyes on her.
“I don’t know.”
“I heard the kids talkin’ at school on the day that I got the letter from Dad.”
“You took it to school?”
“Yeah.” He chewed on his lower lip. “Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, huh?”
“What do you think?”
“Isabelle Reece told me that her pa says Dad left because you weren’t woman enough to hold him.”
Dani felt her throat tighten but managed a smile. “That’s the way Isabelle’s father would say it. I wouldn’t put much stock in Bill Reece’s opinion . . .” She took hold of Cody’s hand and squeezed his fingers before letting go. “Things aren’t always quite that simple.”
“Dad hurt you, didn’t he?” Cody deduced.
“A little.”
“Do you still love him?”
Dani paused. It was a question she’d asked herself often in the past six and a half years. “No.” She saw her son cringe. “Oh, I did love him. Once. A long time ago.”
“But what happened?”
“A lot of things, I guess,” she admitted. Dani felt the sting of tears behind her eyes but refused to give in to the urge to cry over Blake Summers. What they had shared was long over. “We got older, grew in different directions. Your dad wanted to sell the farm and move to Duluth.”
“Minnesota?”
“Yep.”
