Read Online Lead Me Home by Stacy Hawkins Adams - Free Book Online Page B

holiday was huge. They must really want to see this house.
    “Randy and I were just discussing Thanksgiving plans and how Lem is trying to convince us to go to Alabama so he can see a girl he met during his summer camp,” Shiloh said. “He’s not going to go for changing the family gathering to Calero, but I think the rest of us would love to visit sunny Florida. Now, Randy may have the same issue as Daddy, as far as needing to return home to preach on the last Sunday of the month. Will that be okay?”
    “I haven’t forgotten that Randy is Daddy’s clone,” Dayna said.
    Dayna laughed, but Shiloh knew she wasn’t really joking. Shiloh wasn’t oblivious to the looks Dayna and their sister Jessica exchanged whenever Daddy and Randy were together; she knew they resented the relationship between the two men. Truthfully, she’d had her moments, too.
    From the time Randy had begun spending summers with their family at age sixteen, Daddy had unofficially adopted him, and Shiloh and her sisters had, each in her own way, felt pushed aside. Randy was the son of Daddy’s best friend and comrade from Vietnam; but in some ways, Randy’s bond with Daddy became stronger than the one he shared with his own father, and Daddy tended to seek out Randy over his daughters when he had some down time or needed a confidante other than Mama. Randy returned home to Buffalo, New York, at the end of that first summer with the Wilson family, but his heart remained in Atchity. It had merged with Daddy’s, and he visited as often as his father allowed—a few days during Christmas break, during spring break, and every summer thereafter.
    Shiloh would never admit to Dayna or Jessica that she sometimeswondered whether Daddy had encouraged Randy to marry her, to make him an official part of the family. Her husband’s genuine affection and caring always overshadowed that nagging fear. As she did whenever the fretful musing arose, she shook it off this morning, and forced herself to refocus on the conversation with Dayna.
    “Anyway,” Shiloh said wryly, in response to Dayna dubbing Randy their father’s clone. She turned into a grocery store parking lot so she could chat without distraction. “I’m going to ignore that comment and keep it moving this morning.”
    “I’m sorry,” Dayna said and chuckled. “But you need to get some swag about you, girl; that was your perfect chance to tease me about bringing ‘a brother from another mother’ named Warren into the family.”
    Shiloh laughed. “Since when did you, the corporate executive, begin using slang?”
    “When? Let’s see … soon after tying the knot two years, five weeks, and six days ago, and moving in with two rambunctious teens who consider themselves Drake’s biggest fans and who try to out-rap each other every chance they get.”
    Shiloh pictured Michael and Mason in action and doubled over with laughter. She was thankful she had taken time to park. An older woman had returned to the car next to Shiloh’s and peered at Shiloh with concern as she unloaded her groceries.
    Shiloh waved and pointed to her ear. But the woman looked even more confused. Shiloh realized she either didn’t see the Bluetooth device or didn’t know what it was. The woman placed the third bag in her trunk, slid behind the wheel, and sped away without looking back.
    Shiloh laughed harder.
    “I’ve got to go, Dayna. This is too much for me this morning. When I start teaching next week, I’ll ask my students to show me some swag.”
    “Bye, girl,” Dayna said. “And if you have to get them to ‘show’ you, don’t worry about it.”
    She hung up before Shiloh could respond, and Shiloh smiled. The formality between them seemed to be thawing a little more each time they talked. She could share a laugh with the sister who had kept her at arm’s length for nearly a decade. Shiloh hoped Randy would be open to spending Thanksgiving in Florida so the positive trajectory could continue. The more