“Why would you need to go?” he asked. “So I can have Momma all to myself? I don’t think I’m ready for that.”
It was Momma’s turn to scoff. She brushed past him into the kitchen. “Daddy’s gonna be here in ten minutes with pizza, so I suggest you treat me nicely.”
“Oh, come on, Momma,” Ty said, following her. “I was just joking.”
He hugged her again, both of them laughing. Ty had just settled at the counter with a Diet Coke when Bryan and Ellie walked in.
“Wow, Ty’s here,” Bryan said, and then he stopped. “What’s going on?”
Ty rolled his eyes. “For the love of eight seconds, I come home all the time.”
“Do you, though?” Carolina teased.
“Where’s Winnie?” Bryan asked, and Ellie nudged him, her eyes wide. “Oh—I mean, maybe you two aren’t?—”
“It’s fine,” Ty said. “She had to go to Oklahoma. Her daddy fell, remember?”
“Oh, right,” Bryan said. “So you decided to join us for our midweek dinner?”
Daddy stepped in, calling, “All right, the food’s here!” before Ty could answer. Thankfully.
He didn’t want to be reminded he didn’t come around as often as his siblings, or that he was obviously still the black sheep among them. But in that moment, with them rallying around him and Daddy pulling him into a big hug, he certainly felt like he belonged.
32
Winnie glared at the console in her car as her phone started to ring yet again. “Taylor, I swear I’m going to kill you,” she muttered.
She had just crossed the border from Texas to Oklahoma and stabbed the button to take the call. “Hello,” she said as politely as she could. Her sister had been badgering her for a solid week, as if Winnie didn’t have anything going on in her life and could simply uproot everything and come home to take care of Daddy.
Taylor’s crying came through the line. “You have to come home, Winnie.”
“I know,” Winnie said. “I’m on the way right now.”
“I just can’t bear them anymore. Momma thinks I should stay home all the time, and I can’t be trapped in this house with them twenty-four seven.”
Winnie gripped the steering wheel and worked not to roll her eyes. “Taylor, I just crossed the border,” she said. “I’m probably an hour away.”
“You should see the way they order me around. It’s like Momhurt her back too, but she didn’t, and she’s perfectly capable of making dinner.”
Winnie sighed, the fight leaving her body. She didn’t want to argue with her sister. She’d listened to plenty of her mother’s complaints about their father, and while Winnie agreed with a lot of them—and had no idea what it would be like to live with a chronically ill person—she knew her mother didn’t handle stress very well.
Just like Taylor.
“Taylor,” she said, this time louder. “I’m on the way, and I already told Momma—and you—that I was going to bring dinner. Remember?”
Taylor sniffled. “Yes. You’re right.”
Winnie nodded encouragingly, the way she would to a small child. “All right, so it’s going to be fine. I’m going to be there in a few minutes. Remember, I shared my map location with you so you can see how far away I am.”
“What are you going to get for dinner?” Taylor asked, all traces of distress now gone. Of course.
“I told Momma I was going through the drive-through at Roadkill Barbecue, and she texted me your orders, so I already have everything I need.” Winnie made her voice very firm. “I’m not making extra stops, Taylor. I worked all day, and I’ve been driving for hours.”
Once she got to her parents’ house, she’d have to haul her bags in, figure out where she would sleep in the cramped house, and listen to at least three different versions of the same story—one from her mother, one from Daddy, and one from Taylor.
“It’s just that we’re out of Doctor Pepper,” Taylor said.
“Then use that app and order some. I’m not making an extra stop.” She glanced down at her phone where her map was up, though she’d made this drive before and it was a straight shot north. “It says I’m fifty-seven minutes out, which means I’m not going to get there until a quarter past nine. I’m tired, and I’m not stopping.”
