He’ll be angry with my mom. I don’t know how he’ll feel about me keeping that secret, though.”
“You didn’t tell him?”
“Nope. I didn’t tell anyone at all.”
Shep walked up to the water’s edge, sniffing and then running back like something would come up and bite him. The creature from the unchlorinated lagoon. He’d been thinking of talking to Sera about how nice it would be to put a pool in at Guidry Place. If she was going to keep it and run it as a B and B. There was a perfect place to put a pool and outdoor kitchen.
“I’m sorry, you know,” Angie was saying.
“About lying to your mother?” His opinion on the subject had changed quite suddenly. He was incredibly grateful this hadn’t happened when Sera was pregnant. “I’m glad you did now. Sera told me what would happen and I didn’t believe her.”
“No, I’m not sorry about that. I did what was right at the time. I genuinely believe if she’d told them when she was pregnant, it could have been a tragedy. No, I’m sorry for lying to you, and that it ended up the way it did. I was actually surprised Sera was willing to date you. She’s been so careful. She must have really cared about you.”
It had felt like more than caring. It had felt like love. “Will your mom do it? Will she go after Sera?”
“I suspect she will,” Angie said before taking a long swig of beer. “You have to understand Wesley was her chief concern in life. He was sick for a long time. Then he proved to be the smartest of all of us, and Dad decided to hand him the keys to the kingdom because Cal wasn’t serious enough and I was born with ovaries. And I think in some ways you were right about what you said to her. She can tell herself she wasn’t close to her sister because her Texas relatives were poor and that they might embarrass her, but I think she was ashamed of what she’d become. She complains about losing a few years with Luc. I got to meet my aunt and uncle once. Once. Isn’t it funny how the things we’re most outraged by are the things we do ourselves? We are born into a state of hypocrisy in this family.”
“So Sera wanted to tell them?” He tried to put himself in her shoes. She’d been young and alone and scared.
“She didn’t realize how bad it would be. Wes had talked to her about how our dad treated us all. He never hit me, but he would slap Cal and Wes from time to time when they annoyed him or he thought they needed to toughen up. We never told Mom.”
“Why?”
“What would she have done?” Angie asked, sounding weary. “That’s the sad part. I do understand her position. She was right about one thing. Dad would never have allowed her to have custody, and Mom couldn’t trust anyone at the time. Armie is a great sheriff, but he’s only been here the last couple of years. The sheriff before would have told my mom that it was a family matter and she should deal with it herself. I do understand her. I also know I should have told her after Dad died, but I didn’t. I didn’t because I knew what would happen. If I’m honest, part of it was selfish of me.”
“You wanted her attention.” It wasn’t a question. Everything he’d learned about his family in the last few weeks had taught him how hungry Angie was for someone to see her. But then he thought Cal had some issues with that, too. Being a Beaumont, he’d discovered, wasn’t as easy as it seemed.
“Like I told her, it was good to have her with me. I know she loves me. Honestly, I know this whole ‘I’m disinherited’ thing won’t last all that long. My mother shoves all her anger down. It was what she was taught to do. But she never, ever vents it, so every now and then it explodes. That’s what you saw today.”
“You think she’ll forgive you soon?” He hated the thought of them feuding. “The real question is, can you forgive her?”
“I don’t think she’ll frame it as forgiveness. She’ll wake up tomorrow and realize what she’s done and then she’ll call me. She’ll tell me she’s going to let the wedding go through because there would be a lot of talk if we didn’t. And