AllFreeNovel
Share Us
April leaned forward and waited for his reply. Richard sat back in his chair, his face growing red with anger. "How dare you accuse me of that? I may have needed your help, but I never took advantage of you," he said defensively.
She remained calm, but firm, just like she practiced. "But you did, Dad. You were constantly asking for things. And telling me how I could do things better without helping at all. Every time you wanted something, you came to me. I want you to understand it from my perspective."
Richard looked down at his hands, clasping them tightly together. "I was going through a rough time, April. You have to understand that."
"And I do. But I wish you would have just talked to me about it instead of going back to your old ways of taking advantage of the kindness given to you. Can you at least admit that you could have been better about that?" she said, her tone begging with him to get it.
Her father looked up at her. For the first time in years, she saw the face of her dad, who truly felt bad for what he did. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't realize I was doing those things. I know I'm not perfect, but... I tried."
It meant a lot to hear the words she'd been waiting for. Even the slightest amount of responsibility he took for his actions meant that he was improving. "Thank you, dad," April said, smiling at him. "But this next part is going to be hard."
She took a deep breath. "I need you to leave." Her body tensed, bracing for some kind of emotional impact. Richard was going to have an outburst when he heard that he was being kicked out of the house.
"Seriously?" He looked back and forth as if someone was going to help him. "You're kicking out your old man?"
It was supposed to go smoothly, but April knew now that it wasn't going to happen the way she pictured it. She opened her mouth to explain, but her father interrupted her, "After all that? I just apologized to you."
"I know," she began, holding out a hand. "But, you've taken advantage of me. I'm not just going to sit here while you do that. If you want to spend time with me and make amends, then you can do that while not living in this place I built from the ground up."
Richard scoffed and stood up from his chair. "Fine. I'll leave."
April watched as her father stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him. She let out a deep breath, feeling a weight lifted off her shoulders. It was a difficult conversation, but she knew it was for the best.
She hated that it had to come to this, but she knew it was for the best.
It wasn't going to be the hardest thing she did that day.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
April sat down at her desk and surveyed the room. She had already made a lot of progress on renovating the bed and breakfast, but there was still much to be done. She picked up her pen and began writing out her plan for the rest of the renovations.
It seemed like a daunting task, but she was determined to see it through. She began by making a list of all the materials she would need, then furniture, then any room accessories.
Thankfully, she only had the few remaining rooms to work on. She could figure those out no problem. The real issue was getting it done quickly and quietly while guests stayed in the available rooms.
But April was always up for a challenge but, she was prepared to face it head-on. She knew that the bed and breakfast needed to be perfect to attract more customers. She was willing to put in the work to make that happen.
And that's exactly what it would take, work. Because of her newly decreased budget, she would need to do as much work as she could herself.
She made a list of things she thought she could figure out on her own, and things she definitely couldn't.
As she stood in the bathroom where everything went wrong, a pen in her mouth, deep in thought, a knock came to the door.
"Hey, April," Jackson said from the doorway. "Sorry to bother you, I was just working on the weeding down past the barn and I think you might have a Wisteria. So I'll need to run to the store and get supplies to spray it."
April noticed his eyes trailing from her to the broken pipe back to her. "Thank you for the help. I'll reimburse you if you leave the receipt on the desk."
"Right," he replied, keeping his feet firmly planted in the doorway. Silence filled the room as he stared at the wall.
"Jackson?" She asked, smiling. He broke his focus to look at her, wide-eyed.
When he finally came to, he said, "Sorry. I just... What happened in here?"
"Broke a rusty pipe. Just a day ago there was water all over the floor," she said, trying to be light hearted about the tough situation.
Jackson nodded. "Yeah, I can tell. That drywall right there is going to need to be replaced." He pointed to a portion of the wall that had been scratched up and damaged where the water had flowed out. "And you should probably make sure there's no other rust around the plumbing there. Could be dangerous and leak."
Of course. It was another thing to add to her list. She wrote it down in the column where she would need a professional. It was getting longer every minute. She sighed. It would be expensive, but what else could she do?
