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“Are you mad, Mom?” Leo asked, growing distressed. “Did we do something wrong?”
She was angry enough to ignore him. “So now you’re finding fault withme?” she said, keeping her focus on Hendrix. “You’re blaming me for the past, taking her side over mine?”
Hendrix shoved a hand through his hair. Everything to do with Ellen was somewhat irrational. There was probably no way to convince his aunt that she should’ve done more for her new husband’s daughter. She’d had her own problems to deal with. “I guess I’m wondering why there are two sides to begin with,” he said.
“You have no idea what that girl was like as a child. She was a little demon! I wasn’t about to have her teach you and Leo how to be so naughty—and ruin the peace and happiness we were trying to establish.”
But would Ellen have been that difficult if they’d been able to give her the love and security she needed?
Hendrix wasn’t in a position to make that call; his aunt was right about that. But he felt terrible for Ellen. Stuart was her father, after all. He could’ve done a lot more to support and include her. “Calm down,” Hendrix said again. “I’m not judging you. Just...asking you to relax and let me deal with Ellen however I see fit.”
“What does that mean?” she demanded.
“It means I might want a better relationship with her than you have. Leo wants to be a friend to her, too. And would that be so terrible, if we were no longer enemies?”
“You don’t get to speak for Leo,” she said. “That’s up to me.”
“When it comes to Ellen, he can speak for himself. Tell Mom, bud, what you said in the truck. You told me you love Ellen, right?”
“I love Ellen,” Leo said, but he was starting to choke up, as he always did when emotions ran this high.
“She’s not a nice person,” Lynn insisted. “You need to stay away from her!”
Leo’s face contorted. “She has my chalk!”
Hendrix touched his arm to reassure him. “We’ll get it back. Don’t worry.”
“She said I could come over next week,” Leo said. “She said I could help her mow the yard.”
Lynn threw up her hands. “See? She’s trying to use him!”
“She’s not trying to use him,” Hendrix said. “You know her grandparents left their riding lawn mower in the barn. I’m guessing he saw it, and she told him he could ride on it.”
Lynn looked horrified. “What’s gotten into you?”
Before he had a chance to answer, she turned to Stuart. “You tell him!” she said. “You tell him what Ellen was like back in the day.”
Stuart hadn’t said a thing so far and probably wouldn’t have, except Lynn was suddenly demanding he get involved.
“Well?” she prodded when he still hesitated. “Are you just going to sit there and let this fall on me?”
Stuart sighed. “I don’t see any harm in letting Leo see Ellen now and then,” he said.
“That means I can go?” Leo looked from one to the other to determine if he had anything to worry about.
“Yes, you can go,” Hendrix said, but Stuart’s lack of support and his own opposition made Lynn walk out of the room.
A few seconds later, they heard her slam the bedroom door.
“Why’s Mom mad?” Leo asked, bewildered.
Hendrix pinched the bridge of his nose. “When something has to change, it can be hard to get used to,” he told his cousin.
Stuart was watching him contemplatively. “Why now?” he asked.
Hendrix frowned at the delicious-looking meal he’d ruined by getting into an argument with his aunt. “Why now...what?”
“Wasn’t it just last week that you told me I have to do something about Ellen? That she was going to ruin our business if I didn’t step in? Why are you suddenly defending her?”
