It's Never too Late - By Tara Taylor Quinn Page 0,34
the hint, Addy told him he could leave her keys in the mailbox and carried her tray back inside.
* * *
MARK CHANGED THE OIL on both vehicles, cleaned up, got ready for work and, after kissing Nonnie on the cheek while she napped, slipped out of the house half an hour early.
The smart thing would have been to head straight for the truck, but he didn’t even make it down the steps. He knocked on Addy’s front door and handed her back her keys.
“I’m sorry,” he said as she took the key ring from him. “I’m not used to talking about myself.”
“Why would you need to? Everyone in Bierly has known you since you were born.”
She had a point.
“Nonnie told me that you had it rough. She said your mother left home when she was sixteen and came back a year later, nine months pregnant with you.”
The skin on his face tightened. Just as he’d feared, his grandmother was spilling all his secrets.
“What else did she tell you about my parents?”
“Nothing.”
“I have no idea who my father was....” The truth stuck in his throat. He’d been sired by a male so irresponsible he hadn’t bothered to wait around to see if he’d been a boy or a girl. Or even born alive.
And if Addy was going to hear about it, he wanted it to be from him. She stood hugging her door and the empathetic look in her eyes drew him right in.
“Nonnie got pregnant with my mother in high school,” he said. “Her dad had been killed on the farm and her mom didn’t have anything extra to give her. It took all they had to live and pay taxes on the farm once it was no longer being farmed. Nonnie had to quit school and start cocktailing to make ends meet.”
“Nonnie said she was a bartender.”
“Mom grew up in the bar.”
“Did you, too?”
“Nonnie never let me inside the place. The one time I disobeyed and marched in the front door demanding to see her, I got a butt whipping that I’ve never forgotten.”
His face completely serious, he shook his head. “Nonnie felt responsible for every bad choice my mother made, and made certain that she made up for every one of them with me.”
“How old were you when you went to the bar?” she asked softly.
“Seven.”
He had to get to work. To quit thinking about this woman and focus on the business of building his temporary life in Shelter Valley. To concentrate on getting good grades and earning the money they needed for Nonnie’s co-payments and general care.
“And your mother. Do you still hear from her? Does she know you’ve moved? Has she ever helped with Nonnie?”
“She wrapped her car around a tree when I was twelve. Drunk driving. She died instantly. Thank God she didn’t take anyone else with her.”
Adele’s silence eased the constriction inside him. Until she said, “This woman you left in Bierly, what’s her name?”
“Ella.”
“Are you still in touch with her?”
This was not front porch conversation.
“Depends.”
Frowning, she asked, “It depends? Either you’re in touch or you aren’t. What does that depend on?”
It occurred to him that for someone who didn’t want a relationship, she was showing a good bit of interest in his love life.
“Depends on how you define ‘in touch.’ I text her. She doesn’t answer.”
“How long has it been since she answered?”
“Since the night I asked her to marry me. More than a month ago.”
“You think she’s holding out, hoping you’ll miss her enough to come home?”
“Nope. She was seeing someone else before I even decided I was for sure coming to Shelter Valley.”
“You don’t sound broken up about that.”
“What’s the point? If she wants someone else, she wants someone else. Not her fault. And there’s not anything I can do to stop it, either.”
“Maybe if you told her you loved her...”
“Then I wouldn’t be being me, and she’d know that, too.”
“But you still text her.”
“It’s the right thing to do.”
“Why?”
“Because I told her that I wasn’t going to desert her.”
She nodded and shifted against the door as though she was only halfway in the conversation. As though, at any minute, she could step back inside, close the door and sever their connection. “I’m just trying to understand,” she said. “You propose. The woman not only turns you down, she breaks up with you. She’s seeing someone else. And you’re still planning to be available to her because you told her you wouldn’t desert her. Am I right so far?”