Page 87 of Between the Boards
“Quiet,” he growls at me, pinning me with a glare.
Goosebumps run up my arm, and the memories of how angry he was with me when I chose surfing resurface. He spoke to me in the very same angry tone and told me to never come back.
My mother laughs, but it’s completely humourless, and I don’t know who’s scaring me more right now between the two of them.
“Imagine my surprise when I heard his own father disowned him for wanting to pursue surfing instead of working the ranch business.”
The room goes silent, the only sound coming from the steady tick of the vintage clock that hangs on the wall behind me. Both Cade and Cooper stare at my father in shock, their lips parted, while he just pins the table with his most menacing glare.
”You told us he was embarrassed of us,” Cooper murmurs. “You said he didn’t want anyone from his surf world to know he came from a family of ranchers.”
“What?” I breathe, my head snapping in my fathers direction. “Everyone knows I come from a family of ranchers. I’m not embarrassed by it.”
”Is that why you never called or visited?” Cade asks, looking at me now. “Because he disowned you?”
I nod. “He told me I wasn’t welcome back, and when none of you tried to contact me after I left I thought you guys felt the same way he did.”
My mothers sniffling interrupts us and we all look over, including my father, to see her completely red and blotchy as she dabs at the corners of her eyes.
“I don’t know what I did wrong to end up with a husband like you, Wyatt Harrison,” she says angrily, her voice shaking. “To go to such extreme lengths and lie to us all, costing me years of time with my own baby boy, all because you couldn’t stand the thought of one of your boys not working on the ranch.”
“Lainey—“
”No,” her firm voice cuts him off. “I don’t want to hear any of your excuses, Wyatt.”
She stands up, grabs her untouched plate, and walks it over to the kitchen before tossing it onto the counter.
“You best figure out how to fix what you broke because until then I’m not cookin’, cleanin’, or even talkin’ to you.”
She stomps out of the kitchen and up the stairs, and my father quickly abandons his half-eaten plate to rush after her, leaving me and my brothers sitting at the table alone.
Cade lets out a deep sigh before he stands, picking up our fathers plate and clearing it out before putting it in the sink. Then he walks over to our moms plate, wraps it in Saran Wrap, and places it in the fridge before grabbing three beer bottles and handing one to each of us.
“I think tonight calls for a drink or two,” he says before biting the cap off and taking a long sip.
Cooper and I do the same, before going back to eating our dinner. Ignoring the distant sound of our parents yelling at each other upstairs.
“I always thought it was weird that you’d be embarrassed coming from a family of ranchers,” Cooper says around a mouthful of food. “Like, why would any surfer care about what your family does?”
I scoff, because I vividly remember when the guys on The Rip Raiders found out I was the son of a rancher, they all started making farmer jokes about me. But my friends in Saltwater Springs never cared, if anything Griffin and Koa thought it was cool and always asked if they could come out here with me and visit one day.
I’d never worked up the nerve to tell them I’d been disowned though.
The only person I ever told about that was Kairi.
“I was never the type to care what anyone thought of me,” I mutter, taking another sip of beer.
Cade smirks. “Ain’t that the truth.”
I roll my eyes. “Anyway, have either of you heard from Callie recently?”
“It’s been a couple months,” Cade grunts. “She just started her first world tour.”
“But she promised to come visit us as soon as she’s back,” Cooper adds before scarfing down the rest of his food.
“Did dad tell her the same story about why I left?”
Cade nods. “He lied to all of us.”
