Everyone else in the family and on the property could take care of it themselves.
Rather than go to the mill, he detoured to the cafe. It wasn’t open, but his mother and Reenie would be in the back baking for the day.
“Morning,” his mother said. “Here you go.”
She’d handed him a triple fudge brownie that was on a napkin.
“Did you see me pull in?”
“I did. I thought you’d need a treat this morning. I expected you to drop in.”
There were no secrets in his family.
He’d rushed out to get the plywood and repair the window at Meredith’s. His father was in the barn when he was grabbing things and he’d told them what happened.
When he’d left Meredith’s to drive home, he called them from his truck to explain more.
He’d never put them in harm’s way.
Just like when Reenie was living on the property in the cabin next to him, he was watching her and his family at the same time.
They stuck together through thick and thin.
Even if he found their advice intrusive, he knew they’d always be there for him.
“My favorite,” he said.
“I know my children. Do you want to talk?”
Reenie was at the other end of the kitchen. He nodded his head toward the door and his mother walked out with him.
“Ford won’t leave me alone.”
“Stop it. You sound like you’re ten again and he’s bugging you.”
“He is.”
His mother gave him a slight shove on the arm. “I’m glad to see you joking. It’s been a while.”
“I wasn’t joking. He really won’t.”
The eye roll he received with his smirk helped some. He didn’t need his parents worried about him.
“Clay. Ford is only doing what you did for him.”
“That’s what he said.”
“This thing with Meredith, is it more than you feeling as if you’ve got to protect her?”
“If it wasn’t, she could have stayed anywhere other than here. She would have called anyone other than me too.”
The fact she came to him first said that this wasn’t just a passing thing in her mind.
At least he hoped not.
“I always liked her as a child. I think you watched her more than you wanted to let on.”
He shrugged. “That was a long time ago.”
