She could almost imagine Pap’s laughter.
“I didn’t. I don’t feel anything anymore.” Sutton stared down at the wedding ring on her finger, her hand closing into a fist.
She stood, brushing the dirt from her jeans. Then she moved from room to room before coming to stand once again in the living room, where she mentally made a list of the supplies she would need to bring when she returned tomorrow.
Going to the door, she paused before opening it.
“Night, Pap. I’ll be back tomorrow if the sun’s shining and the creek doesn’t rise.” It was the same good-bye they had spoken a thousand times during her childhood when she came for her weekly visits.
Opening the door, she walked out then closed and locked it behind her before going to her car.
She had no doubt Tate was somewhere, watching. She was tempted to flip him off, but she didn’t want to antagonize him. The Porters were all mean when roused. Tate’s temper didn’t rise as fast as his two younger brothers, but that didn’t make it any less volatile.
Driving back to her hotel, she thought about how the town hadn’t grown any in the eighteen years she had been away. It had two new restaurants, the only change she could see. Sutton was tempted to go into the diner for a hamburger to see if they were still as good as she remembered yet decided not to. She wasn’t ready to see any of the people she knew. She still wanted time before her parents found out she was back in town.
She didn’t anticipate Tate telling them. Her parents couldn’t stand the Porters, and the feeling was mutual. She doubted they even talked unless they were standing in the courtroom and her father was sitting behind the bench, passing judgment on whichever Porter was unfortunate enough to have been arrested.
Her father, nicknamed ‘the judge’ by everyone in town, had been strict as she had grown up. Both her parents had doted on her, she was the only child. She had a childhood of being the center of her family’s attention, and enjoyed it until her senior year.
That year changed her life. She had been naïve and spoiled, believing she could have anything in life she wanted. She had been wrong, so wrong, because she couldn’t have the one thing she wanted most—Tate Porter.
They flirted most of her junior year. Tate had been a senior, but it was the summer she spent with Pap when they fell in love, or so she had believed.
Every day that summer, she sneaked out of Pap’s house to meet Tate in the woods. He would bring a blanket, and they would lie on the grass with the trees overhead and talk for hours. Pap knew what was going on, but he didn’t tell on her. Although, he would give her worried looks each time she came in the door when it was beginning to get dark.
“You know what you’re doing, girl?”
“I love him, Pap.”
He shook his grey head at her. “No good is going to come out of you seeing that boy. He’s trash.”
“Don’t say that!”
“Apple don’t fall far from the tree. His pa sells that pot of his to anyone who’ll buy it. He’s been in the pen.”
“That doesn’t mean Tate—”
“Yes, it does, and you know it. The boy’s just like his father.”
“No, he’s not. He wants to leave Treepoint with me. We’re going to college together.”
Pap snorted in disbelief. “He’ll never leave Treepoint. He graduated this year, has he made any plans for his future? Mark my words, that boy was born and bred in the mountains. It’s in his blood.”
“He’s waiting for me to graduate so we can go to college together.”
Sutton knew back then it would be useless to argue with Pap. She believed time would prove him wrong.
Her senior year started getting rocky when her parents found out she was seeing Tate. It placed a strain on their relationship, but Sutton thought they would grow to accept Tate. They never did.
Each weekend they went out, she argued with them before and after each date. When Tate’s parents died, she stood beside him at their funeral, holding his hand in one of hers and Rachel’s in the other. She loved Rachel, despite their age difference, like the little sister she had never had.
Tate became remote after their deaths, he became a full-time parent to his younger siblings.
He had taken a part-time job bagging groceries at the grocery store. They weren’t able to spend as much time together. She was so in love, grateful for what time they could have.
By the time prom was approaching, Sutton took Rachel with her to buy her prom dress. She wanted the perfect one. She and Tate hadn’t made love yet, and so they had her prom night planned out. Her girlfriend would tell her parents Sutton was spending the night with her, giving her and Tate the night to themselves. He had reserved them a room at the hotel in Jamestown so no one would see them entering the hotel in Treepoint.
