Summer's Indiscretion(Divine Creek Ranch 7)(51)

Oh no.

“My dad was home, and he talked her into staying. He was sober, and he vowed that he’d changed. She came back for us that afternoon, looking so happy, swearing Dad was a new man. The girls were younger and had no choice, but I refused to go with her. Ace’s mom assured her that I was no trouble at all and that she was welcome to leave me with them for as long as necessary. I think Arlene—Mrs. Webster—wished she could’ve stopped my mom from taking the girls home, but it wasn’t her call to make. They left and that was the last time I saw my mom or my sisters.”

Summer’s heart froze in her chest. “What happened to them?”

Kemp sighed deeply and settled back in the seat. “I wasn’t sure for a long time, but we did some checking into it a few years later and were able to piece things together. We talked to some of Dad’s friends, a counselor he saw, and our pastor. He was sober and getting clean when Mom went back to the house that day. His friends remembered talking to him and said they were convinced that he was going to change his life and be a good father and husband. Waking up on the kitchen floor after I knocked him out and realizing we were gone must have been a turning point for him. He took my mom and sisters out to eat that night, and on the way home they were involved in a head-on collision with a drunk driver.”

She remembered him saying he didn’t have any family left. “They were all…” She couldn’t finish the sentence.

“They all died in the accident.”

“Oh, Kemp. I’m so sorry.”

Kemp was quiet for a minute, and then said, “I found it ironic that it was a drunk driver that killed them. Ace’s family petitioned the state to become my foster parents, since my parents didn’t have any siblings and my grandparents had passed on years before. Thank God the state allowed it and they raised me to adulthood. Ace and I have been best friends since we were kids, and his family treated me like one of their own.”

“Did you miss them?”

“Very much. I was devastated, and it was worse because we didn’t know all the details. When I found out later that my dad had really cleaned up his act, it allowed me the chance to forgive him. I sometimes wonder how things might’ve turned out.”

“You and Ace are brothers, aren’t you?”

This time the smile on his handsome, craggy face reached his eyes. “Yeah. We decided when we were kids that we would be private investigators and help people to feel safe. That dream morphed over the years into what we do today.”

“I’m sorry about your family. What were their names?”

“My mom was Victoria. My sisters were Veronica, Lucy, and Lizzie.” He spoke Lizzie’s name on a broken whisper, and Summer knew he’d been especially close with her. “They’re all buried in the Woodlands Cemetery in San Angelo. My dad’s name was Jerome.”

“I wish things had turned out different.”

“Me, too. I wish my dad could have known some victory. I don’t condone the way he acted, but I did finally forgive him. Our pastor told me Dad was talking with both him and a counselor and trying to work out his issues. Everything might have turned out okay.”

“I’m so grateful that you had Ace and his family.”

Kemp nodded stoically. “If not for them I would’ve wound up in the system. Given my history and issues, I’m not sure how I would’ve turned out.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning I enjoyed whaling on my dad that day. I enjoyed it too much. If the Websters hadn’t gotten me some counseling of my own, I might have become just like my dad eventually.”

“Oh.” Summer knew there was a tendency for abusive patterns in families to be handed down. It made her wonder about her own parents at times.

Kemp stroked her thigh gently as he clasped her fingers and said, “Summer, I don’t want for you to ever worry about being with me. I’m nothing like my dad. I promise.”

Briefly, Summer gazed at this gentle giant and replied, “Kemp, that never entered my mind. But if it makes you feel better, I come from a long line of really bitchy women, and I’m going to do my best to not repeat their mistakes, either.”

“You? You’re all sweet, innocent, and angelic,” Kemp said with a deep chuckle.

“Not if you ask my parents. If you ask them about me, they will have a vastly different opinion to share with you.”

“Everyone is entitled to make mistakes.”

“Not according to my folks,” she said as she slowed to follow Ace’s indecently wide Hummer through a turn onto a long driveway that led uphill. “I’ll tell you all about them sometime.”