Page 77 of Thick & Thin

It might have been old and a little run-down, but it was my home. I grew up there. Hell, he had grown up there in a lot of ways too. My home had never been too much of a shithole for him before.

“I’m an asshole, so it’s only natural.”

I snorted. “You said it, not me. Well, as you can see, this place looks the same. Some things don’t change,” I said, referring to his new shitty attitude toward everything.

He put the truck in gear and looked over at me. His dark eyes skimmed my face before dipping over the parts of my body he could see. “Everything changes.”

I wanted to cover myself. I knew what he was saying without saying it.

You’re a fat ass, Jenny.

You’re not the same girl you used to be.

My eyes flittered across his expression in the morning sunlight. I could almost see the boy he used to be in his eyes before his features tightened, and his eyes thinned in annoyance.

“You’re right. Everything changes,” I said.

Then I backed away from his truck just as he began to roll up his window in my face. He sped away from the front of my yard, leaving rubber on the street as a reminder of him being there.

I stood in the yard with my arms crossed, staring in the direction he had gone.

He really was different. As much as I hated to think it, my Josh was long gone. In a way, I felt like I was grieving him alongside his father.

The screened door slammed behind me when I went inside. I slid my flip-flops from my feet by the door and went straight for the coffeepot.

“What was that about?” Daddy asked from behind his newspaper.

He was probably the only man left in the world who still had the paper delivered. I tried once to teach him how to read the news on his phone, but he wasn’t having it. The man had an eight-hundred-dollar phone Lilly had gotten him for Christmas one year, and he literally only used it to make phone calls. I had never even seen him text before.

“Your guess is as good as mine.” I shrugged and took a sip of my hot coffee once I had sweetened and creamed it properly.

He hummed behind his paper, the sound of the papers shuffling when he turned the page before he spoke again.

“Maybe you ought to go over and check on Paula today. See how she’s holding up and if she needs anything.”

I paused, my coffee cup halfway to my mouth. “Wow, Dad, you’re not obvious at all.”

He chuckled. “I’m serious. All the Josh bullshit aside, she needs you now more than ever. Take Caleb over and let them spend some time together. You know how much she loves Caleb.”

And I did.

It was the only reason I agreed to what he was saying and got Caleb and me dressed after breakfast to head over and see how she was doing.

Thankfully, when I pulled up, Josh’s truck was nowhere to be seen. I unhooked Caleb from his seat in the back and let him run loose up the front porch to Mrs. Black’s front door. Without even knocking, he ran inside.

“Caleb, wait!” I called out.

It wasn’t unusual for him to go inside whenever he wanted. They welcomed him always, but I wasn’t sure if things had changed since Mr. Black was no longer there.

I followed him inside to find him climbing into Mrs. Black’s lap. She giggled at him and wrapped her arms around him.

“Oh, he’s all right. Come on in,” she said to me over the top of Caleb’s head. “My boy knows he can come in Nanny’s house anytime he wants. Ain’t that right, pretty boy?”

Caleb shook his head and grinned up at me.

Brat.

I shook my head and snorted before taking a seat on the couch across from her.

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