22. Mae: The Worst Possible Visitor

Mae – The Worst Possible Visitor

Chapter twenty-two

When I come out of the barn, I see that there is actually a break in the rain, and Coral is outside and trying to start her car.

"Need a jump?" I ask.

"That would be great. Thank you. I don't know what happened."

"I had a car back in the day that always died when it rained."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it was something about the moisture that drained all of the power. Just give me one second. I'll pull my vehicle over here."

"Thanks again."

I square my hood so that it is as close to hers as possible, and then I attach the cables like Grandpa Bob taught me when I first started driving.

"Okay, give it a try!"

She does, and the engine revs loudly.

"Great!"

"Now let's just hope the rain holds off long enough for me to finally get back to the city."

"I hope so. I'm sure you miss your family."

"Oh, I do. It's killing me to be away from them."

"Well, drive safe."

"I will. Thanks."

She then reverses down the driveway and waves before driving off.

"Was that—was that Coral?" Dean asks, from the direction of my home.

"Yes. She's hoping to make it home while the rain is light."

"Got it."

"What were you doing in there?" I ask.

He looks back before answering. "I just needed to have a talk with your grandfather."

"About buying our farm?"

He takes his right hand, rubs near his bottom lip, and glares at the ground. And when he looks back up at me, his gray eyes make my heart pound. But I try to keep up the illusion that I am nothing but angry at him.

"Yeah. But I'm starting to change my mind about all of that."

"What? Why?"

"Out of respect."

"What does that mean?"

"Your grandpa wants to live out the rest of his life here. I can't take that away from him."

"Seriously? That's all it took for you to back down?"

"Well, that. And you."

"Me?"

"Yes, Mae. I know what you said before—about not meaning it when you said you had feelings for me. But I do. Have feelings for you, I mean."

My chest feels like it's sinking into my stomach.

"Okay."

He then comes closer and takes my hand. "Is there anything you want to say to me?"

"Um…" My eyes are darting, and I'm swaying in discomfort.

"Mae." He takes my chin to settle my vision on him.

"Fine! Yes, I feel the same. But—"

"But what?"

"You wanted the farm. You were sneaky and untruthful."

He sighs and rubs the backs of my hands with his thumbs. "I know. And I'm sorry. You know all about what Anna did, and after that, all I wanted to focus on in my life was money. Well, and Dylan, of course. But money really took a front seat."

"And now?"

"Well, I'm starting to see that there are more important things in life."

"Like?"

He leans close to me, and I'm dizzy with anticipation as he kisses me, softly at first then deepening to a level that has my knees weakening. I close my eyes and sink into his arms, desperately enjoying his warmth, when suddenly he pulls away. It was almost fast enough for me to get whiplash. As I'm reconciling the abrupt change, he holds my shoulders and excitedly asks he if can show me something. I'm not sure what he wants me to see but I follow him.

We walk together, hands clasped, to his house. That, alone, makes me dizzy with anticipation.

Once inside, he leads me over to a closet by his living room.

"Close your eyes."

"Okay."

Then, he pulls out the most gorgeous painting.

"Oh my!"

"It's part of your land."

"It is! It's near the beehives. Dean, it's absolutely beautiful."

"It's for you," he says, while putting it into my arms.

"What? No, I can't possibly accept this."

"But I made it with you in mind. At first, it was going to serve as some kind of consolation prize after I bought the place from underneath you, but not anymore. You don't have to hang it in your house or anything."

I'm still marveling at the gorgeous piece of art, but something suddenly hits me.

"Wait. So, what are you going to do with your property? Sell it off to someone else?"

"Dad!" Dylan yells from the hallway and interrupts us.

"What's up, bud?"

"I ran out of room in my sketch pad."

"Do you want to chance a drive over to the craft store, Dyl?"

"Can we?"

"Sure. The rain's letting up and the road water is running off pretty quickly. Do you want to come with?" he asks me.

"Uh, yeah. Why not?"

"Okay, let's hurry. We don't want to get caught in another downpour."

I actually have really fond memories of him at that very store. It was one of the first places we ever bonded.

