Page 168 of Hello, Summer
Rowena sailed past Conley’s desk, slowing only to glare at her before exiting the building.
“What’s up with Rowena?” Conley asked, sitting in the doorway of Grayson’s office. “She shot me some major stink eye out there.”
“She came in mad at me because she finally figured out you’ve been rewriting her column so that it’s actually lucid, and then I went and pissed her off even more when I told her no more dictating to Lillian or handing in typewritten columns. I told her she either learns how to use a computer or she hits the bricks.”
“Dayyyyumm, Gray. All of a sudden, you’re a hard-core badass.”
“Not badass. Just fed up. How did the television shoot go?”
Conley sat on the chair across from the desk. “Okay. But it was weird to be talking about myself on camera.”
“I guess you’d better get used to it,” Grayson said gloomily. “Michael says he’s sure they offered you a job.”
“Michael needs to learn to be a little more discreet with his eavesdropping,” Conley said.
“They did offer you a job, didn’t they?”
“Yeah.”
Grayson shrugged. “Congratulations, I guess.”
“I told her I’d think about it,” Conley said.
“And?”
“After they finished the shoot out front, I walked all over the house. I sat in my old bedroom and picked out a few of my favorite books. And then I walked down the hall to Dad’s room and went inside.”
Grayson looked puzzled. “There’s no furniture or books in there. G’mama cleared it out years ago.”
“I know. There are some old files from the bank, and I guess some of Pops’s files.”
“Are you upset? That we’re probably going to have to demolish the house?”
Conley shook her head. “No. I hadn’t been in Dad’s room since the night he died.”
“Ohhhh.” Gray sighed the word. “I forgot. You found him, right?”
“Yeah.” She looked down at her hands and then back up at her sister. “The thing is, Gray, I never told you. G’mama knew, of course, but I never told anybody, until Skelly. And I didn’t really tell him. He mostly guessed.”
“Told me what?”
“It wasn’t a heart attack, Gray. Dad… killed himself. He took an overdose of pills.”
Grayson nodded. “That makes sense.”
“That’s it?” Conley exclaimed. “You’re not shocked or appalled or, I don’t know, horrified?”
“No. Maybe I should be, but I’m not. It was selfish of me, but at the time, I was maybe a little relieved.”
“Jesus, Gray!”
“He’d been so sad, so lonely, for so long. You were closer to Dad than I was. You were always his baby. By the time he died, Tony and I were just starting our life together, and you were at a new job. I secretly always wondered if maybe he’d finally given up on waiting for Mom to come home, but I guess I really didn’t want to know the truth.”
“And I wished I didn’t know it,” Conley admitted.
“That’s why you hardly ever came home, right?” Gray asked.
Conley nodded. “I’ve dreaded it,” she whispered. “Being in that house, just down the hall from where I found him. And then this stuff with Symmes Robinette happened. I had to go back to that same damn funeral home and even the same church. I swear, Gray, sitting in that pew Saturday, I thought I was going to hyperventilate. Even Michael noticed I was acting weird.”
