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What the hell? Did this whole family protect Sage? And for what reason?
Trace left them in the family room and went to the kitchen on the other side of the house. Sage grabbed his hand and pulled him on the couch, then sat next to him.
“Everyone is kidding.”
“Something tells me not that much,” he said.
Trace came in and handed the beer off to him.
“You’ve lived around here for years,” Trace said.
“I have,” he said. “I’m sure Sage gave you some of my history. I don’t have much to hide.”
“She did,” Trace said. “Said you have a business here and have for years.”
“I didn’t have a good relationship with my father for a long time. Most of it was things I was told and believed. So my bad.”
“You were a kid,” Sage said. “Thrown into a situation that was beyond your control. Don’t blame yourself. Sounds as if you were making it right.”
“I was trying,” he said. “My father too. So yeah, I came back to the area when I left my first job. I took a risk and started my own business and had a place to stay. My father told me to live in his summer home. It gave me no rent expenses at the time.”
It was half-truths. He was living there and only covering the utility costs. He wasn’t going to say his father gave him a chunk of money to start the business and get it going and keep money in his pocket as a salary too.
He hated to take that from the man that he felt he’d treated so poorly. Forgiveness again.
“Family is good that way,” Sage said. “Mine has been there for me a lot.”
He saw the look between the siblings. “Just like they were for me,” Trace said. “Sage was right there with my mother and grandmother caring for me when I came back from the service. I might not have been the best patient.”
“You had your moments,” Sage said. “But it was understandable. Between your ex being a bitch and your life up in the air. You were entitled.”
“My ex-girlfriend didn’t like me in the service,” Trace said. “But what she really didn’t like was that I had a dream of being a writer. She didn’t believe in me. When you don’t believe in someone, it’s hard to make things work.”
“That’s right,” Violet said. “When you love someone, you support them.”
“You do,” Knox said softly. Maybe it was those words he needed to hear to remind him that his father was the only one who’d supported him in his life.
“Do you like football?” Sage asked. “Trace is a big Giants fan and there is a game on.”
He laughed. “I do like football. Not that I’ve ever played it.”
“Who do you like?” Trace asked.
“Not the Giants.”
There were grins in the room. “As long as you don’t say the Cowboys, the Eagles or the Commanders, I’m good.”
“Another New York team,” he said. “The Jets.”
“We know you’re a loyal man if you’re a Jets fan,” Sage said, laughing.
“Considering my mother’s reputation and what she’d done to my father, you can guarantee I’m loyal and faithful,” he said.
Trace nodded his head and that seemed to be the end of the conversation there.
Knox wasn’t sure why he’d said what he had, but it felt like he needed to do it.
An hour later the snacks were cleared up and Violet was in the kitchen with Sage working on dinner. He smelled the sauce when he’d walked in and was told they’d eat at halftime.
