Page 4 of The Summer that Changed Everything

“What kind of painting do you do?”

“Mostly I paint birds—in acrylics.”

“It’ll happen.”

“I hope so. It’s good to see you again. What brings you back after so long?”

Ford was searching for the peace and happiness he’d once known in this place. But he wasn’t about to admit that. His mother would be furious. She wouldn’t want anyone to know they had problems; she was all about keeping up appearances. “We’ve been renting out the house for so long it needs to be repaired and updated. So I’m taking a few months off to make that happen.” He was actually supposed to get it ready for sale. Since his mother and brother never used it anymore, they were pressing him, as the trustee of his father’s estate, to liquidate. They wanted the money. He might have to give his soon-to-be ex a portion of the proceeds, too, and Paris, his father’s widow. But he didn’t want the locals to know what he was planning to do until he pounded in the For Sale sign, mostly because he didn’t want to deal withtheir reaction. And he couldn’t face parting with the house that held his best memories. He wasn’t even going to allow himself to think about putting it on the market until the summer was over.

The dog was wandering too far. “Eddie!” Chet called and whistled to bring him back before saying, “Heard about your father, dude. I’m sorry.”

“Thanks. Came as a shock. He was always so active. We thought he was perfectly healthy.”

“From what I heard, his new wife kept him busy.”

That was a euphemistic way of acknowledging the embarrassing relationship. Ford was shocked his father could be stupid enough to be fooled by someone like Paris. Just looking at the two of them together gave the impression she was a gold digger, and that was exactly what she’d turned out to be. “She’s not an easy person to deal with.”

“Spoiled?”

“Selfish, too. And she’s the mother of my two half brothers, so I’m unlikely to ever get her completely out of my life.”

“That’s rough. I wanted to attend the funeral, but Kira was days away from giving birth to Kenzie.”

A warm wind, coming off the water, ruffled their hair and clothes. “So you’re married and have a baby now?”

He smiled like a besotted fool. “Yeah. And both are pretty amazing.”

“Congratulations!”

“You’ll have to come by. I’d love for you to meet them.”

“I’ll do that. I’m sorry I haven’t kept in touch. Life has... gotten away from me.”

“No worries. It’s not all your fault. It’s been overwhelming for me, too. How’s your mother?”

Not the same. That was the thing. Sara was once a warm, fun-loving, well-adjusted woman. But the divorce seemed to have damaged her irreparably. Now she was anxiety riddled; only her psych meds kept her going. “Fine,” he lied.

“And Houston?”

Houston had been a burnout since high school. Most people assumed he’d never amount to much. And that was proving to be true. “The same.”

Chet once again called his dog to his side. “How long are you in town?”

“The entire summer.” He’d never needed three months to himself more...

“Really? Who’s taking care of the business while you’re gone?”

“My next in command.”

“You must trust him a great deal.”

“It’s a her, and I do. I’ll be working remotely while I renovate the house. But I can’t imagine Renee will need me too often. She’s been around forever, and sales typically slow down in the summer.”

“Wow, man, you’re running the whole freaking empire already. I always knew it would be you and not Houston.”

He ignored the Houston part. His brother benefited from what their father had built almost as much as he did, buthewas the one doing all the work so things wouldn’t fall apart. The inequity of it sometimes bothered him. He kept telling himself to be grateful he was capable of following in his father’s footsteps, but he felt Houston could do more to help than he did. Instead, he’d become a burden, and that had created even more contention in Ford’s marriage. “Selling software to businesses isn’t an empire.”

“From what I’ve heard, you’ve made vast improvements to something that was already the best on the market. Wagner Business Solutions does data warehousing, right?”

---