Page 44 of Resting Beach Face
“Nah. We’re a team, right?”
She blinked misty eyes and nodded. “We are. The whole family,” she said, shooting a smile to Katelyn. “That’s how it’s supposed to be.”
There was oneteam memberconspicuously absent from the kitchen. One that Mom was careful not to mention. We’d argued over Dad enough times that I knew she wouldn’t change her mind.
He’d been the love of her life before he got hurt in a commercial boating job. He’d slipped on the deck while helping move cargo and ended up with a broken back and chronic pain.
He was a drag on this family and the reason my mother worked too many hours for a shitty company that paid her too little. Even with me contributing to expenses, we barely got by.
Dad won a worker compensation claim that covered most of his medical debt, along with a small amount of disability for the first year, but he refused the physical therapy required to continue receiving benefits.
Hecouldget better, but he chose not to.
Mom thought it was her job to take care of him. I sure didn’t see it that way, but unless I let my mom and sister go down with him, I was just as stuck as they were.
Dredging up old arguments wouldn’t change that.
“Come on, Kit-Kat. Let’s go get some food.”
“Finally,” she said. “I’m starving.”
I paused in the doorway. “Anything special you want, Mom?”
She checked the refrigerator as I had done. “Better get your dad a case of beer. He won’t last the rest of the day.”
“Seriously?”
She turned toward me. “What? You know how he gets when he runs out.”
And we just kept enabling it…but when you were living with an alcoholic who didn’t want to change, what else could you do? It would get very ugly very fast if we tried to dry him out against his will.
We needed help. Outside intervention or a rehab stay for Dad, maybe. But with our limited resources, I wasn’t sure how to even begin that process. Or if it was even possible without Dad’s cooperation.
But I said none of that.
“I’ll get the beer. But what about you?” I pressed. “Don’t you want something?”
“Oh, honey, just get whatever you two want me to make for dinner this week. You know I’m not picky.”
That was the truth. If she were pickier, maybe she’d leave Dad’s ass and force him to face the truth.
His drinking was about avoiding reality rather than facing a life that didn’t turn out how he’d hoped. It was about dulling his pain instead of doing the hard work to actually recover from his injury.
Most of all, it was about the addiction that had its claws in him.
And if we weren’t careful, he’d eventually drag us all down, too.
CHAPTER TEN
Declan
“No Cash today?”
I poured a coffee refill for Janice. “Afraid not.”
“That’s too bad,” Tom said as he cut into a biscuit covered in molasses. I’d brought in breakfast from Tastes Like Grandma today. “I wanted to tell him how wonderful his suggestion was for that sunset cruise. Ellen and I had an amazing night.”
Ellen giggled, her pink cheeks telling usexactlyhow amazing their night had been. Of course, I’d heard in more detail than I’d like exactly how their anniversary had ended. An impressive feat, considering how thick the walls in this old house were.
