Page 8 of Her Cadillac Cowboy
“Dad’s been like this since Mom walked out.”
“And the minute you were old enough, you did the same thing Mom did. You left me behind.”
She frowned. She was guilty as charged. “I know, better than anyone else, what you must have felt when I left. That first day after Mom left, I believed she’d come back for us. I waited all day. I refused to go to bed. The next morning, Dad sat in this room and told me Mom was never coming back. We had to go on without her.”
“You never told me.”
“You were ten. I didn’t want you to hurt as much as I did.”
“You had no right to make that choice for me. I was her child too. Don’t you think I deserved to know?”
Sara watched the anguish on his face and knew her own mirrored his. “I was only thirteen. I did the best I could.” She waited—would he forgive her?
“Why didn’t she come back?”
“I don’t know. Nobody knows.” Sara let her head drop.
“Mom didn’t want us, did she?”
Startled, Sara jerked her head up. She nodded slowly. “I wanted to protect you from that. I was wrong not to tell you everything. You wouldn’t still be wondering if I had.”
He groaned, then reached his arm out, circling her shoulders. “I’m sorry, Sara.”
“So am I, Donny.”
She stayed like that for a while, sharing the pain, knitting past hurts into present comfort. Eventually, she walked away from him to the sofa. “You know,” she said, “Dad’s right about one thing.”
“What?” He swallowed the last of his tequila.
“We have to go on together without Mom.”
“Like we haven’t been doing that for years.” He crossed the room and sat in a chair opposite the couch.
“Yeah, but you were here. I left, remember? Now it’s your turn.”
“What about Dad? He thinks you’ll persuade me to stay.”
“I’d like you to stay on, until Dad is stronger. Until he can survive you leaving.”
“But you don’t want me to stay.” Donny stared down at the empty glass he rolled between his palms.
“You’re wrong. I want you to be happy. You deserve that after being chained to Dad all these years.”
He looked her in the eye. “You think I’d ruin the business in three months.”
She looked right back. “I give you six.”
A small smile appeared on his mouth.
“However, that’s not the point,” she continued. “If running the dealership would make you happy, I’d beg you to stay. But it wouldn’t, would it?”
“No, I’d be miserable.”
She nodded and echoed his sad smile. All of Carson’s money couldn’t buy the only things either of them really wanted: their mother and a loving family. Of course, relationships were overrated. Just look at what happened to her and Josh. Being close meant being hurt.
“Regardless of what you and I want, I promised Dad that I’d ask you to stay.”
Donny sat back in the chair and raised an eyebrow. “Does this mean you’ll take my place at the dealership?”
