I turn to face him, brow furrowed. “Back to the house? After I—”
“After your’s and my daughter’s entanglement? Yeah. I have to say, I don’t much like Prim getting caught in the crosshairs. Her temper’s been something fierce, and that’s on you,” he says, pointing an authoritative finger at me.
“Is all this because I rescued your boy all those years back? If it is, I’ll tell you right now, the debt’s paid. He would have done the same for me.”
“It ain’t nothin’ like that. Honestly, I’m glad Ali had something to look forward to while she was here. Something that might have made her come back. I don’t much know if she’s ever gonna find her way back home again. If she does, it probably won’t be for another ten years.”
“She loves you guys.”
“I know, I really do. It took me a while to understand that she experiences life differently than I do, different wants, different values, and that’s okay. If only I had learned that lesson a little sooner.”
“She had some lessons of her own to learn.”
“Come back,” Hank pleads.
“I don’t know if I can.”
“Well, ya have to. If ya don’t, I can’t say Norma Jean’s gonna let me back in the main house.”
“How’s Jake?”
“Angry.”
“He always was one to brood, and I’ll only make it worse.”
“I don’t think so. What you don’t seem to understand is that he ain’t mad with your…relations…with Ali. He’s mad that you were like a brother to him and hid it from him.”
“Seriously? Does he realize how hypocritical he is?”
“He has a healthy dose of shame too. I’ll tell ya what, dealing with Jake is almost as bad as dealing with an ornery Prim.”
“Can’t say I envy you.”
“One day, you’ll understand. Women drive ya crazy, but the good thing is, in order to raise yer kids, ya gotta be part crazy. It all works out in the end.”
“Thanks, Hank,” I say morosely. “You coming out here really means a lot to me, but I think I’m gonna have to keep my distance, for a time. I hope you understand.”
“I reckon I do, though, I wish it weren’t so.”
Hank turns to leave. I wish like hell I had something to say that would fill the void that’s consuming him, but I’m no fixer. If my history shows anything, it’s that I’m a breaker.
I go back into my office to ruminate my plan for selling off the shop, and when it becomes too much for me, I decide to do some web browsing.
Every single one of Ali’s headlines paints her in a bad light, calling her Trainwreck Tammy, making it sound like she has a drug and alcohol problem. I can’t imagine the pressure she must be feeling. How alone she must be.
Alone? Ali Kat Carter has enough money to make all her problems disappear. She’s probably at a spa right now, getting a massage. She’s the one that rolled into Nebraska like a tornado and upended just about…everyone.
But that’s not fair, and if her short stay has taught me anything, it’s that there’s more to Ali than her Hollywood veneer.
A video catches my attention. The thumbnail shows Hillary Basion standing next to a somber Brett Mitchel, and I know it can’t be good. I hit play.
Hillary:Hillary Burton here, standing with Brett Mitchel on the site of Ali Kat Carter’s Saturday night’s brawl with Brett’s wife, Rose. Can you tell the audience what happened?
Brett exhales, his face lined with worry.
Brett:You see, Hillary, when I first heard Tammy, or as the world knows her, Ali Kat was in town, I never expected I’d see her. When she went off to Hollywood, it was like we didn’t exist to her anymore, so I was just as surprised as anyone when she approached me at the bonfire.
A deep-seated rage begins to boil in me as Brett tells his first flat-out lie.
