Page 26 of Rope Me In

She looks disappointed to lose contact with me, but I push any feelings I have down. I want to know how I’m like the man who lied. Who ruined this family.

“Well, you’ve got the same eyes.” She smiles. “Same hair.”

“You know that’s not what I meant, Momma.” I sit a little taller in my chair. “I want you to tell me how I’m like the liar who ruined our lives.” The last part comes out with fire, fire I didn’t initially intend to have behind my words.

Her eyes widen, and her nostrils flare. “You don’t talk about your daddy like that, young man!”

“I’m only speaking the truth, and you know it.”

“He was a good man, and he taught you to be better than this.”

I slam my eyes shut. Her words sting my body like acid rain, burning away at my skin and eating me alive. While Momma is right, that he could be a good man, she doesn’t know shit about what he taught me. Yes, he did teach me manners among other important life skills like a damn good work ethic, but he also gave me my first drink when I was fourteen. He taught me thedifferent notes of a good whiskey when I was sixteen and how to flirt with girls.

I suck in a tense breath through my teeth and smack my lips. “He taught me to be exactly who I am right now, Momma.” The angry truth of it spills out of me.

“You’re not acting like yourself,” she says, hand gripping the table.

I want to laugh, because she sounds exactly like Gavin. The urge to throw my coffee mug from the table hits me like a freight train—it’s time I leave this house before I do something I regret. I don’t want to hurt Momma any more than I already have, and right now, I’m not in control of my words. I stand up from the table and push in my chair.

“You’re going to leave?” she asks.

“Yep. I don’t want to say more. Trust me, you don’t want to hear it.”

She stands and faces me. I’ve got a lot of height on her, but she’s always been intimidating for a small woman with her strong shoulders and strong will. “Say what you want to say, Kade. I can take it.”

I walk to the sink and thunk my mug down into the basin before I grip the countertop, knuckles turning white as I try to force down my anger. But no matter how many breaths I take, I can’t stop the events of the past few days, of the last year, from rising to the surface.

I turn back to face her but keep my distance, saying what’s been weighing on my heart. “You think I’m like him because I drink too much and I have a temper. Not because he was a good man.”

She shakes her head. “Emmett didn’t have a drinking problem.”

“You’re delusional if you think that.”

“Kade!” she chides again, her voice louder now.

“You said you could take the truth, so I’m giving it to you. That man was not who you thought he was. He’s notwho any of us thought he was. He drank like a fish, and he fucked up this family. He almost lost us our home, our land!”

“He was doing the best he could!”

“And you never questioned him about anything. Just like you never questioned Gavin. Just like you never questioned me until now. You just let things happen, Momma. You just stood by while Dad royally screwed things up and then Gavin took his place. If you want to compare the glorious Emmett Montgomery to anyone, maybe compare him to my fabulous big brother that you love so much!”

“Enough!” Gavin’s voice bellows from the door.

“Speak of the fucking devil.” A chuckle of disdain spills out of me as I throw up my hands. “You’re always coming in to save the day, Gav. Do you have everywhere I go bugged?”

My big brother steps into the kitchen and goes straight to Momma, ignoring me. “Are you okay?” he asks her.

She brushes a tear that’s escaped from her eye and nods. “Fine. We’re just having a conversation.”

I shoot my brother a long and hard stare. “You think I would purposely hurt our mom? She wanted to know the truth, so I’m giving it to her.”

Gavin narrows his green eyes at me, and for the first time, there’s something akin to hatred in them. I’ve seen a lot of looks from my brother, but nothing like this. Maybe I’ve finally tipped him over the edge.

“There’s a way to speak to people, and this is not it. You need to take a step back and figure your shit out, Kade.”

“Are you for fucking real right now?”

“Watch your language,” he scolds, like he’s my fucking dad.