“Over my dead body.” His mom stood by the kitchen door and glared at their father.
Rena and Tracey were standing by his mom with wide eyes and dropped jaws.
Janice pointed what looked like a potato peeler at Mike. “Michael Gardner, you sit back down. You and Karen aren’t going anywhere.” She swung the peeler at her husband. “Sawyer, a word, please!” She exited the room by route of the stairs and expected their dad to follow.
Zach couldn’t remember the last time his mother forced his father from the room to talk. Had to be when he and Mike were kids.
Sawyer grumbled and followed Janice up the stairs.
Everyone in the room turned to Karen.
“You have some serious balls, Karen,” Rena said.
Mike started to laugh. The sound became infectious, and eventually Joe followed and Zach found a smile on his face, too.
Karen shrugged. “What? He doesn’t intimidate me. I’m the daughter-in-law; someone’s bound to hate me.”
“You could make him shit bricks, maybe, but not hate you.”
“Mike’s right.” Zach patted his brother on the back. “Damn it’s good to have you back.”
Mike picked up his beer. “Well, if you don’t see me again for ten years, you’ll know why.”
“Don’t say that.” Rena waved her finger in Mike’s general direction. “He’s not the only person here who missed you. Dad just doesn’t know how to tell you.”
Zach noticed Mike and Karen exchange glances. Both of them seemed reserved, making him question what Mike had told her to expect.
“Does Dad still keep the whiskey locked up?” Mike asked.
Karen tossed her tired limbs on the double bed and dropped her arm over her eyes. “That was painful.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Sawyer Gardner had perfected the silent treatment and used it most of the night. He eyed her at every turn and challenged Michael as if they were bitter enemies on a field of battle.
“I now know why you left. Was he always so…mean?”
Michael shook his head. “Seems he reserves that side of ugly for me. And only since I moved away.”
Karen removed her arm from her eyes and watched him walk around the small room as he pulled his shirt from his pants and unbuttoned it. “I think Rena said it perfectly. He doesn’t know how to tell you what he’s feeling.”
“He told me exactly how he feels. He doesn’t respect my work, thinks us getting married the way we did is a joke, isn’t happy we didn’t visit sooner.” He sat on the edge of the bed and kicked off his shoes.
“You know what I think it is?”
“What?”
“I think he’s pissed you don’t live in Hilton and that you’re not working hard to please him.” Yet something told Karen that Michael was actually trying to please his father or at least earn his respect by being successful in his chosen field of work. What would it take for Sawyer to be proud of his son for what and who he was?
“I don’t miss him. I missed everyone else. Hannah’s practically a woman and I missed most of her growing up.”
Karen sat up and laid a hand on his back. “No one realistically expects their children to stay close to home their whole life. Don’t kick yourself.”
He stood, grabbed his suitcase, and placed it on the one chair in the room before opening it. “I’d just like it to get easier with him.”
“You told me it would take a couple of days for him to warm up.”
“I don’t remember him being this cold.”
The last thing Karen wanted was for Michael’s relationship with his family to grow worse because of their visit. “If he doesn’t thaw in a couple days, we’ll make our excuses and leave.”
He grabbed his toothbrush and pointed at her. “Deal.”
“What time is Zach coming by in the morning?” Zach wanted to show Michael the latest build he was working on in the neighboring town. In truth, Karen thought Zach wanted to get Michael out of the house early so he didn’t have to butt heads with their father again.
“Seven thirty.”
She rolled off her side of the bed and mimicked Michael in the search for her overnight bag and pajamas. “Wake me when you get in the shower. I think I’ll take advantage of the country air and run in the mornings. Might help ease the stress of the day.”
He glanced at the small bed they’d be sharing. “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about me waking you. That’s the same mattress I slept in when I lived here.”
Karen gave the bed a push with the palms of her hands. There wasn’t a firm spring left, guaranteeing they’d feel each and every movement the other made all night.
It was going to be a very long ten days if Sawyer did actually thaw.
Sleeping beside Michael was much like sleeping beside a girlfriend at a teenage slumber party. Karen held no shame in tugging the covers back over her when he rolled over with them clutched in his hands, or pushing on his shoulder to tell him his quiet snores were waking her up.
Karen gave up on sleep just after six thirty and slid from the room to dress in a casual pair of running shorts and slim-fitting top in the communal bathroom. After brushing her teeth and pulling her hair into a sloppy ponytail, she exited the bathroom and found Judy waiting outside the bathroom door.
“G’morning,” Karen said with a shy smile. When was the last time she’d had someone at home waiting to use the bathroom? She couldn’t remember.
Judy gave her a quick once-over. “Going for a jog?”
Karen nodded. “Thought I’d take advantage of the fresh air.”
Judy’s plump lips, which were a slight departure from the other members of the Gardner clan, crept into a smile. She had pale brown eyes, which stood in an exotic contrast to her dark hair. Karen was reminded again that the entire family was really beautiful.
“Mind if I join you?” she asked.
“You’re a runner?”
“Not sure if you can say what I’m doing is running. I’m just trying to keep my butt from taking on any more than it did my freshman year.”
“Aren’t you going into your senior year?” Karen would swear that Michael had told her that Judy had just turned twenty-two. Or maybe Zach had told her that.
“I am. But the freshmen fifteen have to be removed every summer.”
She remembered those days, where school, studying, and the ability to drink beer legally for the first time kept on those extra pounds.