AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I sense someone entering the room and spin around.
It’s not Rhett, but I see the resemblance.
Broad-shouldered, mid-sixties, handsome, and looking exactly like the man Viola and I saw so many times in those karaoke videos of Rhett and his family.
Sherman Packwood Pickle.
38
RHETT
This is more like it.
Axel and I look over the mountainside, the evergreens curving down the hill in an alignment so perfect that you know Mother Nature had a master plan when she created Colorado.
Havannah’s castle sits in the distance, flags flying from the upper turrets. I make out a few tiny cars in the parking lot surrounding it.
“She regrets not building a garage from the beginning,” Axel says. “I think she’s going to tear out the surface lots with the next renovation.”
I shield my eyes from the glare. “The asphalt does hurt the illusion that you’ve slipped into another era.”
“That’s what she said.” Axel turns to look up at the summit. “Mom is expecting us for lunch.” He heads back down the path.
I don’t respond to that, glad for the gorgeous day anywhere that isn’t Miami.
And out in nature, not an office building. And with my youngest brother, not the disenchanted employees of Dougherty Inc.
Uncle Sherman buzzed me this morning. It was five a.m. here but a more reasonable seven on the East Coast.
I didn’t answer. He’s just returning my calls from the previous days. It can wait.
Everything can wait.
That terrible meeting.
Viola, exposing the secret in front of the entire staff.
The uproar.
The horror.
Bailey, whose big disappointment in life is not having the connections she needed to reach her dream, now working for someone whose entire career was built by nepotism.
All behind me.
For now, it’s me, the mountain, and Axel.
Hopefully up here, things will become clear.
We make it down in time to quickly shower and drive over to my parents’ house, which is one parcel over from Axel’s. Mom kisses our heads and serves us our favorite black beans and brisket over rice.
Eating it settles me, like I’ve done the right thing. Gone home to figure things out.
Mom looks the same, although she’s assimilated to Colorado in how she dresses with jeans, a fitted T-shirt, and hiking shoes. Her hair is twisted up, partially held back by sunglasses.
“This is such a nice surprise,” she says, sitting down opposite us. “Rhett, I didn’t know you were coming for a visit.”
I have no easy way of explaining why I came, so I smile and take another bite of rice.