Sutton was bursting with excitement when she returned home with her dress, anxious to show it to her mother. She knew as soon as she walked through the front door that something was wrong. Her parents were waiting for her with grim faces.
“I bought my dress … Do you want to see?”
“Sit down, Sutton. We need to talk,” her father ordered.
Sutton laid the dress across the back of the couch before circling around to sit down nervously. She had a terrible feeling she should run upstairs and lock herself into her room; instead, she waited anxiously to hear what her parents had to say.
“Is something wrong?”
Her father stared down at her as he said, “Tate was arrested this afternoon for selling drugs.”
Sutton paled, knowing how her father felt about drugs and the people who came before his bench who were charged with that crime.
“Drugs?”
“Pot,” her father answered shortly.
Sutton gave a breath of relief. “If there weren’t any other drugs, then that’s not so bad. He—”
Her parents’ expressions showed their shock at her response. Sutton turned bright red, aware of her parents’ attitude toward pot.
“I know I’ve raised you to be respectful of the law.”
“Daddy, everyone smokes it—”
“No everyone doesn’t” her father had angrily cut her off. “Be quiet, Sutton. I can see we’ve made a terrible mistake letting you see Tate. His father was in my courtroom several times, but I wanted to give Tate the benefit of the doubt. I was wrong. He’s going to follow in his father’s footsteps, and I have no intention of watching my daughter lead that kind of life. How do you think you can become a lawyer if you’re already looking the other way when laws aren’t obeyed?”
Sutton stared silently at her father. She had received a scholarship to the University of Kentucky where she had planned to pursue a law degree. After Tate’s parents’ deaths, however, she intended to go to a nearby community college until Tate’s brothers graduated, and could assume Rachel’s care. It would take several years longer, but she was in love with him, and he was worth waiting for so they could leave Treepoint together.
“You’re not to see him anymore.”
Sutton stood up. “I won’t do that. I love him! We’re going to be together, no matter what you say!” Sutton stormed around the couch, picking up her pale coral prom dress in the expensive garment bag then going to the staircase.
“Stay away from him, or I’ll make sure he loses custody of his brothers and sister.” Her father’s harsh order had her coming to a stop with her foot on the first step.
“You wouldn’t do that!” Sutton cried out.
“Watch me! Who do you think will be hearing his case when he’s brought to trial? Me. I can send him away, Sutton. I have the power to do it. If he’s sent away, his brothers and sister will be put in a foster home. Do you want that to happen?”
“You wouldn’t do that,” Sutton whispered, shocked at the vehemence in her father’s voice.
“I don’t want to, but I will if you don’t break it off with him.”
Sutton stared at her mother pleadingly. “Mom, I love him. Please…” Tears coursed down her cheeks as her heart broke into tiny pieces.
“It’s for the best, Sutton. Tate will hold you back from the future you deserve.”
“Tate’s going to want to know why I’m breaking up with him,” Sutton argued. “I’ll just wait until I’m eighteen. I can do what I want then.”
Her father shook his head. “Do you really think this will be the last time Tate gets caught? Next time, I won’t offer to save him. I’ll just send his ass off. I suggest you make damn sure he doesn’t come around you anymore. I know this hurts now, but you’ll get over him after a few months.”
“Please Daddy, don’t make me.” Sutton pled, trying to reason with her father, soon seeing it was useless.
“You’re wrong. I’ll never stop loving Tate. I’ll never forgive you for this. I’ll do what you want, but as soon as I graduate, I’m leaving, and I won’t be back.” With that, Sutton ran upstairs, slamming her bedroom door and locking it behind her, ignoring her father’s yell as she threw herself on her bed, crying helplessly.
Burying her face in a pillow, she cried until she had no tears left. Then she rolled over and stared sightlessly up at the ceiling, knowing what she was going to have to do. Tate loved her, so she was going to have to make him believe her feelings had changed. He would hate her for this, but he would stay out of jail and keep his family intact.