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/> “Okay, I will,” she said, fighting her own tears. “But we’ll talk in the morning and I want you to know one thing.”
No response. He didn’t move except for the rise and fall of his shoulders and back as he breathed.
“I love you, Cody, and everything I do is because I want to protect you and help you grow up to be a responsible person. Believe me, not letting you have something is really harder than giving in.”
“Sure. You just didn’t want me to have something my dad, my dad, gave me!”
“No, Cody—”
He sat up suddenly and turned his red face to her. “You said you’d leave me alone!”
Quietly she closed his door and walked down the stairs to the living room. She saw the empty beer cans on the hearth, noticed the still dirty pots and pans in the sink and realized that her life would never be the same. Blake was back in Martinville and for some reason known only to him, he wanted to make amends with his son. Maybe she was too suspicious; maybe she should take Blake at face value, believe that he’d finally grown up and wanted to share the responsibilities of a son. . . .
Cold dread settled between her shoulder blades. It was already starting, she realized in wild desperation. Blake was back and was trying his damnedest to increase the rift between Cody and her.
“I can’t let it happen,” she told herself as she picked up the beer cans and tossed them into the plastic sack on the back porch. “No one is going to stand between me and my child!”
She tried to clear her mind and found it impossible. Her thoughts were swimming, her entire world off balance. “If only they’d leave us alone,” she thought, thinking about Blake and Caleb.
Walking down the two steps to the backyard, she looked up the hill to the Johnson farm and her thoughts turned to Chase. Where was he and when would he be back? If he were here, things would be better so much better.
* * *
The next morning Dani had already watered the garden, fed the cattle and horses, showered, dressed in clean clothes and started breakfast before she finally heard Cody rustling around upstairs. He came down the stairs a few minutes later. Barefoot, tucking his shirt into his pants and eyeing his mother cautiously, he walked into the kitchen.
“Feeling any better?” Dani asked.
Cody didn’t respond. Taking a chair at the table, he didn’t even bother to look up when Dani placed a stack of waffles and two strips of bacon on a plate and set the hot breakfast in front of him.
“I think we should talk,” she said.
“Don’t want to,” he grumbled, spreading jam on his waffles before attacking them hungrily.
Her stomach in nervous knots, Dani sat down at the table across from her son and cradled a hot cup of coffee in her hands. She studied the anxious lines of his young face and wished she could make growing up easier on him. “Just because I don’t let you have everything you want doesn’t mean that I don’t love you,” she said. When Cody didn’t respond, she sat back in her chair and blew across her coffee. “You hurt me very badly with the things you said last night.”
He ignored her and kept eating in sullen silence.
“I had trouble sleeping.”
“That makes two of us,” he admitted.
“Believe it or not, I don’t want to stand between you and your father—”
“Then why wouldn’t you let me keep the .22?” Cody demanded, dropping his fork and piercing her with furious dark eyes. “You just didn’t want Dad to give me something.”
“No . . . I didn’t want your dad to give you something you weren’t ready for. A .22 is still a gun, Cody. A weapon. It’s dangerous.”
“I’d only use it on rabbits and birds—”
“Is that what you want to do? Go hunting?”
“Why not?”
“You’ve never shown any interest in it before.”
Cody’s lips pressed together. “Maybe that’s because you’ve always treated me like a baby.”
“And having a .22 makes you a man?”
