Page 127 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

“Van. Something is going on. When I came back with the food you were different. You weren’t even paying attention to the movie. Then the whole sex down there. I loved it. I really did. But it’s like you were trying to exorcise a demon or something. If my head starts spinning don’t blame me.”

He didn’t laugh. She didn’t know why she thought he might.

“It’s nothing,” he said.

“It’s something. I feel like I always have to pull teeth with you. I don’t get it. You know I love you. You love me even though you don’t say it much.”

“Do you want me to be one of those people who says it every time I hang up the phone or walk out the door?”

It was the appalled look on his face. “No. When people say it that much it’s no different than a greeting or goodbye. That isn’t me. It’s not how my family has ever been. I’m just saying I know you love me even though you don’t say it often.”

She wasn’t sure why she brought it up. He was going to think she was needy when she wasn’t really.

Maybe she was still put out that it took him so long to keep taking steps in his life when she would have raced everyone to get to the end, then gone back to go through everything again looking for more details.

“Then what is going on?” he asked.

“You tell me. I told you I came back and you were different. I feel as if something happened and you won’t tell me. I just don’t understand why you can’t share with me.”

“I waited to go to the storage unit with you,” he said. “That’s sharing.”

She frowned. He had a point. “Are you feeling overwhelmed?”

“The understatement of the year,” he said. “But it’s not that.”

She saw him hedging. “Tell me what it is,” she said. “I’m going to bug you all night until you do. If you don’t think I will then ask Duke or my parents. They will tell you I’m relentless.”

“I believe it,” he said. He grabbed his phone, unlocked it and tossed it to her.

Kelsey picked it up and hit the messages button. It was the only reason she could think he’d do it.

The last one was from his father.

Her eyes went wide and she read the message, then noticed that he hadn’t replied.

“Are you going to talk to him?”

“I doubt it,” he said.

“Don’t you want to know why he’s reaching out after all this time?”

“Not really,” he said. “Because if I talk to him right now I might just verbally beat the shit out of him.”

Her heart broke hearing those words. “Do you think he knows you’re here?”

“I doubt it,” he said. “If he did, he’d say something. He might even go off and start bashing my grandfather.”

“You don’t have the answers you want, do you?” she asked.

“Nope. Not sure I’ll get them. I have to decide when enough is enough,” he said.

“It’s never enough,” she said. “At least from my experience. But you have to make that decision on your own.”

“You’re not going to harp on this with me?” he asked. He looked shocked.

“No. I know you think I’m all fun and games and don’t take anything seriously. Most times that is probably right. But not this. This is something you’ve got to do and I’ll be by your side to support you when you make that decision.”

“Thanks for that,” he said, pulling her under his arm.

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