I clenched my jaw, fighting off the need to defend my family. Truth be told, I didn’t know what my grandfather was or wasn’t capable of, especially more than forty years ago. And history hadn’t painted him in a very good light. Drew might have been right that what Grandpa had said while attacking him had come straight from his memory. I honestly didn’t have anything to dispute the accusation.
“Are you just going to throw every personal thing I’ve told you back in my face?” Since I couldn’t defend my family, I decided to defend myself. It was not a good feeling to regret sharing personal details of my life with someone, only to have it used against me.
“I need to go.” He completely ignored my question and pushed off the step.
“What, now? You can’t drive back at this hour. The sun is about to go down, and the resort is hours away. If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine, but at least stay the night and head back in the morning after you’ve gotten some sleep.”
Again, he ignored me and continued to walk to his truck that he’d parked along the curb in front of the house.
“Drew!” I called after him, practically chasing him down the front yard. “Don’t go.”
He stopped dead in his tracks and turned on his heel. I halfway expected to see anger in his eyes or catch him glaring my way. But I saw none of that. Instead, the man standing in front of me seemed lost and confused. Uncertain.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pick a fight.”
Drew shook his head and gently wrapped his long fingers around my biceps, holding me in front of him and forcing me to look him in his eyes. “It’s not that, Kenny. I just have a lot to think about. I came here to confront you about the property, only to find out that there’s so much more to the story than I ever realized. And to top things off, I was attacked by an old man who confessed to killing my grandfather.”
“I really don’t think he did. Maybe they knew each other, but that’s the extent of it. It couldn’t have been him. And I’m not saying this because I think he’s a great guy or anything. Your grandmother told you that he was caught fighting with the Bennett kid over a girl. My grandfather is not a Bennett. Not to mention, he and my grandmother were together since high school, which would make her the girl in question.” I wasn’t sure who I was trying to convince more—him or me.
I could find doubt until I was blue in the face, but it wouldn’t erase the words I’d read in what I now believed to have been my grandmother’s diary. I’d read her story. A twisted tale of a girl trying to move on from her ex, a relentless fool who refused to give up hope of being with her again. A heartbreaking account of a young woman being stood up by the love of her life on the eve of their forever.
I’d read her emotional journey of falling in love with a boy she lovingly called AC. Which, coincidentally, were the same initials as Andrew Crowe. Then again, millions of people had those initials. The only thing that kept me from conceding was the name Bennett.
“And think about it, Drew, what are the odds? If what you’re saying really is true, then damn…let’s go get a lottery ticket. I could see if we were from the same area, but we’re not. Or if I had known about my grandfather’s land, and that’s why I stayed at the resort, but I completely stumbled upon Black Bird. So that’s not the case, either. I get what you’re saying, and I agree; it’s hard to ignore the things he said in there. But nothing explains how we got here.”
“I can’t answer that,” he said with a sigh. “All I can say is nothing else makes sense.”
“There are lots of things to explain it. My grandfather owns that land, so maybe he’s heard the stories of the Crowes and how they vanished into thin air. Maybe he used to try to solve the mystery by coming up with different ways to explain their disappearance, causing him to believe that those made-up scenarios really happened. See? It makes more sense that he simply knew of these things because he owns the land that surrounded Chogan, rather than our lives being intricately entwined for the last three generations, fate leading us to this exact moment when secrets that have been buried for decades are dug up. Come on, Drew. You have to admit, that’s the kind of stuff you’d find in a book. Probably one of those lame romance novels. It doesn’t happen in real life.”
He nodded as reasonable doubt crept into his expression. “Who knows…maybe we’ll never find out the truth. Which isn’t a big deal to me anyway, because I never thought I’d even come this close to finding out what really happened to my family.”
“Good. So you’ll stay?”
Drew dropped a brick in my gut when he shook his head. “I can’t, Kenny. I really do need to go. I have so much to think about, and the best way to do that is to drive. The long trip will allow me to sort through everything I’ve heard today.”
There wasn’t much I could do to stop him. So I had no choice but to stand in my front yard and watch him drive away, uncertain where we stood with one another, or if I’d ever see him again. He was right, though…a lot had happened in the last couple of hours. It would take a lot more than one night to find clarity in any of it.
I’d heard my mom come in sometime after midnight, but I was in bed and too deep in my own thoughts to get up and find out what the doctors had said. And by the time I got up in the morning, she was already gone again. That worried me, because it meant it was likely something serious.
Finally, after being gone all day, she walked through the front door just after five in the evening, looking like she’d been hit by a train and then run over by a semi. I’d spoken to her a few times over the phone, but nothing prepared me for this.
“Is everything all right?” I asked when she dropped into the seat next to me on the couch.
“I don’t even know where to begin, McKenna. Everything is so upside down right now, and I have no idea how to make it right again.” She covered her eyes with her hands, which did nothing to hide the quiver in her bottom lip.
“Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on.”
She inhaled deeply and held the breath for a moment before letting it all out in one commanding sigh. Mom had never made a habit of involving me in adult matters, especially when it came to my grandfather and his health. The fact that she’d shared what little I knew about gaining access to the will was huge. So I didn’t expect her to open up now, though I hoped she would.
The war that raged inside her blazed in her eyes. It was obvious she needed to talk about it, but that would go against her personal boundaries. For once, I just wanted her to forget my age and confide in me. I was eighteen, quite capable of listening. I doubted she wanted my advice, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t be a listening ear or a shoulder to lean on.
To my surprise, she flicked away a lone tear that had rolled down her cheek and held my hand. “Your grandfather passed away this morning. He had suffered another stroke last night amid the chaos—a really bad stroke, actually. And he didn’t come out of it.”
“Are you okay, Mom?”
She shrugged, which caught me off guard. I hadn’t expected that to be her reaction to her own father dying. “I don’t know, to be honest with you. I’m sad, sure. I’m technically an orphan—I have no parents. But if I look past that, it’s hard to be broken up about it. He wasn’t a good person.”