My Stepbrother's Regret novel · Chapter 21 of 32

Chapter 21: Father

I didn't say anything.

My mother waited, smiling.

Then her face changed.

"Don't tell him I told you," she said. "Hollyn. Baby. He wanted to tell you himself. At the gala. After."

She fell asleep in the wicker chair ten minutes later with the bottle tipped against her hip.

I didn't cover her with the throw.

Lonnie was in the office at eight the next morning, which he never was.

He was at his desk with his boots up.

"Well," he said. "Your mama called me at six crying. So I guess we skip the speech."

"You're my father."

"I'm your father."

He said it easily.

"I'd have done it nicer. Champagne. A toast. Your mama's got no sense of occasion."

"You were in Amarillo. Joplin. Wichita."

"I was everywhere you were, honey. Just not at the table."

"And Tulsa?"

"Tulsa was mine." He smiled with all his white teeth. "That old schoolteacher was mine. Your mama didn't think you could do it at fourteen. I said watch her. I said that girl can cry on a dime."

I put my cold hands in my pockets.

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