“Perhaps not, but they are healed. You can’t get far with a wounded heart, Sam.”
“My heart isn’t wounded.”
“I was there when your parents split up and?—”
“That was fifteen years ago, Doc.” He’d moved on. Way on.
“So that’s not why you call your father Frank and refuse to see him except on the rarest of occasions?”
“I didn’t know you’d earned your degree in psychology.”
“It’s my hobby and don’t talk back to me.” She gave him a mom smile and walked him to the door. “What about your mother? Do you talk to her much?”
Sam paused with his hand on the door. “I’ll see you next week.”
“You’re at odds with your dad and your mom? I know you’ve not totally moved on. I know better, Sam Hardy. I’m a doctor and a mother.”
“If you’re so concerned, you talk to them. He cheated and she bolted. I was fifteen. What was I supposed to do, be the only adult?”
“I know the divorce sent you into a tailspin.” Mom Morgan stood next to him, her gaze steady, yet compassionate.
“Frank and Janice’s affair hit Mom like a ton of bricks. We were happy until then. They were happy.” At least from what he could see from his seat as their son.
“Things are not always as they seem. You might talk to your dad some time.”
“If he has something to say, he knows where to find me.”
Sam’s emotions churned as he exited the modern clinic on the east side of Hearts Bend. Why was it on him to make the past right? His parents were the ones who’d destroyed Sam’s happy family.
They’d destroyed his faith in happily ever after.
Speaking of happily ever after… He paused at his car to check in with Briggs about Carla’s tweets. So far, he’d not made any progress in stopping her lies. The woman was certifiable. He’d gone to a charity event last night and if Carla had been there, he’d planned to drag Briggs across the room to confront her. Man, he didn’t need her as a complication and he held a secret hope that Chloe didn’t see any of Carla’s nonsense.
And about Chloe… To his surprise, he found himself thinking of her as much as crullers with chocolate milk. In fact, he wished he’d invited her to go with him last night. The band had played old standards and emo girl Chloe also loved the oldies. Frank. Dean. Nat. Sammy.
He got behind the wheel, pressed the start button, and pulled out of the clinic’s lot, circling back to the other side of town. Turned out he didn’t need any angst about owning a business down the street from Frank. He’d recently moved Hardy Insurance to a new building on the edge of town.
Sam stared at the glass and steel building as he passed. So like Frank, to construct a modern building out of step with the rest of quaint Hearts Bend. The downtown buildings were old red brick or white clapboard. But not Hardy Insurance. Ah well, one less issue for Sam to deal with if he wasn’t worried about running into his dad on First Avenue.
His phone buzzed with a text. Meredith Beason. Your dad would like to talk to you. Please call or stop by at your earliest convenience.
Had his comment to Dr. Morgan about Dad getting in touch with him if he had something to say floated on the air to Hardy Insurance?
He was in a melancholy mood and wanted to explore his old football haunts. Sam passed the Rock Mill High athletic field, home to some of his favorite memories of cheering fans and adrenaline-fueled locker room celebrations. Did the football team still carry on their traditions? Chanting “Let’s go, Rockets, Let’s go!” as they marched from the locker room to the field. Kicking the large limestone rock near the entrance to the field as they passed it. Whoever made the last fumble in a game had to smear his hands with putty and carry the ball all day Monday.
He loved all Rock Mill’s football traditions. He loved UT’s tradition of running the T onto the field. He loved hearing “Titan-Up!” from fans on and off the field. Another reminder of why he had to get back on the field. It was where he belonged. His home. The field had been more of a home during the last year of high school and through college than the house where he’d slept.
Sam parked in front of Haven’s, then wrote back to Meredith.
Sam: Regarding?
Meredith: He said it’s something to be discussed on the phone or in person.
Sam: I’ll see him at his party.
Then Briggs pinged back a message. Still working on Carla. Stay tuned…
This day wasn’t going at all like he planned. The past kept knocking on his door. Was there a truth behind his parents’ divorce he didn’t know? Had he been on the wrong side of the argument all these years? But how? He knew what he saw that day…
