Page 35 of It Runs in the Family

“So I’m told. I’m not sure how many. Maybe two?” I shrugged, acting nonchalant, even though the topic was like a searing knife stabbing my chest. “Who knows.”

“Your father never told you?”

“I never met the man. I don’t even know who he is other than that his last name is supposedly Gardner, but my mother could have been lyin’. You never know with her.”

I felt Boone’s hand cover mine on the sticky vinyl seat, and I opened my eyes to see him looking at me, his eyes full of sympathy. “I’m sorry.”

I jerked my hand away from him and put it in my lap. “I don’t need your pity.”

“I’m sure it was hard not knowing him.”

He didn’t know the half of it, but I had no intention of telling him. “Let me guess. Your parents had the perfect marriage.”

He released a loud snort. “Hardly. They fought like cats and dogs when I was a kid and divorced my sophomore year of high school. I went to live with my dad, and my sisters stayed with my mom.”

“That had to be hard,” I threw back at him, but it didn’t come out in the snotty tone I’d intended. It sounded sympathetic instead.

“Two things can be true at the same time,” he said, casting another glance at me. “We could both have had crap lives with our parents.”

He was right. It wasn’t a contest of who’d had the shittiest parents.

“Were you and your mom close?” he asked.

I started to laugh, but it had a bitter edge.

“I guess that’s a no?”

My laughter died down, and I said, “My mother had little use for me. She’s had multiple abortions, both before and after me. I suspect the only reason she didn’t get rid of me was because she wanted leverage to get my father to leave his wife, and when that didn’t work, I was a hardship she didn’t want to deal with.”

“God, Iris. That’s awful.”

Why was I telling him all this? I’d never shared this much about my parents with anyone, especially after first meeting them. It had to be the alcohol. And maybe my melancholy over losing my job. And, also, the whole impending death thing.

I was twenty-six years old, and what did I have to show for myself? The only people who were Garrett and Granny. I’d purposefully distanced myself from some of the cousins, and the others would only notice I was gone when they didn’t have someone to fall back on when they ran into trouble. Otherwise, they’d barely notice.

That was pathetic and sad.

“Don’t feel sorry for me,” I snapped. “Once she came back to Mesquite County, I had my cousins.”

“Your fifty cousins,” he said with a hint of humor.

“Not quite that many. But my uncle’s been married several times, and he’s got really strong swimmers.”

“Which cousin are you closest too?” he asked. “Ava or Mary Ellen?”

I laughed, “They like to have a good time, and ever since we were kids, they’ve been tryin’ to get me to loosen up and have a good time too. We used to be close, but not lately.”

“Okay, then who?”

I nearly told him it was Selena, but that wasn’t true anymore. We hadn’t been truly close for several years. Occasionally, she’d come to me between boyfriends, when she needed comfort, but she always drifted away again, just when I got fool enough to start hoping.

“Garrett. He’s a few years older than me, and he took me under his wing when my mother came back to town when I was five. He’s like an older brother.” I turned to face him and poked his shoulder with my finger. “He’s the most responsible one. Not me. I’m probably second.” I jabbed him again, surprised that his shoulder was so firm. “Do you lift weights?”

He laughed. “Some. Why?”

I poked him again. Somewhere in the back of my head, I knew I needed to stop, yet the impulsive part of me had been let loose and wasn’t ready to go back in her box. “That’s like solid muscle.”

He laughed again. “I’ve never been told I had a muscular shoulder before.”