My Stepbrother's Regret novel · Chapter 5 of 32

Chapter 5: Uncle Lonnie

He was exactly what the clerk said.

He was tanned and lean, with silver hair combed straight back.

He wore a pale blue sport shirt tucked into pressed slacks, and cowboy boots that had never seen a horse.

He took off his sunglasses.

His teeth were very white.

"Well, I'll be," he said. "Hollyhock."

The floor of the pawn shop tilted under me.

Nobody had called me that in fifteen years.

A motel pool in Amarillo. A man in boots teaching me to dive off the side.

A birthday cake in Joplin with my name spelled wrong in green icing.

A stuffed rabbit in Wichita that I slept with for two years, until it got left in a rental with everything else.

Uncle Lonnie.

He'd turn up in a town, and he'd be wonderful for a month.

Then he'd be gone.

A few weeks after that, so were we.

"You remember me," he said, pleased. "Look at you. All grown up and fixing watches. Your mama sends me pictures."

"You're her cousin," I said.

"Sure am."

"From Tulsa."

"Born and raised."

He held out his hand to Roarke.

Roarke didn't take it.

He had the little plastic bag in one fist and the other hand flat on the counter.

Lonnie didn't seem to mind. He put his own hand in his pocket.

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