The table is oddly silent, but my mother offers up a tight smile.
You will never be welcome at this table. How silly of you to think otherwise.
Unable to bear the awkwardness any longer, I get up from my seat, only to be met with startled looks.
“I’m gonna head on up to the barn,” I say. “It’s been a long day.”
“Like heck you are,” Momma scolds. “You best sit right back down and finish off yer—”
“Just let her go,” Father rasps, refusing to even look at me.
Mother’s mouth hangs ajar, but she says nothing, and I turn to see myself out.
“I’ll see her on over to the barn,” Garrett says, his chair scraping across the floor.
I wish he’d just sit back down and let me go on my way, but I’m not about to make a scene. Not with the cold reception I was given.
I leave the dining room, slip on my disgusting shoes, and exit the house as quickly as possible.
The rain has mostly subsided, but every other step, I’m ankle-deep in water. Why my pa can’t bother to level the damn yard is behind me. I’m surprised no one has broken their ankle, it’s that bad.
“Wait up,” Garrett calls from behind.
I turn, fire coursing through my veins. “Why? So you can glare and grumble and serve me up a heaping plate of resentment?” I snap.
“No. My momma raised me to be a gentleman,” he says in a gruff voice, extending an umbrella over my head.
“Oh.”
We stand there awkwardly, me with no idea what to say, him fulfilling his duty of chivalry.
“The barn is that way.” He gestures towards the towering red barn that cannot possibly be missed, and it only further ignites my once quelled anger.
“Really? You think I don’t remember that, let alone see it?” I gesture frantically to the barn.
“Well, I didn’t know if you were practicing one of your romantic movie kiss scenes or something.”
My brow shoots upward in surprise. “As if!”
“Well, come on, Kitty Kat, let’s get you to your new home.”
“Fine, but don’t call me Kitty Kat.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, does sweetheart suit you better?”
“God, when did you become so rude?”
“I ain’t rude, you’ve just been around a bunch of people that have sucked up to you for damn near a decade.”
“Okay, can’t argue with you there.”
He escorts me to the barn and up the stairs, unlocking the door leading to the newly renovated loft.
I have to admit, it’s nice, and at nearly three times the size of my childhood bedroom, it can hold most of my stuff.
“Thank you,” I say, trying to muster a smile.
“Don’t mention it. This room’s the closest to being complete. There are three other suites in this barn, and there will be about fifteen in the bigger barn at the edge of the property when we’re done.”
