“Okay.” Sawyer waited.
“They want to see you.”
“Now?” he asked with a shake of his head.
“Not exactly. It’s a little bit complicated,” she went on.
“They thought I wasn’t good enough for her,” Sawyer said. “Lloyd told me that much.”
“Right.” She nodded.
“What else did they do?” he asked.
“The Whites are a proud lot,” Lloyd said. “They fancy themselves a step above us regular folks. Wyatt’s a senator now, and Irene came from money to begin with. They lived here in Beaut while Wyatt was starting his political career so he could get support from some rich ranchers out here.”
“But a rancher without a whole lot of cash—” Sawyer said. “Like me—”
“You weren’t their plan for their daughter,” Olivia confirmed. “And Mia had always been a cooperative girl, doing whatever they asked of her. She was the perfect politician’s daughter—beautiful, smart and obedient.”
“Until I came along, I take it,” he said.
“Yes.” Olivia sighed. “Mia fell for you right away. She was smitten. And you encouraged her to be her own woman.”
“Not a bad thing,” Sawyer said.
“She was taking a year off before college, and they’d grudgingly gone along with that, but when you asked her to marry you, she gave up a placement at Yale.”
“So they were angry,” Sawyer said.
“Furious, more like,” Lloyd replied. “They told her to pack up and go to school. She’d earned that position at Yale—she was brilliant. You asked her to stay. She married you and told her parents that it was her life. There was an ugly fight, and they told her she was on her own until she decided to come to her senses and leave you.”
Sawyer stayed silent, his heart hammering in his chest. Even hearing about it secondhand was infuriating. He stabbed his spoon into his bowl a couple of times, then pushed it away.
“I take it they made good on that offer to leave us alone?” Sawyer said after a moment.
Olivia nodded. “I told you before that they didn’t know Mia was pregnant. And when she died in the delivery, they were upset and lashed out—”
“Yeah, you told me about that part,” he said curtly. “So why do they want to see me now?”
Silence descended around the table, and Olivia looked up at him apologetically. “They have granddaughters. It changes things. They realize that they were wrong to push Mia away...and you, of course...and they want to make things right.”
“How?” Sawyer demanded.
Olivia blinked. “I don’t know, exactly. But they told me they want to talk to you. Reconcile. Get to know Lizzie and Bella a little bit. If you’d let them. They’re wealthy people. I’m sure they could help out financially and—”
“I don’t need their money,” he said, trying to cap that rising worry inside of him. “I work—and I’ll work as much as I have to. Lloyd and I have done okay so far. Haven’t we?”
“We make ends meet,” Lloyd agreed. “And those girls are well loved.”
“It isn’t really about money,” Olivia said. “They’re family, Sawyer.”
So far, he hadn’t heard anything good about these people, and now Olivia wanted him to sit down and talk to them. Without his proper memory. Without knowing what he was dealing with. He felt at a complete disadvantage.
“Tell me something,” Sawyer said. “You said before that I was a good man. Were you telling me the truth?”
“Of course!” She leaned forward. “You always were.”
“Was I the kind of man who would keep my children away from their grandparents for spite?” He hesitated, because he cared about this answer. It would tell him something he needed to know about himself. “You’ve said I was angry. Was I mean like that, too?”
Olivia shook her head. “No. You aren’t a mean man. You never were. And when you were angry about stuff, you dealt with it on your own and never took it out on other people.”
“Lloyd?” Sawyer asked.
“I agree with Olivia,” his uncle replied.
“So I wasn’t a petty man who would hold my children from their grandparents because of a personal grudge,” he said. “But I might have had other reasons to stand back, reasons I didn’t tell you about.”
Olivia was silent.
“Did they try to contact me after the funeral?” he asked, turning to his uncle.
“A couple of times,” Lloyd replied. “You didn’t want to sit down with them.”
“I was too angry?” Sawyer asked.
“You were mad,” Lloyd confirmed. “But it was more than that. You didn’t trust them. You felt uncomfortable. You got a bad feeling.”
What did his gut tell him now? He wasn’t sure. He said a silent prayer for guidance, but no answer seemed to come. He looked over at his daughters, their hands in their oatmeal bowls, and he wondered what was best for them. He was at a complete disadvantage here. If he’d had a lengthy fight with these people, that wasn’t good for his girls. But he’d had a gut instinct back then that had warned him off.
“What would you do?” he asked Lloyd.
“I don’t know...” Lloyd shrugged helplessly.
“And you say that they just want to make up?” Sawyer asked Olivia.
“Yes! That’s what they’re telling me. And I’ve known them a long time. They can be frustrating, but they loved their daughter. They care about their granddaughters without even knowing them. It’s possible to make mistakes and learn from them. People do grow.”
Lloyd had just said the same thing this morning, but this seemed a little sudden. If he’d ever heard something good about the Whites, it might be different, but so far, he hadn’t. Was he just clinging to past mistakes now, or was he being smart? He had no idea.
Lord, forgive me if I’m wrong.
“I don’t want to see them,” Sawyer said slowly. “Not yet. I know there’s some virtue in forgetting your past mistakes—and even the mistakes of others—but there’s some danger there, too. I’m not saying I’ll never talk to them. I’m just saying...not yet.”
And he felt better with that answer. He wasn’t ready. He didn’t remember enough, and
