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“Pretty much, yeah.”
“You’re disgusting.” I throw back the jacket, get out of the car, and slam the door shut.
“Mae, wait!” he yells, but I ignore him. Instead, I go into the house and straight to the bathroom.
When I get out of the shower, I hear Dean talking with Grandpa Bob.
“Ugh. Come on!” I mouth. But then I turn the shower on again and just stand inside. I figure the longer I’m in there, the more likely it will be that he just gives up and goes home.
Luckily, it appears that my plan worked because he is nowhere to be found when I finally get out.
“Well, that was certainly a long shower,” my grandfather says.
“Yeah, well. It’s not as easy to get mud out of every nook and cranny as you might suspect.”
He laughs. “Girl, I survived Vietnam. I know a thing or two about being caked with natural elements.”
“I’m sure that’s true. I’m sorry. I just really didn’t want to talk to him.”
“Yeah, Dean only just left. He said you were really upset about something. I resisted getting my shotgun, and he explained that it was about the houses.”
“He finally admitted that it’s been his plan since the very beginning to try and buy us out.”
“I know.”
“He told you?”
“He did.”
“Why don’t you seem more upset?”
“Because it’s like I already told you—it’s about money. It’s nothing personal against us.”
“It feels pretty personal to me.”
“Well, that’s just because of the feelings you two have in this mix.”
“I do not have feelings for him.”
He just shakes his head. “You can keep denying it all you want. But I’ve known you your entire life, Mae, maybe even better than you know yourself. Think about it. Why are you so angry about all of this? I know for a fact you’ve been considering moving back into the city.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“Because I know you!”
“Sure, I have thought about it once or twice. But I ultimately decided against it because Mina is so excited to start school around here.”
“But there are plenty of other places you could live that are still in this area. Why are you so upset about the idea of Dean taking this house?”
“Because I’m worried that nothing we shared up to this point has been genuine,” I finally admit.
“Ah-ha! There it is.”
Ever since I was a child, he’s known how to get even my deepest, darkest secret out of me.
“Okay, fine. So, you were kind of right about that.”
“About what?” Grandpa asks.
