Page 135 of Keep My Heart
‘Like shit.’ He laughs.
That’s Dad, always trying to lighten a dark moment.
‘We’re going to go find something to eat,’ Sawyer says to Mom.
She nods as my brothers leave.
‘You seem to have more energy today,’ Mom says, smiling as she smooths out Dad’s blanket.
‘Leave it, Martha,’ he tells her. ‘It’ll just get wrinkled again.’
‘Just let me get this tucked in,’ she says, struggling to get the sheet under the bed.
‘Dammit, Martha!’ Dad yells. ‘Stop tidying up! It’s not gonna make it better!’
‘I have to do something!’ she yells back. ‘I can’t just sit here and watch you—’ She covers her mouth as tears stream down her face.
‘Mom.’ I race over to her and hug her.
‘Nick, I need to talk to your father.’ She pulls away, wiping her eyes and smiling. ‘Go ahead.’ She shoos me away.
Leaving the room, I go down the hall, then decide to go back. I wait outside Dad’s room and try to listen in. I’m not one to eavesdrop, but after that talk Mom had with me about selling the orchard, I feel like I need to hear this.
‘Nick thinks we should wait,’ Mom says. ‘Give it some more time.’
‘Time for what? If you and these doctors are going to tell me I can’t work, then what’s the point of keeping it?’
‘You can still be in charge. You just won’t be doing as much as you used to.’
‘You really think I can stand around, watching some other man do my job?’ Dad says. ‘I’d rather sell the damn thing than put myself through that. It’d be like watching someone else raise your child.’
‘You just need to find the right person to take over.’
‘And you think that’ll be easy?’ he huffs. ‘The only person I’d trust to run that orchard doesn’t have any interest in it, and I don’t blame him. It’s a lot of damn work and a lot of responsibility. The whole damn town depends on us.’
Is he talking about me? I don’t know who else it could be. He taught me everything he knows, and then I left and went to college. I didn’t want that life.
‘You could ask him,’ Mom says in a hesitant tone.
‘I am not asking him, and neither are you,’ Dad says, raising his voice. The room gets quiet, then I hear Dad again. ‘You didn’t say anything to him, did you?’
‘I might’ve brought it up,’ Mom says in a soft voice.
‘Martha! You know how I feel about this! The boys deserve to have their own lives, not inherit the one their father had. We agreed on that long ago. Nick’s a smart boy. He’s not going to waste those smarts working on an orchard. His life is in New York and I’m damn proud of what he’s done for himself. I wouldn’t even think of asking him to give it all up for his old man.’
‘Fine. I won’t mention it to him again.’
‘Why don’t you call up our lawyer? See what we’d need to do if we sold the place.’
‘We could ask Nick. He might be able to help.’
‘I want to keep Nick out of this, and the other boys.’
‘But I can tell them, right? I don’t see any reason to keep it a secret.’
‘We should tell them together. But not now. I’m too tired.’
‘You go ahead and rest. We’ll talk to them later.’
