Plowed by My Stepfather novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Shed

The wind took the big shed door out of my hand and slammed it against the wall.

Dean caught it and dragged it shut behind me.

The first hail hit the tin roof, loud as thrown gravel.

"I told you not to come out here," he said.

"You told me a lot of things."

"Go back to the house, Gretchen."

"No."

He stood with water running off his hair and down his throat into his collar.

His shirt was stuck to his chest.

"You said you thought about my mouth," I said.

"That was wrong. I shouldn't have said it."

"Because of Mom."

"Because I'm forty-four, and you're her daughter, and she's three months in the ground."

"You called me when it was already over."

I hadn't meant to say it.

It had been sitting in my chest since January.

It came out in the shed with the hail screaming overhead.

"Forty minutes," I said. "I drove through the night and I was forty minutes late."

"You waited until the end to call me."

"You let her die without me."

His face went white under the tan.

"I called you nine times."

"You did not."

"Starting December second. Nine times, and I left nine messages, and every one said she was asking for you."

"I have never had one call from you. Not one."

"Gretchen."

"My phone shows nothing, Dean. I looked. Not one missed call from you since Thanksgiving."

He stared at me.

"Then either your phone is lying," he said, very quietly, "or you are."

I hit him.

I put both fists against his chest and hit him as hard as I could.

He stood there and took it.

I hit him again, and my breath came out in a sob.

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