They all nodded, including Emma.
Junior dropped to his knees and started rocking back and forth, shaking his head in disbelief.
“This secret nearly killed me, Hunt. Thank you for coming home. Oh my God…I am free.”
“And me,” Ray said.
“We should have defied Daddy and told you that day,” Emma said.
“But he said he’d go to prison, and Mama would lose the house, and we’d all be homeless, maybe even go to foster care,” Ray said. “He said we had to protect Birdie from winding up in foster care.”
At this point, Ava spoke up.
“I know I’m not family, but I’m going to be. I’m going to Houston with Hunt after the house sells. And being family gives me a little leeway to say something, too. I saw a side of your father that none of you saw. Ray and I were still too young to go to school, and Birdie wasn’t even born, but I remember things that I thought were mean.”
Hunt was horrified. “Like what, Ava?”
She shrugged. “Well, for instance…he would eat the last piece of pie in the house and blame it on me or Ray. He took money out of Marjorie’s purse and told me if I told, he’d say it was me. Your daddy was a liar and a manipulator, and none of you need to feel guilty another moment. You were kids, and he used you to suit his needs. All of you were victims. You just never knew it. And Hunt had the answer you needed, and he never knew it. I know one thing for certain, and that is right now your mama’s spirit is so happy that the truth is out…that there’s no more secret to be kept.”
Hunt was shocked. “He did that…even to you?”
Ava shrugged. “It’s how I knew him. He didn’t scare me, and he was hardly ever there when Marjorie was babysitting me. But I didn’t want anything to do with him. And I think it’s time we all went home. Each of you is going to need time to process this. But you need to remember that tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your lives, and you need to find a way to be happy. I know I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure Hunt is as happy as I know how to make him. And as soon as Hunt has honored his promise to Marjorie, we’re going back to Houston, and you’ll always be welcome visitors.”
“There’s something we need to do before we leave here,” Hunt said, and pulled out that paper he’d found—the one their father made them sign.
“Any one of you happened to have a cigarette lighter on you?” he asked.
“I do,” Junior said. He took it out of his pocket and handed it to Hunt.
Hunt got down on his knees at the shore, wadded up that oath Parnell Knox had made them sign, and set it on fire.
They stood in silence, watching the last bit of the secret going up in smoke.
When there was nothing left of it but ashes, the brothers and sisters shared one last embrace, and then got in their cars and went their separate ways. Birdie caught a ride back with Emma, who took her to get her car, leaving Hunt and Ava to go home on their own.
Hunt could hardly grasp what had just occurred, but like Junior, the truth had set him free.
“Thank you for being there,” Hunt said. “You added that last bit of confirmation to Dad’s real personality. He was a sonofabitch, and none of us are responsible for that.”
“I think of Marjorie…living with all that anger,” Ava said. “I never said anything to any of the others after she was hospitalized. But at first, she was really resentful that she had gotten lung cancer because she never smoked.”
“But Dad did,” Hunt said. “She was a victim of secondhand smoke.”
“And your daddy’s mean streak,” Ava said. “I saw him blow smoke in her face all the time and then laugh when she coughed.”
Hunt paled. “Did we just not see that, or were we so used to it we didn’t see it for the subtle abuse that it was?”
“I don’t know. Maybe I noticed it because neither of my parents smoked. You know?”
Hunt nodded. “Yes, that makes sense,” and then he reached for her hand, lifted it to his lips and kissed it as he drove. “Ava Ruth, you are my saving grace.”
She shivered from the feel of his lips on her skin, remembering.
Chapter 15
It was full-on dark by the time Hunt and Ava got back to town, but the streetlights lit the way home. Hunt pulled up into her driveway.
“After all that’s gone on, do you still want to come in?” Ava asked.
The ring in his pocket was a reminder of what was yet to come.
“After all that’s gone on, you are still the light in my life. I feel like I have a bad taste in my mouth, and I need a taste of something sweet to take it away.”
“I have pie,” Ava said, and got out.
“That’s not what I had in mind,” Hunt said.
Ava laughed as they got out and went inside, but the moment the door closed behind them, Ava wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
“Was that sweet enough?” she asked.
“Always,” Hunt said. “How do you feel about a sleepover?”
Ava smiled. “I feel good about that. I have new toothbrushes, but do you need to go home and get your jammies?”
“I don’t own any,” he said.
“My kind of man,” Ava said. “Follow me.”
“To the ends of the earth,” Hunt said, turning out lights as they went.
When they reached the bedroom, Hunt took off his jacket, got the ring out of the pocket, and turned around.
Ava was sitting by the window, the blinds already drawn, taking off her boots one at a time. As she leaned over, her hair fell forward, momentarily hiding her face. It wasn’t until she straightened up that she realized Hunt was watching her.
She smiled.
“You look like a man with a secret. What’s going on?”
He shook his head. “No secrets between us, remember? I never said the actual words ‘marry me,’ but I’m saying them now. Ava Ruth Ridley, I love you to forever and back. Will you marry me?”
Ava sighed. She’d heard Hunt say these words a thousand times in her dreams, but never awake and aloud. When he got down on one knee in front of her chair, then opened the box, she gasped.
“Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Oh, Hunt, it’s beautiful.”
Hunt held his breath as he began to put it on her finger, and then relaxed when it slid right on.
Ava smiled. “It fits! How did you—” Then she stopped and looked at it more closely. Tears welled. “Oh, Hunt. This was Marjorie’s ring, wasn’t it?”