Shelly’s mind, falling further down the rabbit hole.
When they got closer to the house, she saw her father’s truck parked off to the side. As her eyes moved to the front porch, she saw him sitting on the top step, watching their approach. All of a sudden, last night’s dinner and her conversation with her mother this morning came hurtling back with full force and clarity.
“Shel?” Josh’s voice broke into her thoughts.
Turning her eyes back to his, she noticed he had a worried look on his face. He reached across the truck’s seat and took her hand in his.
“You don’t have to talk to him right now, Shel.”
Shelly nodded and squeezed his hand, grimacing a little. “Yes, I do. He knows.”
“You don’t know that, Georgia.”
“Yes, I do.” She paused and took a deep breath. “He always sits there when he wants to talk.”
She watched as Josh looked out to where her father was waiting, and then he turned back to her.
“Do you want me to come with you?”
Shelly shook her head and removed her hand from his. “No. This is something I need to do by myself.” She paused and unlocked the truck door, pushing it open. “It’s been a long time coming.”
She watched Josh nod.
“I’ll be inside with your mother if you need me, okay?”
Shelly jumped down out of the truck and nodded once. Then, she closed the door and moved around the front, walking over to her father, who was now standing on the top step of the house.
Shelly walked right past the stairs, making her way down the side of the house, and she heard her father follow. She’d be damned if they did this where her mother could walk outside. She’d been through enough already this morning.
***
When Shelly reached the barn, she turned around and saw her father come to a stop at the door. He leaned against it and waited. She didn’t really know where she wanted to start, so she figured she’d just begin with the question that had been nagging at her all morning.
“How could you have let her stay all these years?”
Shelly watched as the illustrious Dr. Lawrence Monroe took one hand out of his pocket to rub his chin and then asked in his sophisticated Southern drawl.
“I’m trying to decide, Shelly, what right you think you have to question me and my motives.”
Shelly looked at him as though he had gone slightly insane. “Gee, Father, I don’t know? Maybe the same reason why you think you have the right to question my choices.”
“Well, you’re my daughter. I want to make sure you are makin’ the right choices.”
Shelly felt her mouth drop open at the sheer arrogance of him. “Could you possibly be more condescending? You know, as my father, you were supposed to set a good example of the right choices. Wow, what an epic failure on your behalf, wouldn’t you say?”
Shelly watched as he pushed off the door, stepping toward her.
“What’d ya want from me, Princess?” he asked, his smooth charm faltering and his accent getting stronger.
Shelly spun away from him, shaking her head. “I don’t know, Dr. Monroe, maybe a tear?” Turning back to him, she explained, “Maybe then I’d know you care. I keep waiting to feel that you understand just how much pain and embarrassment you have put me through! Not to mention, what you must have put her through over the years.”
Shelly turned away from him, pacing across the barn. She was so angry at him. Couldn’t he see? Couldn’t he understand how his actions had totally destroyed any faith I would ever have in a man? Did he not realize that he was the example I used and applied to every single man that walked into my life? How was I supposed to trust one word out of the mouth of the opposite sex when I can’t even trust my own father?
“Shelly,” she heard him say. When she didn’t respond, he said her name again. “Shelly Monroe, stop pacin’ and look at me.”
Shelly stopped on the opposite side of the walkway, tilting her head to look up at the man who she strongly resembled. She wouldn’t give in to him, and she would not let him see her cry.
“I never meant to hurt you—” he started, moving to walk toward her.
“Don’t come over here,” she snapped.
“Shelly, your ma and I have had an understandin’ for years. I just don’t think we realized how much it affected you.”
“Wow, do you think?” Shelly asked with so much