“He’s such a good man. Now, if you ask me,”—She lowered her voice and leaned forward. I found myself doing the same wanting desperately to know what she was about to say even though I hadn’t asked her—“He had to grow up way too soon, even before he lost his mama. She was a, well, let’s say free spirit. That boy has been raising his kin since before puberty. But he never complained. Never once.
“And he did a mighty fine job with those boys. Let me tell you, they gave him a run for his money. Gettin’ picked up by the law for all sorts of shenanigans. But Hank was always there to bail them out and put them on the straight and narrow. They grew into two fine young men, and that certainly wasn’t their daddy’s doin’. Hank had to take care of him, too. James Comfort was always three sheets to the wind.
“True, Hank wasn’t a choir boy. He has been in a rumble or two. And, yes, he did put that Tanner Jennings in the ICU but between you me and the fencepost, that boy had it comin’. He was sayin’ awful things about Hank’s mama years after she passed. Hank was just doin’ what any good son would.”
I sat there absorbing all of the information I’d just learned. I knew that name…Tanner Jennings. Oh, right, he was the first lawyer that had handled my grandfather’s will. Hank had put him in the hospital? I just couldn’t imagine him doing something like that. Not that he wasn’t capable. He was built like an ox. I just had never seen an angry bone in him. But why would I? I’d known the man two seconds.
“And he seems very fond of you. You definitely put a pep in his step I haven’t seen since…well, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it.”
“Oh, no.” I leaned back and shook my head, not wanting to give her the wrong idea. “We’re not…I don’t…we’re just friends.”
“Bless your heart, of course you are sweetie.” Mrs. Birch’s knowing smile told me that she was saying one thing but meaning another.
I wanted to assure her that we were, but I was scared she’d think “the lady doth protest too much.” And the thing was, she’d be right.
CHAPTER 13
Hank
The screen creaked behind me before slamming shut as I stepped out onto the back porch. The sun was high in the mid-day sky but was blocked out by the overhang that covered the porch and the swing that sat at the far end. I stared at the empty wooden swing and memories of my mom sitting there flooded my mind.
Sabrina Comfort loved being outdoors. She always said that she felt claustrophobic inside. One of her favorite activities was rocking on that swing that I’d helped my dad make as a surprise for Mama when she came home from the hospital after having Billy. I was only six at the time but I remember her face like it was yesterday when she saw it.
Tears formed in her eyes and she’d hugged both my dad and me and said, “Thank you my handsome men.”
I couldn’t count the hours I’d spent with Mama out on this porch. She loved watching the ducks in the pond as my brothers and sister played in the field. We’d have iced tea and talk and laugh. She had her demons, just like anyone, but she loved to laugh.
She was funny, and smart, and caring. She was also sad, and wild, and unpredictable. And I missed her. All the time. Time wasn’t healing my wounds. If anything, time just rooted my grief deeper and those roots had grown through me just like the old oak that stood by the Fisher house, the roots had grown into the foundation.
For years, I’d pushed the pain and the memories down. They’d always been there, surging through me on a low frequency, but I’d ignored it. At first, I’d just been in survival mode trying to take care of my brothers and grow up myself. Then as an adult, I’d had to care for Pops, keep my brothers alive in their teen years, keep the bar financially afloat, and start and build my construction business. All those things had kept me more than busy.
But my business was successful now. Billy had taken the reins in managing Southern Comfort. Jimmy’s charter business was busier than ever. And both of them had found women they wanted to share their lives with. My brothers were grown men who had lives of their own which include soon-to-be sisters-in-law and Pops was gone.
For the first time in my life, since the day my life changed, I found myself alone with my feelings. Everything I’d suppressed was rising to the surface and I didn’t enjoy it.
“Anyone home!” I heard my youngest brother Jimmy holler from the front of the house.
“Back here!”
A loud bark interrupted the peaceful chirping of birds and told me that my brother wasn’t alone. Sherlock, Jimmy’s bloodhound came bounding around the corner, his paws thundering on the wooden planks of the wraparound porch.
I crouched down to scratch him behind his ear and noticed a few more gray hairs in his muzzle, and his skin was even droopier than usual. “Hey, old man. How you doin’?”
Sherlock answered me by coating the side of my face with his tongue then flopping on his back for belly rubs. He might be ten years old, but he still had a lot of puppy in him.
When my brother finally made it around the corner, I noticed that he was carrying a bag of dog food and Sherlock’s bed.
Jimmy dropped the bed and food on the porch. “I would have put this stuff inside but the door was locked.”
Every chance he got Jimmy made a dig about me changin’ the open-door policy. I wasn’t tryin’ to be a dick. I’d just spent every day from the time I was thirteen not knowing when someone was going to need me. Once my mom was gone, it was up to me to take care of my brothers. I’d done the laundry, cooking, teeth brushing, bedtimes, and homework.
Once they were old enough to take care of themselves Pops’ alcoholism had caught up with him. I’d had to care for him for the past ten years. I’d had to take him to doctor’s appointments, cook, clean, and be on call when he ended up drunk down on the pier or was passed out on a bench.
Now that Jimmy and Billy were adults, and Pops was gone, this was the time that I only had to worry about myself. Part of that was taking back the privacy I’d forgone for all the years that my life had had an open-door policy.
My mind was miles away when Jimmy asked, “Did you forget you’re watching Sherlock?”
Yes. I had. But now that he mentioned it, it came back to me. Isabella had to go to New York for some work thing and Jimmy was going with her. They’d be gone a few days so he’d asked if I could watch the dog.
“Is he still taking his drops?” For the last year, Sherlock had been taking drops for his arthritis.
“It’s in his bag.” Jimmy motioned to the paper bag on top of his bed then looked out over the back of the property. “So what’s the deal with the new neighbor?”
When I didn’t answer my brother continued, “Billy said he hired her. And that she has a kid.”
This was one of the reasons I remained silent. Most of the time people knew the answer before they asked a question. It had always bothered me. If someone had somethin’ to say, I just wished they’d come right out and say it.
I stood and headed out to the shed. I needed tools to fix Skylar’s roof. She wasn’t home, but I didn’t need access to the house to get the job done.