*
She winced at the look on his face. Perhaps she should have waited until they were on their own before she blurted it out. Noah didn’t need to hear what she had to say.
“I don’t understand.” He sat forward and grabbed her arm. “What are you talking about?”
“I shouldn’t have said anything, not yet anyway, but I’m honestly finding it hard to keep that part a secret from you.” She glanced over at Noah sitting in the branches with a handful of cherries in his hand.
“He’s busy and can’t hear us anyway. Tell me what you’re talking about, please.”
“Rake always resented you for the bond you had with your father. He wasn’t your father’s child and that always grated on him. That’s the reason he didn’t tell you he was going. He didn’t want to hurt you. Make you feel like you had to choose sides.”
Ethan jumped up, turned in a circle as he tried to find the words. “Not my father’s son? But—”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know either until recently. He overheard your folks talking years ago and figured out why Jeff was so hard on him. It all made sense.”
“No, that can’t be right. Dad was hard on both of us.” He stared at her helplessly.
“But he was always harder on Rake. We both know that.” She stood up and reached for him.
“That was because he wanted Rake to succeed. Rake was the one with the drive. I only played sports to keep fit and out of the house.”
Mari bit her lip, worrying the skin between her teeth. “Maybe, but it didn’t change the fact that Rake didn’t think he was Jeff’s child and he was too upset to talk to your parents about it. He thought either one of them would deny it anyway. That’s the reason he didn’t tell you he was going. He didn’t want you to feel guilty because you knew who your father was. He felt like an interloper, like he didn’t belong.”
“I don’t believe it.” He tugged his hand through his hair before he looked at her again. “So you’re you telling me that my mother had an affair after she and Dad were married?”
“I don’t know when. That’s something you’re going to have to ask her. I have no idea what happened between them. I’m only passing on the message as I promised. I’m sorry Ethan.” She ran her hand up and down his arm. “I think it’s best if we left now. You have lots to process and I want to get Noah to bed.”
“No.” He reached out a hand to her. “You can’t tell me something like that and then leave. Christ, that’s just…unbelievable.”
“I’m sorry. I probably shouldn’t have even told you that much. Not yet, anyway. I should’ve spoken to your father first but I know this was coming between us.”
“He knows Rake wasn’t his?”
“Apparently. But you need to talk to your father about it. I only know what Rake told me, not the whole story.” Mari walked down the steps over to the row of cherry trees. “Noah, let’s go. School tomorrow.”
She gathered their son and took him to the car. Before she put on her seat belt, Mari glanced at him. Ethan hadn’t moved. Obviously this wasn’t what he was expecting at all.
Chapter Seventeen
“Mom, why didn’t you tell me?” He’d tossed all night over approaching her and finally, at the crack of dawn, Ethan had decided he had to ask her.
She placed another box on the scales and added a handful of cherries before folding over the plastic liner and putting on the lid. Her cheeks were pink with embarrassment. “It wasn’t as simple as it sounds.” She let him take the box and put it on the pallet with the others ready for the cool room. “Can you imagine me coming to you as a young man, telling you about my sex life? No matter which way I looked at it, I sounded like a loose woman and I was more than a little embarrassed that I was so stupid to have been nothing more than a notch on some guy’s belt.”
“Were you?” It hurt to ask but he was desperate to clear the air and understand what Mari had told him.
“Maybe. I’m not proud of it but I won’t make excuses either.” She held her head up but the shame showed in her eyes. “I didn’t think Rake would have found out. We didn’t talk about it.”
“Well, it’s obvious he overheard you. Do you think Dad would’ve told him on purpose?”
She picked up a marker pen and tapped it on her order book, staring off into the orchard. “No. Jeff could be many things but I don’t see him mentioning it. We’d come to an understanding about what happened and it wasn’t anyone else’s business.”
“I hate that Rake thought he wasn’t part of this family because of that. He was my brother.”
“Yes, he was. Nothing can change that.”
“But it sounds like Dad did.” He wanted to get to the bottom of this if only to satisfy himself. It was too late for Rake but it could impact on Noah.
“Perhaps you should talk to him then. I put it out of my mind ages ago. It didn’t seem that important anymore. At least to your father and me it wasn’t.”
Ethan went in search of his father and found him greasing the hydraulic arms on the tractor. “Dad, got a minute?”
Jeff wiped his hands on a rag. “What’s up?”
“I was talking to Mari last night.” He ignored the sneer on his father’s face. “She told me one of the reasons Rake didn’t tell me he was leaving.”
“And what was that?” He turned away, fiddled with the grease gun.
“Rake had a message for me and she was the delivery person. Rake didn’t tell me he was leaving because he heard you talking about not being his
