Free Dead Giveaway by Brenda Novak Page B

we gonna do if we can't pay the water?" and
    "You've got children to take care of now, Lucas. How's Clay gonna learn to be a man if you don't stick around and teach him?" His father always said, "It has nothin' to do with drinkin', Irene. I'm still a young man. I've got a lot of life to live, a lot of places to see. And I can't do that strapped down to a wife and three kids."

    Clay had initially sympathized with his father. It was his mother who was wrong, who tried to tell his daddy that he couldn't have any fun. She was the reason he didn't stick around like he used to. Then Lucas abandoned them altogether, and Clay was forced to grow up almost overnight.
    As he worked for the local feed store, making less than half of what he would've been paid as an adult, Clay had realized which parent really loved him.

    Occasionally, he still felt guilty for the way he'd blamed his mother during those years. But, as a child, he'd found it was difficult to fault the parent who was always smiling and saying, "I'm just funnin', Irene, don't get yourself in a state."

    "There's no reason to worry," he told his mother. "I don't want anything to do with him."

    "It's his fault, you know. We'd still be living in Booneville if it wasn't for him."

    "I know," Clay said. When his father walked out, he'd left Irene so destitute she'd almost lost her children. Without an education, she couldn't make enough to feed them. Clay remembered eating nothing but oatmeal for one entire summer. So when Reverend Barker had asked Irene to marry him, she'd agreed mostly out of desperation. They all knew that. Clay suspected even Barker understood. How else could he have gotten a woman so much younger and so much more attractive than he was?

    At least Irene had gone into the relationship determined to be a good wife, to make the best of what she considered a second chance. Clay remembered her treating Reverend Barker's daughter, Madeline, the same as Grace and Molly, remembered her pulling him aside to say that the reverend might not be a handsome scoundrel, or make them laugh, but he had his priorities straight. He was a man of God, and they were finally going to be a complete and happy family.

    Little did she know life would only get worse from then on....

    "Talk to Allie, convince her to stop what she's doing," Irene said.

    Clay blew out a long breath. "Why? Let her do what she wants and ignore it. If you react, she'll know she's struck a nerve and she'll keep after it."
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    Brenda Novak

    "But she has struck a nerve! You need to explain how it was for us after Lucas left. Tell her not to bother with him."

    "Mom, you're not making any sense. If Dad hasn't looked back before now, what makes you think he's going to? And even if he does, I've just told you it won't make any difference to me.
    I'm sure Grace and Molly feel the same. You have nothing to lose."

    She clasped her hands tightly. "That's not true," she said, her gaze intense.

    Clay narrowed his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

    "He called me once," she admitted.

    "When?"

    "Not long after Lee died."

    "How'd he find you?"

    "Everyone in Booneville, including his own cousin, knows I married a reverend and moved to Stillwater. I'm sure it wasn't hard."

    Clay jammed a hand through his hair. "Okay, he called once. Why is that so significant?"

    "I was at my lowest, Clay. I--I was inches away from a nervous breakdown. Grace was...you know what Grace was like after what that bastard did to her. She'd walled herself off from both of us. And Molly was just a little girl, confused but mostly oblivious. You were all I had, and you were only sixteen."

    Adrenaline began to pound through Clay's veins. "Tell me you didn't," he said.

    "Clay, I needed him. I--I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was so desperate that I pleaded with him to come back."

    His chest constricted. "How much did you tell him?"

    "All of it," she said. "I had to talk to someone, let the pain out. My head was going to explode if I