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Silence lengthened in the room until she was sure he’d never answer. But then he squared his shoulders and lifted his chin. “Tonight I screwed up again, big time. I tried to stop that—that Alvarez guy. I couldn’t. I was gonna take his car keys so he couldn’t leave, but he caught me. Zach and Katie could have been killed tonight because I failed.”
“Oh, Alex.” Dana reached across the table and rested her hand over his. “He was a vicious man. An adult who’d been in prison for terrible things. No one could ever expect a boy to best someone like that.”
“I should have done something different. Something better.” Alex pulled his hand away. “Just...like when Dad died.”
“But you weren’t even in the truck with him.”
“He wouldn’t have left that night if I hadn’t forgotten to give him Ben’s message earlier about the baling twine. We had to bale hay the next day, and because of me, he had to hurry into town before the store closed.”
“It was an accident.”
“And he never would have been in it, if not for me,” Alex said stubbornly. “You can’t say it isn’t true. And now, look at how hard it is here without him...and how much we m-miss him.” Alex bowed his head.
When Dana saw the first tear hit the tabletop, she felt her own eyes burning for all he had silently borne. Maybe now you’ll be able to heal, sweetheart. She went to him and wrapped him in an embrace. “Your dad took a lot of last-minute trips to town. He was always forgetting one thing or another. Don’t you remember? I think maybe he sometimes just liked an excuse to grab a cup of coffee with his buddies down at the feed mill.”
Feeling Alex pull away, she held him a little tighter as she continued. “He took that trip a thousand times. He knew the road and was a good driver. That accident was the fault of the truck driver who crossed the center line, not you. It could have happened on any other trip of his. No one has ever blamed you, and you can’t blame yourself. He wouldn’t want that, honey. You and Molly were the light of his life.”
Alex hugged her back. “I’m s-sorry, Mom.”
“Even now you miss him terribly. I know. But promise you’ll come and talk to me about this anytime you’re feeling down, okay? You’ll feel a lot better, and so will I.”
Long after he’d gone up to bed, Dana sat holding her cup of tea and thought about the past. She wondered if she, too, had held on to it far too long. When her mother had spoken of dreams and making choices, she hadn’t really understood. Until now.
But was it already too late?
CHAPTER TWENTY
The following morning, Deputy Robinson brought Vivian out to the ranch just as Francie and Tom returned from their trip to the horse sale in Denver. Dana met them all at the clinic door with a wiggling chocolate lab puppy in her arms.
With Tom in tow, Francie sailed in and thrust a sheaf of papers forward with a flourish. “We had a wonderful time,” she gushed. “Tom was a fantastic help. Just look at the bloodlines on the mare I bought!”
Looking between Francie’s sparkling eyes and the affectionate smile Tom gave her, Dana guessed the trip had been a success in other ways as well—maybe the start of the kind of relationship Francie had longed for.
“This must be one fantastic horse.” She grinned up at Tom. “I hope you both had a good time at the sale.”
The new light in his eyes spoke volumes. “You were right, Dana,” he murmured too low for anyone else to hear. “I didn’t understand until now. Thank you.”
