AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I know. Come on.” Nash’s words were gruff. “Let’s go to the house. Mom and Dad are there.”
He knew it was inevitable, so he took his sister’s hand in his and followed his brother. They walked silently to the house and made their way inside.
“This is nice,” his mother said. She and Dad were in the conservatory, drinking coffee. “We don’t often have a meeting of the originals.”
Now that his siblings had partners, their mother called the five of them that.
“I need to tell you something,” Ford said before he lost the courage.
“I’ll get coffee,” Maggie said.
“And if there are any of those cookies…,” Nash added.
“You can eat now?” Ford glared at him.
“I’m an emotional eater.”
“What’s going on?” his father asked.
After Maggie got back with the coffee and cookies, Ford told his parents the story.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” His father was devastated, and his mother started crying, which made him feel like hell.
“You and Mom were going through so much… I didn’t want to involve you in this too.”
“You are our son!” his father roared. “No matter what we were going through, you and your siblings have always come before everything in our lives. You had a right to our support, Ford. We would have been there for you. I can’t believe at twenty you went through that without us. You could have died!”
“I had Johnnie’s family—”
“They are not your blood! They don’t love you like us.”
“Calm down, Dad. Ford did what he thought was right no matter how dumb it was,” Nash said. “He thought he was protecting us, seeing as how Mom was going through the cancer treatments and Uncle Jay had just died.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“It was a dick move, bro—you know it. Just as it’s been a dick move all the years since not to tell us.”
“I’m really angry, Ford,” his father gritted out.
It took a lot to upset his father, who’d always been this solid, even-tempered presence in his life. He hated that he’d done this to him.
“I’m sorry.” He looked at his parents. His father had an arm around his wife’s shoulder, and Maggs stood on her other side, supporting her.
“It will take a lot more than a simple sorry to make me feel better, but it’s a start, son.”
“Those letters I get every year are from Johnnie’s family when it’s close to the anniversary of his death.” He might as well get it all out. “I don’t sleep— I mean I do, but only a few snatched hours.”
“The models,” Nash said slowly. “You started those when you woke or couldn’t sleep.”
Ford nodded. “The nightmares were bad to start, but they’re better now. I sometimes still get them though.”
His father closed his eyes; his mother sniffed loudly.
“So because he’s the oldest Winter sibling, he thought he’d just carry this burden and get on with shit. The stoic member of our family who thought he’d carry this alone,” Nash said. While he had calmed down some since last night, clearly the anger was still there.
“I’m not stoic,” Ford snapped.
Maggie laughed, but it held no humor. “You are the meaning of the word. You never even said anything when that piece of wood embedded itself in your leg, because I was with you and you didn’t want to worry me.”
