Maybe she was just that gullible. Amanda wrapped her arms around a teddy bear he had sent her one Easter and curled onto her side, trying and failing to make sense of it all.
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Amanda watched as spring slowly edged winter out and filled the fields around the house with brilliantly colored wildflowers. Her family had backed off of encouraging her to move on, seeming to accept that she had to take life on her terms, at her own pace. Reece remained friends with the family, though he and Amanda were careful to keep their distance. She regretted hurting him; he was too nice to be treated poorly and she felt that she had.
Angie’s upcoming first birthday filled much of their thoughts, that and her new sibling that would arrive in eight months. Amanda had teased both her brother and Jenny that they certainly didn’t waste any time.
Amanda was worried for her father. He had recovered well from his stroke but he didn’t seem to be his self. He was moving slowly and was short tempered with nearly all around him, save his grandchildren. When Amanda asked him if he was okay he had snapped at her, never quite answering the question.
The day of Angie’s birthday he seemed to have set that all aside and smiled and laughed with everyone and Amanda felt herself relaxing; maybe her daddy was okay after all. However as summer approached, he spent more and more time piddling in the barn avoiding the family and Amanda sensed tension between her father and Trenton.
“You are not the man of this family, Trenton!”
Amanda heard her father yell one afternoon as she neared the barn.
“You need to ask yourself if you can deal with this on your conscious, Dad. I am giving you until the end of summer to make this right or I will.”
“Don’t you threaten me!” Sterling bellowed.
Amanda entered the barn, her concern growing as she looked between her brother and her father. Trenton looked grim but determined; Sterling looked incensed. Sterling turned and stormed out of the barn leaving Trent to sigh and shove a hand through his hair.
“You okay?” Amanda asked her brother.
“Yeah, I love Dad but I had to call him on something.”
“If you feel he’s wrong you should. I love him too but he can be awfully stubborn,” Amanda grinned. Trenton crossed to where his sister stood and wrapped her in a hug.
“I love you, Mandy Lynn; I’m sorry for the way things went down sweetheart,” her brother kissed her forehead.
“I love you too, Trent,” she pushed onto her tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
It was later that evening that her father sought her out where she sat on her porch swing; the movie Cadey-Lynn was watching inside spilled through the screen door.
“Hey, Mandy Lynn,” Sterling seated himself beside his daughter.
“Hi, Daddy.”
They sat quietly for a time, listening to the night sounds and Cadey Lynn’s laughter.
“Amanda?”
“Yes?”
“Why haven’t you moved on, sweetheart? You are so beautiful and all the men around town are just waiting for a sign of encouragement from you.”
“I tried, I hurt myself and them.”
They fell quiet again.
“Daddy?” she finally spoke again.
“Hmm?”
“Why did you never remarry?” she had never in all her life asked her father that question, though she had wondered on many occasions.
“I guess I’m just a one woman man. I never could quite seem to look at another woman and feel anything close to what I felt for your mother. I didn’t want to settle for less,” her father explained.
Amanda nodded and stared across the yard at the main house.
“I guess I’m cut from the same cloth as my father,” she told him before kissing his cheek and standing to move inside. She glanced back to find his expression set in a mask of anger and hurt that she couldn’t quite understand.
“Love you, Daddy,” Amanda slipped inside and shut the door behind her. She heard her father’s heavy steps leaving the porch a short while later and sighed. She so wished she could understand what was going on with her father.
“Mommy,” Cadey-Lynn interrupted her mother’s thoughts.
“Can I have these, please? They’re perfect,” Cadey-Lynn’s eyes were bright and pleading.
“Let me see,” Amanda took a catalogue from her daughter. Circled on the page were a pair of pink cowgirl boots with rhinestone daisies on the side; it made Amanda smile as she remembered her own love of boots as a child. She still loved them.
“Those are really pretty,” Amanda agreed. A steep price tag too, though Amanda didn’t mind too much.