Page 73 of Sugar
Kasey snorts, jaw ticking.
“Aw, that’s too bad,” his mom says, scrunching her nose. “But there’s no place like home to figure out what’s next!”
“You’re a lawyer?” Mr. Bennett asks.
“Yes, sir.”
He grunts, slicing a gaze to his wife. She picks up a bottle of white wine and points at me.
“Would you like a glass?”
“Oh, no thank you—I’m trying to cut back.”
“Good on you!” Mr. Bennett gruffly declares.
“What about you, honey?” she asks Kasey.
“I’ll stick to my beer, thanks.”
“I’d love some,” Layla chimes in.
“That’s my girl.” Mrs. Bennett beams.
I try not to let it sting.
I’m not sure why it even would.
Honestly, my nerves aside, this feels . . .good.To be in the mix like this, to be only one of many instead of one of so few, it’s new for me—but I like it. As teenagers Kasey and I made a lot of effort to avoid our parents, so I never really saw the possibility of what things could have been like on the ranch if I’d stuck around. I was always so worried about what Kasey’s parents would think of me that it never occurred to me that I might enjoy it. I’ve been at this table for less than an hour and I already can’t wait to come back. Like maybe we could make this a weekly thing, something to look forward to.
And then the sting of the truth pierces in, that we can’t do this forever. That someday I’m going to have to give it up.
My mind spins back to earlier in the day, when my father came home for lunch to find me packing up my things. He’d tried to make conversation, pestering me with questions, and it’d felt sowhollydifferent than this.
“Have you heard any of those Bennetts talk about their ranch?” he’d asked, watching me unplug my laptop cord from the outlet next to my bed.
Those Bennetts.I scoffed. “Of course they talk about the ranch, Dad. They live on it.”
“What about an inheritance trust?” he continued to probe. “Have you heard anything about that?”
I turned to look at him, feigning confusion. “What inheritance trust?”
“The one that says one of those boys has to be married to gain ownership of the ranch.”
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at. Brooks was already married.”
“Well, he’s not anymore. And they never transferred the land into his name when he was.”
There’d been undisguised curiosity shining across his features as he watched closely for my reaction. He looked almost . . . gleeful. “How the hell would you even know anything about their inheritance, Dad? Isn’t that kind of personal? I mean, shit, I know people around here have a reputation for being nosy but this feels like another level.”
His eyes narrowed into thin slits, a look I’d seen so often growing up under his roof. “Did you marry that boy so his family could keep their ranch?” he asked flat out.
I scoffed. “Howdare youeven insinuate we would be a part of something like that!”
But my outrage had done nothing to sway him. “I’ll figure out the truth, Ava. I always do.”
I decided not to tell Kasey about any of it. He’s got enough on his plate of things to worry about. My father doesn’t scare me; he never has, despite his best efforts. If anything, knowing the Bennetts are in his line of sight only makes me want to rub this marriage in his face harder.
Kasey and I stay for dessert at the insistence of Mrs. Bennett, but halfway through my slice of peach cobbler he catches me yawning and quickly announces our departure, citing the early morning he has with the horses to make up for Rhett and Wells being at the bar tonight.
