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Chapter 19
Becky put her hand on the door, and looked in the diner. The Closed sign hung facing out, but there were still lights on and she could see Rodney mopping the floor.
She’d seen him at the funeral, which had been two days ago, and she’d seen him once before that but hadn’t gotten a chance to talk to him very much.
She hated that she hadn’t been able to be around for him, but she had seen that he seemed to be forging a relationship with Griff, who seemed like he was a good man. At least Luke said so, and she trusted Luke.
Biting her lip, she knocked on the door.
The sound made Rodney’s head jerked up, and he squinted, like he couldn’t quite see into the darkness beyond the door.
She pressed her face against the glass.
His eyes widened, then his lips curved up in a little smile as he hurried to the door.
At least he wasn’t scowling.
He wasn’t wearing black anymore either. She’d been a little worried about him. Finding out that his dad wasn’t perfect had been a hard blow. Surely losing both parents the way he had had been another hard blow, although she felt like he looked better now than he had before.
“Beck Pet!” he said, looking pleased to see her.
“Dixie.” She tried to sound tough and mature, and hide the insecurity that slithered around in her chest, the fear that said he wasn’t going to want to talk to her, or see her.
“Hey, kid,” he said, putting an arm around her shoulder and squeezing. “It’s good to see you.”
“I’ve wanted to see you for a while.” She put an arm around his waist and squeezed for a minute, before she backed up. She didn’t want Luke and Kristin to have any reason to think that she was doing anything wrong.
“Come on over here and we can sit down for a minute.” He waited until she nodded before he called in the general direction of the kitchen. “I have a visitor. I’m going to be talking to her for a minute.”
It took about three seconds as they walked to the table, before Griff stuck his head out the doorway of the kitchen and said, “Her?” looking around like he couldn’t find the “her” in question. Then his eyes landed on Becky. “Oh. She’s one I approve of.” He jerked his head at Rodney before he disappeared back in the kitchen.
Becky thought she heard voices and low murmuring, but she forgot about that as she slid into one side of the booth and Rodney slid into the other.
“So how are you doing?” he asked, while she was still trying to find her words.
“I came here to ask you that.”
His eyes fell a little, like he’d been pushing the thoughts that he didn’t like out of his head, and her words reminded him that he was supposed to be sad.
“I’m doing fine.”
“That’s what you’re supposed to say. What’s the truth?” Becky could tell by the look on his face that he really wasn’t fine.
Rodney pulled a napkin from the holder, then, almost like he didn’t know what to do with it, he set it down on the table, and ran his finger along the edge. Finally he looked up.
“Sometimes there are people that you love because you have to. You know? Like your parents. They’re your parents, so you automatically have to love them.” He paused for a moment. “I figured out over the last few months that I love them, but I didn’t really like them all that much. Especially my dad. I didn’t realize there could be a difference between people that you love and people that you like, but there is.”
Becky had never considered that either. She loved her sister, but she didn’t always like her. But she liked her sometimes.
But she really liked Luke and Kristin. Really liked them. They were good people. The kind of people that she wanted to grow up to be like. She didn’t want to be like her parents. There was a part of her that was slowly beginning to understand that in order for her to grow up to be like them, she had to listen to them, and take their advice. Because they were trying to get her to grow up to be something different than what she had been born into.
