She stalked three more steps before turning one last time.
“You know? All day I kept trying tounderstandhow the person I knew could treat my father this way—”
Theo put up a hand. “Wait, what?”
The gravel sputtered as Ashleigh’s car flew into reverse.
“I saw the letter, the one with your fancy letterhead detailing his salary.” She shook her head. “Honestly, Theo, you treatmy fatheras unfairly as a migrant worker straight out of the Depression. He’s devoted hislifeto making an organic tree farm actually successful—which takes a lot of time and labor—and you can’t give him more than minimum wage.”
Theo squeezed his eyes shut as he tried to process what she was saying. Rubbed his temple. “You think that I would do that?”
She put her hands on her hips. “Isn’t that what you’re doing?”
He pressed his lips together, put his hands on his hips. Everything was becoming clear. The anger and distrust that had been hidden behind her eyes all along. This wasn’t just about what had happened fourteen years ago. It was about now. Then and now.
All those comments about his organic Peruvian coffee beans and how her father worked so hard.
“You think I would pay your father so little—”
“That they would still be living in their double-wide driving that same thirty-year-old truck with the broken AC? Yeah, Theo. Yeah, I do. What evidence do I have to tell me otherwise?”
Theo pressed his hand to his chest. “Me, Skye. I would hope you’d know the truth because you knowme.”
They stared at each other wordlessly as Ashleigh’s headlights fell between them and the car backed swiftly down the lane. By the time the lights swerved onto the road anddissipated through the trees, the moment held the feel of a punctured balloon, slowly deflating into a small mass on the floor.
He wasn’t sure if he or she turned away first, but moments later they were moving in separate directions, each trudging slowly beneath a pale moon and its electric sky of stars.
Chapter 14
Skye
Skye’s heels sank into the mossy ground with each step. Her fingernails bit into her closed palms as she marched through the small patch of woods and came out at the greenhouse on the other side.
She felt like she’d been tossed underwater. Like she’d been invited to a nice waterfront restaurant and was sitting on a fine patio drinking champagne one moment, clinking her glass with a man beneath a string of hanging lights, and the next was falling backward out of her chair into the water.
It was startling. Infuriating. Confusing.
But what rubbed her raw was a slimy feeling in the pit of her stomach she couldn’t quite shake. The feeling that he wasn’t entirely to blame for what had just happened.
And worse than the feeling of being furious at him for his mistakes was the feeling of being furious at herself for thepossibility of hers. She had to know. Right then. She had to talk to her mother.
Skye marched through her side yard without stopping and walked across the bridge. Two knocks on her mom’s door, and her mother appeared.
She took in Skye’s expression and then opened the door wide. “Oh, honey. What happened?”
“Well, to cut to the chase,” Skye said, peeling off her sodden heels at the threshold and stepping barefoot inside. “We were about to start alovelymeal when Theo’s newly departedgirlfriendshowed up.”
“Oh no.” Her mother shut the door, her hand pressing against her chest and the faded stripes of her apron. The air smelled of sautéed garlic and onions.
Skye’s fists tightened. “Yes.”
She took Skye by the shoulder and guided her to the kitchen. “Let’s get you something to eat.”
Skye followed her into the yellow-wallpapered kitchen and sat in one of the three chairs surrounding the breakfast table. She put her elbows on the table. Raked her hands through her hair. Her mother set a glass of milk in front of her and moved back to the stove.
Skye picked up the glass numbly. “I don’t even think I know what I’m supposed tothinkhere.”
“I’m sure it’s all very confusing for the both of you,” her mother said softly, sliding a bowl of soup in front of her. “But then, you both have had entirely separate lives until yesterday.”
