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She waved a hand again, dismissing his words. “It was simply best for you to focus.
“You had no right to make that decision.”
“If you’d wanted to contact her you could have, Dylan, so don’t blame me for that.”
She had him there.
“Ava walked out on her studies four months ago without discussing the matter with either your father or me. Zander is the only good thing to happen to her since then. That boy is an excellent influence on her.”
“How come his career choice as a mechanic is okay, but you don’t want Ava to be a hairdresser?”
“He’s working in the garage until an opening comes up in an accountancy firm. He’s very intelligent, and I hope he can talk some sense into Ava.”
It wasn’t his business to interfere; after all, he’d turned his back on this life and his family, but he could still feel his old frustrations rising.
“How come you never asked me to come home, Mom?” Suddenly he needed to know the answer to that question.
She turned away from him and got down a mug.
“You were busy with your career, and there’s nothing for you here in Ryker. Now you just sit, and I’ll get your coffee.”
“I can get my own coffee. I don’t need you to run around after me, and I don’t like oatmeal.”God, I sound like a child now. “Look, I need you to understand that what Ava or Charlie do is just as important as what I do.”
He couldn’t seem to shut his mouth, which was odd, as he rarely opened it usually.
She made apfftsound. “Charlotte is doing well, but what she really needs is a man and babies. Oatmeal is good for you, so eat it.”
Dylan sat in stunned silence for a few seconds.
“This is 2018, Mom. A woman’s place is no longer only in the home.”
She turned, hands braced, and gave him what he’d once termed the lecture look, as it was usually followed with a longwinded discussion. However, he was no longer a child, so he didn’t have to stand for it... or sit as the current situation may be.
“You wouldn’t let me be a builder, because that wasn’t good enough, and now you’re stifling another one of your children’s dreams. Let Ava be a hairdresser if it makes her happy.”
“Building was beneath you, and look what you’ve achieved because we guided you. Ava doesn’t know what makes her happy.” His mother’s smile slipped. “And you have no say in this, as she is my daughter.”
“And my sister, and she’s twenty-three years old, no longer a child.”
“You have had nothing to do with her, so my advice is stay out of what does not concern you.”
“She’s still my sister,” he persisted, “and ‘guiding’ wasn’t the way I saw things.”
Her mouth thinned, and then with a little sniff that he remembered as meaning “conversation over,” she went to the stove. He remembered that too; if she couldn’t win, she walked away. However, he was not done talking. There was another matter he needed to raise, and she’d like this topic about as much as the last one.
“I need to talk to you about Joe Trainer and his family.”
She spun on a heel.
“Don’t you bring that family’s name into this house!” She spat out the words, face red with rage.
Dylan got out of his chair slowly and told himself to stay calm as he braced his hands on the back.
Remember you don’t do personal stuff.
“Joe is not to blame for me leaving here and never coming back. Just as he’s not to blame for what I did that night and the shame I brought down on this family. I robbed that store. I did it alone with no help. That was on me.” He placed a hand on his chest. “So whatever grudge you’ve been holding against that family has to stop.”
“They’ve been talking to you, I can see that. Tattling about things that aren’t true. That family’s scum, just like their daddy. I want you to stay away from them. No good can come from you being in their company again.”
