AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The kitchen?” Tess asked, a small smile creeping out.
Frank struggled to his feet, and Tess rushed to grab his elbow. He patted her arm. “I’m good. A little weak still, but not as bad as I was last week. This shit really did a number on me. Guess I ain’t too tolerant of chemo.”
Tess’s face crumpled. “Dad… ”
“None of that. We gotta talk about what happened, Tess. We got a lot of words to say and I can’t say ’em if you start blubbering. You know what your tears do to me.”
Tess managed a shaky smile. “Think that’s the problem to begin with, huh?”
“A little.”
Together they moved toward the back door, each with much to say, but for a moment content to feel the other’s presence. Shoulder to shoulder, they walked. Father and daughter—more alike than either wanted to admit.
TESSPOUREDSOMELEMONADEin a tall glass and handed it to her father, glad to have something to occupy her hands. He waved it away, sinking on a bar stool with a small sigh.
He didn’t look good, but she supposed after all the rounds of chemotherapy he’d undergone, he wasn’t supposed to. His body was at war, so he wasn’t exactly up for running marathons. His craggy face with the large Italian nose, so dear to her, held a pall, the wrinkles more pronounced, and his salt-and-pepper hair more salt now.
She knew why she’d come. After the drama in her office with Monique… after the realization of what she’d given up, she’d come home not to lick her wounds but repair one still bleeding.
Or maybe it was more she needed to loosen the knots she’d tied around herself, but she wasn’t here to ask her father to fix anything in her life. She was here to make things right.
“Mom and I had a long talk,” Tess said, pulling the cool glass to her place as she sank onto the stool opposite her father.
“She told me but didn’t say much else,” Frank said, playing with the bobbing rooster her mother had bought at a flea market one summer. “I didn’t ask her. I knew you needed some time to figure things out.”
“I’ve had plenty of time,” Tess said, in the quiet of the kitchen. “I’d graduated into avoidance. Sorry I didn’t return your calls. I didn’t know what to say.”
Her father looked at her. “None of this has been easy, has it? I’m still trying to get my footing. Thing is, I may never be rock-solid again.”
Tess put her hand over his worn, callused one. “Don’t say it like that, Daddy.”
“Baby, I ain’t afraid of dying. I just don’t want to leave all of you behind. But the good Lord might just be ready for me up there. I’ve come to terms with that, Therese. I have.”
“I haven’t,” she said. His words ripped into her, shredding her heart. She couldn’t grasp the concept of her father dying. She refused to.
“I know, honey, but dying isn’t as scary as living sometimes. I have faith there’s a place for me, and I’ll be waiting in glory for all of you. Maybe not my own mama ’cause she might not make it past St. Peter.” He gave her a sad wink.
Tess managed a small smile. “She’d probably tell God how to run the joint. You know she still writes her congressman about daylight saving time?”
For a moment they both smiled through the pain.
“But I’m not just sorry about your getting sick, Daddy. I’m sorry about everything that happened when you gave Graham the position of CEO. I didn’t think before I acted, and, honestly, put myself in a bad situation.”
Frank shook his head. “Ah, Tess, I didn’t handle it right, either. I was a coward, plain and simple. Everything in life was suddenly so hard, so scary. I knew I couldn’t undergo all the procedures and chemotherapy and still run the company. It broke my heart.” Her father’s voice quivered and Tess couldn’t stop a lone tear from trailing down her cheek. Swiping it away, she realized she’d never stopped to think about how hard handing over his company, virtually his baby, must have been for him. She’d never even considered how being given a virtual death sentence had affected her father. She’d only thought of herself.
“I didn’t know, Dad.”
“I know you didn’t. Once I found out about the cancer, I didn’t tell anyone for several days… not even your mother or Joe. This horrible thing grew inside me, twisting around this selfish need to pretend like everything was okay. At first, I planned on not telling anyone at all. Just thought I’d ride it out until the end and then cash my check. I didn’t want to put anyone through all the crap that comes with the fight. But I changed my mind the day we rolled Bacchus out. You remember?”
She did. That Sunday had been perfect. Maggie had brought them a big picnic basket and she and her father had sat in the parade stand, each connected with their guys coordinating the tractors. Last-minute emergency work was handled by Red Jack and Bennie B so Tess, Dave, and her father had been able to enjoy the fruits of their labor. All her brothers and their families had been there, each bringing a picnic basket full of New Orleans favorites, including a huge cinnamon-and-sugar king cake. The weather had been mild, no floats had broken down, and the excitement in the air had been electric. It had been a while since Tess had enjoyed herself like that at a parade. “It was perfect.”
“Yeah, the floats looked great and there were so few hiccups. I laughed for the first time since the doc sat me down with that news.” Frank smiled as if sucked back into the memory. “You laughed a lot, too, and it was good to see you happy. That Nick fellow had pissed you off over Christmas and then the season hit and we were too busy to think, much less smile. I remember watching you and your mama that day, flirting for beads and dancing to the music. At the end of the parade, you laid your head on your mama’s shoulder and she kissed your forehead. That was when I knew I had to fight, and I knew I’d have to make some tough decisions.”
Tess dropped her gaze because it hurt to think about that moment, hurt to know the burden her father had carried.
“I’ve always been proud you wanted to do what I do, Tess. We make magic. We make people happy. That’s a satisfying feeling. I hadn’t planned on retiring this soon, and I’ll be honest, I thought with a little more tempering and the right crew around you, you’d be fine running the company. But I didn’t think you were ready. I’m not saying you had to have a business degree, but you didn’t have a clue what I do on my end. I thought if I could find a guy—”
“Or girl?” Tess added.