"Wait? How is your blanket coming along? I completely forgot about that," Dean asks, as we drive.

"Oh…it's coming along, but actually my focus has mainly been the animals and keeping up the property. Well, that and finding a way to earn an income."

"How is that coming along?"

I'm twiddling my fingers. "Not great."

"What about the honey business?"

"Turns out that that market is a little saturated around here. When I called to see if I could set up a booth at the farmer's market, I was told that there were already three other vendors selling just honey."

"Ugh. I'm sorry. Mae, have you ever considered establishing your own law firm?" Wow, where did that come from?

"Actually, I've given that a little thought, but what would I practice? Where would I work?"

"Right here. You could practice environmental law or something and represent the family farms when larger conglomerates try to come in and change something about their process.…"

"Like someone wanting to buy their land and turn it into condominiums?" I smirk.

He just smiles at me. "Yeah, kinda like that."

"It isn't a bad idea. But I'm not sure if I could do that, Dean."

"Why not?"

"Well, running your own business probably requires a lot of confidence, empowerment, and all of that?"

"Mae Dale, if there are two words I would use to describe you, I'd say they were confident and empowered."

I'm genuinely surprised because I don't see myself that way at all.

"Do you know how much of a feat it is to have me change my mind and turn down a huge chunk of cash?"

"Wait, Dad?" Dylan chimes in from the back seat, taking his massive headphones off.

"Yeah, Dyl?"

"You aren't going to build Cornel Condominiums anymore?"

He looks in the rearview mirror. "No, we still will. Just not here."

"So, we can stay?"

"Do you want to?" Dean seems genuinely shocked by his teen's response.

"Yeah. I've gotten accustomed to the place."

"I thought you hated it outside of the city?"

"Well, I did. But that was before we were stuck here, and I learned to appreciate the quiet. There are no sirens or buses. When you put your mind to doing something, you have the time and the focus too. How else do you think I burned through all of these pages?" He fanned out his drawings.

"May I see those?" I ask.

When he hands them up to me and I flip through them, it isn't a shock when I see several depictions of a girl with long, dark hair and a blue butterfly necklace. When Mina eventually sees these, she'll be so impressed…. And embarrassed, like any teenage girl, of course.

"These are really nice, Dylan. You're so talented. Who is this?" I ask, after seeing another woman he'd drawn but didn't recognize as easily as my daughter.

"That's his mother," Dean answers, after glancing at it.

"Oh, wow." I look at her sandy blonde hair, blue eyes, and infectious smile. "She's beautiful." From the image, I can tell that she and Dylan have similar button noses that were kind of tapped onto their faces.

"What picture did you use?" Dean asks.

"I didn't. That's just from memory."

"Seriously? That's really impressive, Dyl. I'm not even sure I could draw myself without some kind of external reference."

The rain picks up a little bit, but it's still manageable by the time we get to the store.

"Okay. Go nuts, kid," Dean says. Dylan responds by barreling toward the drawing section.

"Did that upset you?" I ask, as we roam various aisles.

"What?"

"That drawing of Anna."

"Oh, uh. No, not really. He has every right to do whatever he wants with her likeness."

"I know. I just wanted to check in on you. I know the two of you don't see her much. So, I wasn't sure if even an artistic rendering of her could be a shock to your system."

"Nah."

I go to reach for his hand, but he pulls away. What the…? I could understand that maybe he didn't want to risk his son seeing us, but it still is a bit hurtful. But I don't bring anything up, and stay in the shadow while Dylan presents his findings. Dean pays for them, and we hop back into the car.

Unfortunately, we soon find out that the clouds aren't the only things making the world darken around us.

"Anna?" Dean says, seeing her sitting on the porch of the farmhouse as we pull up.

"Mom!" Dylan bursts out of the car and hugs her.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was getting a connecting flight in San Fran, but the storms delayed everything. So, with nowhere else to go, I came here."

"How did you even know the address?"

"Dylan gave it to me in a letter."

Dean shoots a look at his son.

This seems like a private family matter, so I slowly sneak away.