Divine Phoenix(Divine Creek Ranch 10)(71)

Lily smiled to reassure him. “I never had a problem with Dirk. Granted, he never intervened with JT but he never hurt me either. I want to know why he came all this way.”

Clay nodded and went into the living room while she stepped into the kitchen and got the coffeemaker going. She could hear them in the other room as Dirk answered his basic questions and filled him in about what he did for a living.

She stepped into the living room and asked, “Dirk, did you eat supper? Are you hungry?”

Dirk shook his head. “I stopped at a drive-thru on the way here.”

She nodded and went back in the kitchen. Her heart rhythm galloped as she pondered all the different reasons he might’ve made the long drive from Durst to Divine.

When she joined them and handed Dirk and Clay their mugs of coffee, it was obvious by the tension in the room that the subject of Lily’s disastrous relationship with JT had already been broached.

Lily sipped from her mug as she looked over the rim at Dirk. He smiled when he sipped the coffee and said, “Lily, you always made a good pot of coffee.”

“Thanks.” Hoping to set him at ease, she admitted, “I’ve been in the kitchen, worrying over all the reasons you might’ve driven this far to see me.”

Dirk nodded and rubbed his hands on his jeans. He’d cleaned up before coming here, but she recognized the dirt and grease crusted permanently under his nails. The fact that he’d gone to the trouble to try to clean up a little meant something to her. “It’s about this whole situation, Lily. I thought there were some things you needed to know. I don’t know…”

Lily smiled at him and nodded for him to continue at his own pace.

“I don’t know if it’s against the rules for me to have contact with you, or if I could get in trouble with the lawyers, or you could for agreeing to see me. But, Lily, you need to know what’s goin’ on.” He leaned forward with the last few words, setting his mug on the coffee table.

His suddenly urgent tone made her heart pound. “What’s going on?”

Dirk groaned and ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand up in places. His eyes seemed a little red-rimmed. “I only just found the letter you wrote to me today. It must’ve gotten shoved back in the drawer somehow. For a while, I just thought that you’d gotten fed up and lit out of Durst. I was actually kinda mad because I felt like you’d abandoned him…and me. I realized after you’d gone, what all you did for us, for no pay and no appreciation either.” He stopped and let out a shaky sigh. “I’m getting this all screwed up, I’m sorry. I don’t know how much you know about what’s going on with your dad, but me and JT were in Gil’s Place a couple of nights ago. We were sitting in one of the booths and Les and some of his coffee buddies came in and sat in the booth next to ours.”

“Yeah?” Gil’s Place was the bar her father and his buddies had stopped at on occasion for years.

“Remember those booths have those high backs so unless you’re looking it’s possible to not see who is in the next booth when you sit down. Anyway, he was talking to his friends and we recognized his voice. I’m sorry, Lily, I didn’t know he had cancer, or if you ever told me, I didn’t remember.”

Lily shook her head. “I never said anything about it, Dirk.” Expressing sorrow over something like that in JT’s presence would have earned her more trouble than Dirk’s sympathy would’ve been worth.

“We both heard him tell his friends that when he kicks the bucket, you stand to inherit the money he and your mom saved over the years as well as being the beneficiary on his life insurance policy. He told his friend that you would be taken care of financially, probably for life if you were careful and invested. He felt bad for taking you away from Divine when you were little and even worse that you’d gotten tangled up with JT because of it. He blamed himself for how hard your life’s been. He said it was the least he could do for you. Lily, JT was listening to the whole conversation. He heard Les when his friend asked him how much you were getting.”

“Oh, crap,” Clay groaned. “And he answered him?”

Dirk nodded. “Yeah. Seventy-five thousand dollars plus a five hundred thousand dollar life insurance policy. I saw JT’s eyes when your dad said that. Les must’ve been drinking because he was talking a little louder than he probably meant to. His friend shushed him but…JT knows now. I got a bad feeling about this whole deal. When he got the divorce papers he threw them in a file drawer and they were still there the other day. I know he hasn’t been cooperating about that.”