Page 53 of The Same Flesh
It wasn’t easy, with Karli calling to offer her condolences as soon as he started handling emails—she had sounded like she was crying, just a little, on the phone, and the conversation had ended after she’d said a brief prayer and then told him,God has just plucked another wild rose, sweetheart, which in Tean’s opinion sounded a little too much like what Dolly Parton might have said.And he refused to let his brain think about alternate meanings forplucking a rose, which told him he’d been spending way too much time with Jem.
After Karli, Ed showed up in the doorway.He rapped on the frame, beamed a plastic smile, and said, “Hey, buddy.”
It was times like these that it was difficult to forget that Ed had made his fortune as a pest control salesman.
“We’re all so sorry,” Ed said.He produced a bouquet from behind his back like this was a middle school date.They were still in the plastic Smith’s bag, and they were dripping.“We’ve been thinking about you.”
“Thank you,” Tean said.“I’m fine, though.My grandfather and I weren’t close.”
“We just wanted you to know we’re thinking about you.”
“Yes, Ed.That’s very kind.Thank you.”
Ed nodded, still standing in the doorway, still dripping all over the floor.He looked around the room and fixated on one poster that showed an asteroid headed toward a dinosaur, and the wordsYou tried.Kind of.Eventually, he dragged his gaze back to Tean.“Well, we’re thinking about you.”
He wouldn’t go away until Tean took the flowers and shut the door.
Tean had barely started to dig into a report on drought conditions affecting bighorn sheep when another knock came at the door.He hunkered down in his seat, stared grimly at the screen, and thought invisible thoughts—
We’re thinking about you, buddy!
—when the door opened, and Hannah stepped into his office.
She was carrying a steaming mug.Her chestnut hair was a little longer than usual, curling around her ears, and to judge by the lines around her eyes, she hadn’t decided yet if she was going to smile.Tean had once heard Karli say something to her along the lines of,Even the old barn needs some paint once in a while sweetheart,but he thought Hannah actually looked better with the gray starting to show in her hair.She’d been through a lot of hard things in her life, but it had left the strength visible in her face.
“I see the Sympathy Squad has visited,” she said, with a glance at the flowers that Tean had put in an empty thermos.
He groaned.
“Did you know that’s officially the name?It was Karli’s idea.We’ve all got to take care of each other, she said.”
“She probably thinks we’ve all got to pluck each other’s roses, too,” Tean said under his breath, and thatdefinitelymeant he was spending too much time with Jem.
Hannah only laughed, though.She set the mug on the desk in front of him.“I wasn’t sure if you were drinking your sadness tea—”
“It’s not sadness tea.It’s nettle— Oh, is that chamomile?”
Itwaschamomile.And it was strong, the way Hannah knew he liked it.
“I’m fine,” Tean said after his first sip.“It’s very kind of you to bring me tea, but I basically had no relationship with my grandfather.I’m not sad.I don’t miss him.I’d like everyone to let me get back to work.”
Hannah raised her eyebrows.
He felt obligated to mutter, “Present company excepted.”
“Just because you’re not sad doesn’t mean you’re not grieving,” Hannah said.
“In this case, it does mean that, because I’m not grieving.”
Hannah only nodded.
“He was a homophobic, racist, bitter old man.Even when he was younger, he had zero patience for children.And he was a bully.Do you know how many times he took me hunting with him?He knew I didn’t want to hunt.He knew I didn’t want to kill anything.It didn’t matter.He dragged me out there and put a gun in my hands, and when I wouldn’t shoot, he called me every name you can think of and then came back and told my dad.And my dad—” He stopped himself from saying,And my dad only ever wanted to make my grandfather happy, which is whyheturned out to be such an asshole as well.Instead, though, he said, “And my dad is a mess for some reason.”
“I’m sorry, Tean.”Before Tean could explain—again—that he wasn’t grieving, Hannah added, “I mean that you have to deal with all of this.It sounds complicated and exhausting, and the family stuff must be super stressful.When my dad’s parents died, he and his siblings had a huge fight over the estate.Some of them still aren’t talking to each other.”
“That won’t be the case here.My grandfather didn’t have anything to fight over, and I don’t think my dad’s brother is going to be involved—although, to be fair, I’m a bit out of the loop.”
Hannah frowned.
