Read Online Sundown & Serena by Tara Fox Hall - Free Book Online

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guest room, they quickly left.
    I lay in bed for a while, wondering about
this odd turn of events, which were just as strange as the ones
that had prompted my return. How had my father gotten this woman? I
guess I’d find out in the morning.
    * * * *
    The next morning, there was no trace of them.
I found a message on the counter that they’d gone off to play some
tennis at the country club, and would be home after having drinks
there, and some lunch.
    I spent the afternoon by the pool, and then
ate some food and drank a bottle of wine. It was peaceful here. So
what if it wasn’t my home?
    I went to bed that night without seeing my
father, or Sheryl.
    The next day was the same. And the next. It
was always something, a luncheon they were invited to, or a play
they already had tickets for. Finally, on Friday, I managed to get
my father alone, while Sheryl was out running errands.
    “Dad, how did you meet her?” I asked.
    He grinned. “I was trucking near South of the
Border. And there she was, lost, looking for a small town in North
Carolina.”
    “And so she took you home with her?”
    “No! She took me to dinner, and we had a few
drinks—”
    So, they’d had sex.
    “— and the next morning, she’d said
she’d had a good time with me. Then she said she’d love it, if I’d
come and live with her. She said she had enough money to take care
of us in style. But she’d been divorced, and it was messy, and so
she’d prefer it to be casual with us. And I told her that scene
seemed like Heaven on Earth to me.” He paused. “But I told her this
town was home to me, always had been. So she said she’d live here,
and a few days later, she bought this house.”
    Weird . I nodded.
“That sounds amazing.”
    “So here I am!” he said triumphantly. “And
six months later, I’m still loving it!”
    “So you haven’t cheated on her?” I said
pointedly.
    My father lost his happy look, and his pissy
face came on. “No, I haven’t. She gives me whatever I want,
whenever I want. So what if she’s older than the women I usually
took to bed? I’m not young myself anymore.”
    Good for him. “I’m
just surprised.”
    “So am I,” my father said, looking happy
again. “I never thought my train would come in like this. And it
sure beats driving trucks. Your old man gets stiff now from sitting
behind the wheel more than an hour, Baby Girl, and it’s not the
good kind of—”
    Spare me your sexual
talk. “What’s the catch?”
    I expected my father to give me a sarcastic
line, or say something funny, which were his two usual responses.
But he just looked a little crafty.
    “The catch is that she’s got cancer,” he said
in a whisper, as if we would be overheard. “She’s got only a few
months to live. That’s where she really is now: at a doctor visit.
She says she feels weaker every day. When she goes, I’ll get it
all!”
    I wanted to vomit on him. “Do you care about
her?”
    “I like her,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll
miss her in bed. She really gets into it. But I’ll find someone
else quick enough, rich as I’m going to be. And Baby Girl, the next
one’s going to be in her early twenties.”
    I’d heard enough. “Dad, I have to get going
tomorrow.”
    “Sure,” he said, taking a swig of beer. “Come
back in a year or so, Sunny. We’ll have a blast, throw a huge
party! Your old man’s hit it big!”
    I gave him a hug, packed my bags, and hitched
a ride out of town the next morning. I felt bad for Sheryl, sure.
But she was old enough to know better, and I wasn’t her daughter.
And I trusted my father just far enough to be sure he wouldn’t
hurry her passing.
    * * * *
    I spent the next few months in Nevada,
working at a strip club outside the Las Vegas strip. I was able to
save enough money to afford a small apartment, and I spent a lot of
time there thinking about what I wanted, when I wasn’t working as
many shifts as I could.
    After some self-imposed solitary, I finally
decided on