Page 30 of Fate
Looking over at me, he grasped my hand and squeezed it.
Suddenly, I paused. Why the hell did I just do that?
Everyone in the room slowly got back to talking and having conversations.
I sat holding Fate’s hand and neither of us spoke as our eyes met. Aww, hell. I knew I had just gone and done it. Howwould my mom or Ma Walker put it? Hooked my wagon up to the horse and now we were a team.
The way I would put it?Holy crap, I just made a huge mistake!
Chapter Eleven:Days And Daze
Fate
It did surprise me when she touched my hand, but I tried hard not to show it.
She allowed the handholding for a whole minute and a half maybe, then yanked her hand away. “Um, I wanted to ask about when you all arrived here. Am I understanding this right? That you and your brothers never knew about the Louisiana Walkers?”
“No, we didn’t,” I told her. “We also were in total shock about the Louisiana Walker Ranch. Like it blew our minds when we realized that it is an exact duplicate of ours. Except for the furnishings I mean. The house and the buildings were all similar to our place in Texas.” I shook my head and added, “No, not similar. Exact copies. I should know, that is what I do…design buildings.”
“Ok, so why did he leave in the first place?”
“See this is about an important motivation in the world…love.” I smiled at her. “My dad and his brother Jacob Walker were in love with the same woman. Our dad just couldn’t stay here and see them together, I guess? The ranch was inherited by the twin Walker brothers, but my dad left it to Bea and Jacob.”
“Wow.” Briget’s eyes sparkled with tears. “So, he just up and left?”
I nodded. “The day Jacob married Bea. He moved to Texas and made a new life.”
Briget swiped a tear from her eye. “That sounds so sad. He lost the love of his life and his twin. Then he was alone in the world. No family or anything.”
I agreed, “It had to be kind of dark times for him, yeah. Then he met our mom at his first job. He married her a year later and they had all of us.” I looked away and added, “Our mom died after Glory was born. There were complications during labor.”
“Oh, my God.” Briget gasped. “Your dad was left with a baby to raise?”
“Yes, a newborn, two toddlers, a kindergartener, and one in elementary school.”
“How did he…” She shook her head. “I mean how did he make his fortune and take care of all of you?”
I shrugged. “That’s a damn good question, but he used all of his time doing both. He never dated really, that any of us knew of. I suppose he’d met two women he could love and then he figured that would be it. So when he told us a couple of months ago that he and Bea were going to stay together, how could we deny him? I mean look at how he suffered.”
“He was a widowed father of five,” Briget stated in awe. “So yeah, I would think he deserves some happiness even if it is so late in life. I still don't know how he did all of that. He must have worked hard.”
“He did and he was gone for most of the day working. So mostly, the older kids pitched in to help raise the younger ones. He also hired a lady to help. She was like our nanny, Marta.” I smiled at her as I thought about her. “We all loved her so much. Always a smile on her face and she sure did have a soft spot for kids. She cooked and cleaned for us, though as we got older, many of the household duties were shared by us kids. Like I bet you didn't know that I could prepare a full four course meal, did you? Liberty fell in love with cooking and almost became a chef because of our upbringing.”
Briget stared at me and she did look surprised.
“I worked to help our family when I was just 5 years old,” I went on. “We all did. Seems like Dad decided that if we were old enough to start school, we were old enough to assume responsibilities.”
Briget shook her head and looked away.
“Look Briget, I’m not downplaying whatever it was that made you believe that you and I are so different that we cannot even date. But I didn’t grow up privileged like you think. Yes, we had enough to eat, but we had to tend a huge garden, a farm and all the animals that go with it. Our dad made sure the ranch was a real working farm. We all worked it too. We had this huge house that constantly needed to be cleaned, there were large meals to cook and many animals to be fed. Chickens, turkeys, cows, and sheep. These chores weren’t for an allowance either. We literally knew where our meals came from. Us kids literally earned our daily bread, so to speak.”
“Gosh, I’m sorry,” she said gently as she sighed. “I see that I was wrong.”
I reached over again to pat her hand. “You should have just asked Liberty, he knows I’m not a dress slacks, tweed sweater wearing teetotaler. That would be Justice actually. But to excuse him, he had to dress up for court all the time, so there is that.”
Chuckling, she shook her head at me. “You aren’t even mad at me for telling you that you were a double dealing, rich jerk?”
I chuckled with her. “Actually, Liberty had gleefully put it this way:a stuck up, rich boy, hound dog with no morals or scruples.”
