She finally stepped back, her hands still braced on my arms like she thought I was going to run away. “Well, come in and tell me how you’ve been.”
I kicked my boots off in the doorway like always, hanging my baseball cap on the coat rack. Dad walked past just as I did so, and huffed at the sight of it.
It was just a fucking baseball hat. Not a signal of where I was going in life. Not that it mattered to him.
“Finally decided to come around, huh?” he muttered to himself.
“I’ve been taking a few days to settle in.”
“More like a couple of weeks.”
“Jack, just be glad he’s home.” She took my arm and guided me into the house, down the hall, into the family room. Deer heads hung on the walls and hunting rifles decorated the space over the mantle. At one time in my life, I had enjoyed hunting with my father, but then he always had to ruin it by yelling at me for how I was holding the rifle, or if I missed a buck.
There was never any pleasing him, and eventually, I just stopped trying.
“So, tell us how you’ve been,” Mom said, sitting across from me.
“Not too bad.”
“Word around town is that you got fired,” Dad snapped.
I gritted my teeth, holding back my anger for my mom’s sake. It wasn’t her fault that all I did was disappoint my father.
“So, how long are you staying?”
“I’m not sure. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do.”
“Well, you have that fancy law degree. I’d assume you’re going to run off and use it somewhere else,” Dad muttered.
“I might try to set up a law office in town.”
Dad laughed at that. “Because people out here need lawyers so much?”
“There are other cities close by.”
“And…what about that girlfriend of yours. Barbie?”
“Bianca,” I bit out.
“Is she still around?”
“Jack!” Mom hissed, but it was too late.
Dad was grinning, feeling like he had finally put me in my place. I wasn’t sure the rift between us would ever get better, and I was fucking tired of trying.
“No, she’s not still around.”
“Lost her, too, huh?”
“I’m not going into the personal details of my life with you.”
“Why not? Don’t want your parents to know what you’re up to?”
“I just don’t want you to have one more thing to criticize me for,” I snapped, losing my cool with every second that passed.
He barked out a laugh in that sarcastic way he did. “Just like when you were a kid and didn’t want to tell me why you got into trouble at school. Or on the ranch when you didn’t do your chores, and lied through your teeth about it.”
“I was a kid.”
