Free SNOWFIRES by Caroline Clemmons Page B

his book. “Okay, turn about is fair
play. What was it like growing up in Highland Park, Texas?”
    The sharp edge to his voice didn’t cut as it
would have earlier. Knowing he’d been an abused foster child, her
life must seem perfect.
    “ It wasn’t all easy, Trent, in spite of
the vast difference when you compare my childhood to yours. My mom
was a wonderful woman, but she died when I was seven.”
    She paused, reaching for the mental image of
her mother. She wished she remembered more of her. “I’d always
idolized my father and for a few months after Mom died, Dad and I
were close. He called us the ‘winning team.’ Every evening Dad and
I played poker, watched TV, went to a movie or somewhere, until he
recovered enough to start going out with his friends again."
    Those were happy memories during a troubled
time in her life. She and her father plotted and planned all the
great things they would do together, the places they would see.
Until Geneva had seduced him, she thought, and reintroduced him to
his old excessive habits.
    “ When he and Geneva first married,
things weren’t too bad, especially if Dad was around. Soon Jenny
was born and Geneva made shutting me out a campaign. Then Angie
arrived and I became invisible. After that, Dad turned to me only
when his gambling troubles required my help juggling his precarious
finances.”
    “ Good thing you had your Grayson
grandparents.”
    “ Yes.” She remembered his childhood and
how bleak it must have been. “That’s more than you had.”
    He shrugged. “I survived.”
    She shook her head. “Surviving isn’t enough
for a child.”
    She ached for him and children like him. Yet
how could she make Trent comprehend the pain of the years she
watched her father debase himself, place his family in the midst of
complicated and disastrous schemes? She could try.
    “ How can I explain the despair of
seeing Dad spiral further and further into gambling and
self-destruction? It’s true I idolized him, but I know his
faults.”
    She sighed and her father’s face appeared in
her mind, laughing and cajoling. “Dad was a charmer who never
learned a glib tongue and bright smile weren’t enough to make up
for his shortcomings. Countless times he gambled away everything we
had. Then he made the same empty promises again and again and
again."
    Promises she desperately wanted to believe,
but that she knew were hollow. He always left her to straighten out
the mess of their finances.
    “ Gambling is as much a sickness as
alcoholism or drug addiction. He probably tried to fight it, but he
needed professional help.”
    His words salved her pride. Who would have
imagined this man would defend her father? “Instead, Geneva
encouraged his gambling. She liked the thrill and the trips to
Vegas with high rollers.”
    He nodded. “An enabler.”
    “ If you’re right about the addiction of
gambling, then I suppose I was an enabler as well because I always
rescued him one way or another. Until the end, when I couldn’t
without losing our home.”
    “ You can’t be blamed for wanting to
help your family.”
    His kind words gave her the courage to ask
the question that had deviled her. “Trent?”
    “ Yeah.” Candlelight made his eyes
sparkle like the emeralds they resembled.
    “ You remember you visited the day my
father had his heart attack but I wasn’t there.” She took a deep
breath and asked, “What did you say to him?”
    “ I knew it had always been a family
business so I came to make peace with him. Offered him a place in
the firm as Executive VP.” He shrugged. “He refused to listen, said
he’d never work for another man in his own firm. Called me some
pretty harsh things and ordered me out of the house.”
    He reached across the table to touch her
hand. “Sorry you lost him. I know it was rough for you.” As if
surprised he’d touched her, he drew back his hand. “Your father was
pretty mad when I left, but it surprised the hell out of me to
learn it