Page 73 of Family Bonds- Kelsey & Van

She’d asked her father and he’d said that it wasn’t his place to tell her. If Van wanted to know, he would share it with him and then it’d be up to Van to share with her.

Sometimes it annoyed the crap out of her that her father was so loyal that way.

“Do you think you had a good childhood?” she asked.

“I’d say average. I was quiet. I played sports. I had friends. I went to college but didn’t want to. Just community college and then state college. I didn’t want a lot of loans and it’s not like my father was helping out. It was cheaper to commute than live on campus.”

Again, she found this odd since Barry could have paid for it.

“No reason to ask if you still have loans. You have the resources to pay them off.”

“I had them paid off before I moved here. I lived a pretty simple life.”

She turned and looked around the gorgeous house he had now. “No one could say that now.”

“Which stands to reason that if Barry knew so much about me as he is hinting, why would he leave me a place like this? One that is brand new inside. We know it.”

“Good question,” she said. “My father might be able to help you with that if you want to ask. The same as how Barry came about these pictures. Do you think he was there around you and no one knew?”

“I have no idea. It could be as simple as him paying someone to look into us.”

“Which you would have hated,” she said.

“Yep,” he said.

She figured it wasn’t the time to address that. “So the issue with your father is the way he treated your mother?”

“That was one of the many things,” he said. He got up and walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge from where she could see him. He got a beer out and held up a bottle of wine. She nodded her head and he filled a glass.

“Thanks,” she said. “Did you pick this out to go with the dinner we are ordering?”

“No,” he said. “I don’t know that crap. I just went down and grabbed a bottle of a kind I’ve seen you drink before.”

She smiled. “I find that sweet.”

“That I pay attention to what types of wine that you drink?” he asked.

“Yep. Not a lot of people do that. Do you want to order food now and then keep talking?”

“Sure,” he said. “What do you want? I’ve got menus for just about every place close by.”

“I’m sure you do,” she said.

He moved over and pulled open a drawer and reached his hand in, coming out with a bunch of sheets of paper. “You pick.”

She closed her eyes and reached for one at random and pulled it out. “Guess we are having subs.”

“Are you okay with that?” he asked.

“If I’m not cooking, I’m okay with anything.”

They placed their order for delivery. “My father did two things I’ll never forgive him for. One I know of. The other I’m suspecting.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

Though she knew in her mind where he was going with at least one of them.

“He cheated on her. Probably did it more than once, but he was doing it while she was dying. He was taking care of her. Showing the world what a loving husband he was like he always did. Outside the house he wasn’t a dick to her.”

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