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“Dad around?”
With a forced smile, she pointed to the study that had always been our father’s home office. “He’s in there, pouting.”
I tried to think back to a time when my mother and father were more loving to each other. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I had never actually seen them show any affection. Maybe the occasional kiss on the cheek or hug, but nothing like what I had seen Evie and Will do. Or Pete’s parents, or Paul’s. And I had always thought Nolan’s parents were a little weird, because they were constantly kissing and hugging.
“I need to talk to Dad about a business deal I’m fixin’ to do. Do you mind, Mom?” I asked.
Before she could answer, Roger held out his arm to her. “Come on, let’s go make a drink and you can tell me all about your trip to…”
“Italy!”
“Right, Italy,” Roger replied as he guided our mother out of the room.
I knocked on my father’s office door and waited for him to call out.
“Come in.”
His voice sounded cold and distant. When he looked up and saw me, though, he smiled and stood.
“You look better than the last time I saw you at the hospital.”
As he walked over to me, I held out my hand. He gave it a shake and then pulled me in for a quick hug.
“You came to the hospital? You hate hospitals, Dad.”
“Well, it’s not every day my son has surgery. When Roger called, I wanted to be there.”
He motioned for me to sit down as he walked over and poured us each a whiskey.
I took the whiskey and said, “You should be used to that from me.”
He laughed. “I never told you this, but when I was younger, much younger, I was a bit of klutz.”
“You?’ I asked before I took a drink.
“Yes, indeed. You remind me a lot of myself when I was younger. I’m glad you followed your dreams, even when I gave you a hard time about it.”
That took me by surprise. “Was ranching not your dream?”
He looked at his glass and swirled the brown liquid in it as if deep in thought. He finished it off and then answered me.
“Honestly, no. I wanted to leave Boerne and join the Marines.”
“The Marines!” I said with a surprised laugh.
“Yes. Your grandfather told me if I did he would disown me, and I’d never be allowed on this ranch again.”
My mouth dropped slightly open. “I didn’t realize that, Dad.”
He nodded. “He also arranged for me to marry one of his best friend’s daughters. Said the match would be good for the two families.”
I was pretty sure my heart jumped to my throat.
“You didn’t want to marry Mom?” I asked.
He stood and walked over to the bar cart, pouring himself another drink.
“What brings you in here, son?”
He didn’t answer my question, and I wasn’t sure if he would answer the next one either.
“Dad, I need to know something, and I need you to tell me the truth.”
His brows pulled in tight. “I’m always truthful with you boys.”
“Did you have an affair that resulted in a baby boy being born?”
My father stared at me with a blank expression for the longest time.
“What did you say?” His voice sounded small, unsure. It wasn’t something I was used to. My father always had a strong presence. It was in the way he stood and held himself. And it was in the way he talked with authority and with purpose.
I sighed. “Dad, is Tim Ackerman your son?”
This time he let out a string of curses. “That little bastard told you, didn’t he?”
To say I was stunned by his words was an understatement. “If by ‘little bastard’ you mean Tim, then yes, he told me.”
I watched as he pulled in a long, deep breath and then slowly exhaled.
“Yes. It’s true.”
My eyes closed, and I felt my entire body drop. “Does Mom know?”
“Yes. I told her after Tim was born. I couldn’t keep something like that from her.”
“That’s why she’s always traveling?”
My father turned and faced me. “Truitt, when I married your mother, I wasn’t in love with her. I tried to fall in love with her, and I grew to care for her deeply. She…she never…oh, hell. She never warmed much to me after our wedding. I had a lot of affairs over the first year of our marriage. It’s not something I’m proud of. After I gave up the skirt chasing, your mother and I grew closer. I started to fall for her. After she had you, she fell into a depression and she pulled back. Like her duty of providing me a set of sons had been accomplished. I was lonely and I sought comfort. Tim’s mother told me she couldn’t get pregnant. That she was unable to have kids. Turns out it was her husband who couldn’t have kids and never told her. He knew the moment she ended up pregnant that the baby wasn’t his. She tried to blackmail me for money to get rid of the baby. I said that I would take the baby and she practically laughed in my face. After Tim was born, she invited your mother to the hospital; they were friends.”
