Page 157 of The Promise Of Rain

Wasn’t worthy.

Jenny felt the same.

He sighed, the sound carrying a decade’s worth of regret.“I was weak.”

Her lips trembled as she sneered, “Eve tempted you with her beauty?”

“No.Nothing like that,” he stated firmly.“The bills were piling up, the boys were questioning whether they wanted to farm, and you were struggling.Instead of facing my failures like a man and doing what I could, I ran to someone who allowed me to be a boy with no responsibilities.”

He continued with his heart in his eyes, “I hated who I was with her, but I hated how I’d failed all of you more.”

“You’d never once failed me until then,” she whispered.

He nodded.“Not a single day has passed when I don’t grieve what I did to you.To us.”

“I hate her,” my mother hissed, anger replacing the blank look I’d grown accustomed to.

“You have every right,” he asserted.

“You don’t?”She challenged.

He shook his head slowly.“I feel nothing toward her.I hate myself.”

Bending, I kissed my mother on the cheek.“I love you, Mom.”

She sobbed, stroked my face, and whispered, “I’m sorry.”

“I know,” I replied quietly.

I straightened and held a chair out for my father.

He shuffled in and sat down.

“Dad,” I began.

He shook his head.“You have nothing to be sorry for, Son.I’m sorry for the choices I made.All of them.”He paused.“And though I was trying to protect the woman I love from further humiliation, I’m sorry for trying to keep you from the one you love.”

He shook his head.“I thought it was a crush.Had I known…”

I rested my hand on his shoulder waiting for his nod, his thin hand coming up to rest on mine momentarily.

This was the man I knew and loved.

I took in my mother’s tear-stained face.

“I’m sorry, Son,” she repeated.“If I’d known she was the one for you, I would have chosen differently.”

And there was the woman who put her children first.

Giving her a nod, I turned to the door.

I had my own amends to make.

31

I Loved Him

Jenny