The oven timer beeped in the background of my parents’ house.
“Gotta check that,” Mom said, rising from the couch.“Happy Thanksgiving, honey.”
My smile wobbled.“Happy Thanksgiving.”
Mom left so it was just me and my dad on the call.
“Don’t forget to take care of yourself,” he said.“You have a habit of taking care of everyone else.The world will not implode if you slow it down.”
“Slow it down?I’m in a small town with less than a thousand people.If it gets much slower, I’ll be retired.”
My dad smiled slightly.“You know what I mean.”
I sighed.“Yeah.Never could lie to you, could I?”
“You never really tried,” he pointed out.“I appreciated that.Made our job as parents a hell of a lot easier.”
“Love you, Dad.”
“Love you, Winnie.Have a great holiday and eat way too much.”
The screen went dark, and I sat in the camp chair for a moment, not yet ready to go back inside.
I looked at my cell, took a deep breath and scrolled to the number I’d saved into my phone last night.It rang twice before rolling to voicemail.
Something about the cheery greeting pissed me off to no end and I couldn’t hold back the vitriol.So, I left an angry lecture before hanging up.
I inhaled a few deep breaths and tried to shake off the mood, but it covered me like a wet feather blanket.The sliding back door opened, and Poet called out, “Wyn?You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said, but I didn’t move.
A few moments later, Poet took the chair next to me.“What happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“You were in good spirits when you were talking with your parents.But now you look like you want to get into a brawl.So, what happened?”
I clenched my hands into fists and slowly released them.“I called Nancy.”
“Nancy,” she repeated.“The woman who dropped Lenni off with Archer?”
I nodded.
“How’d you get her number?”
“It’s on some of Lenni’s paperwork,” I stated.“Emergency contact information.I found it last night.”
“Okay?”
I sighed.“I just left averyangry voicemail.I don’t expect a reply.”
“Why did you call her?”Poet inquired.
“She dropped Lenni off with two suitcases and a folder of paperwork.No childhood mementos.No Christmas decorations.Nothing.Not even a photo album.”I pinched the bridge of my nose and closed my eyes.“It pisses me off.”
“So you went all shield-maiden on her voicemail?”
I cracked an eye and looked at Poet who was gazing at me with raised eyebrows.
