Page 72 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

“I’ve got it,” he said. “No, it doesn’t fit. I put about forty pounds on after I graduated from the academy. I lost about ten pounds there running my ass off. So I put that back on plus another thirty.”

Her eyes were looking him over. “You don’t look forty pounds heavier to me now.”

He looked just about right. Not lean, but not bulky. The right amount of solid muscle kept her safe in his arms.

“I lost about fifteen of it after I was stabbed. Lying in bed and not doing much didn’t help me want to eat.”

“I would have gained weight,” she said. “Because Duke would have been feeding me.”

“I didn’t have that,” he said. “I recovered on my own.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “Sorry that you had to go through that and had no one. Your father didn’t help?”

“No,” he said. “I didn’t want him there.”

“Did he want to see you?” she asked. She wished she knew more of what went on between the two of them.

“He was there when I woke up,” he said. “I was told he came in when I was unconscious too, but I have no memory of it. The first thing he said when we talked was to insult my mother for encouraging me to go into law enforcement and that he always knew I couldn’t get out of my own way. I told him to get the fuck out. That was the last time we talked. Thankfully I had some close friends and their wives checked in on me and brought food.”

She lifted her eyebrow. “They came to your house alone with food?”

“There is that jealousy again,” he said.

“Damn straight. I’m a big enough person to admit it.”

He grunted. “No. They didn’t come alone. They came with their husband or sent the food with their husband. I was fine. They had a nurse stopping at my place for a week to change out the wound and check it out and then I was on my own.”

She handed the pictures of Van back to him. “Can I see your mother?”

He picked up the other pile. She could tell there were more here. “She’s very pretty,” she said. “You look like her. I can see it in some pictures.”

“The jaw and the eyes,” he said. “I know.”

“Tell me about her,” she said.

The pictures covered at least twenty years, she could tell. From maybe before Van was born to right before she might have passed. She’d flipped the oldest over and saw the date two years prior.

She wondered how Barry got those pictures.

“She was funny,” he said. “When she wanted to be. Not as funny or as cheerful as you, but she could bust on me.”

“We all need someone to lift us up in life,” she said. “I’m glad you had that.”

“She was always in my corner. My father didn’t want me to go into the police academy. He wanted me to work where he was. Said he could have gotten me a job to work my way up like him. You know, being a middle-level manager bossing people around.”

She handed those pictures back and asked, “Did he boss you and your mother around?”

“Me?” he asked. “All the time. My father thought I was going into law enforcement so that I’d be a big man to stand up to him. I didn’t need a badge to do it. I did it enough at the end. What I hated was the shit he did to my mother.”

She moved over and ran her hand up and down his back. “Was he abusive?”

“Physically, no,” he said. “But he wasn’t the nicest guy to her that I could remember. He was controlling. He made more money than her and held it over her head for everything.”

“What did your mother do?” he asked.

“She worked for the local city as a clerk. Got good benefits and stuff but not salary.”

She found that odd considering Barry’s worth. Yet she also knew there was no relationship between the two and didn’t know why.

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