Awakened

Forty-One

We are met with the smiling faces of the Dalton family, well, all except for Beau. He isn't out here yet. Cynthia and Frederick greet my parents warmly, and move to introduce them to Thomas and Abigail.

"This is our littlest, Abigail." Cynthia says, placing her palm on top of the small girl's head.

"And this is Thomas, our son." Frederick adds, throwing an arm around his son's shoulder.

Thomas smiles, and my mother reaches out her hand. "Well aren't you handsome! Our Katherine was just telling us all about you."

Well shit.

"Actually mom-" I begin to interrupt, and as if on cue Beau walks out the door and straight towards me.

"Mr. and Mrs. Wilder, nice to finally meet you. Kat speaks of you highly." He reaches out to shake my father's hand, and my mother looks like she's just seen a ghost. "I'm Beau."

"This is who I was telling you about." I say, nudging my mother. That look of realization I'd been waiting on hits.

Beau is wearing jeans and a white t-shirt that does little to hide the ink covering his skin. His looming frame towers over my mother, and I swear she gulps before finally taking his hand.

"Oh, I apologize. I just assumed-" She begins, "Never mind, it's nice to meet you."

Of course she assumed Thomas would be the one I was with. That would be the obvious conclusion.

Her eyes meet mine, and a look that can only be described as pure confusion is evident. When Beau's hand lands on the small of my back she looks away.

Well, at least the hard part is over.

Frederick manages to produce some of the best steaks I've ever tasted, and before long my mother has downed several glasses of wine with Shelly and Cynthia. This night has turned out much better than what I could have imagined.

That is, until I learned something else about Frederick Dalton.

As it turns out, when he drinks it seems his animosity towards his eldest son reaches new heights.

It started as a smart remark here and there. No one else noticed at first, but I could sense the anger building within Beau. After a few more beers, those smart remarks turned to full-blown aggression.

"So, Beau. What do you do? Are you in school?" My father asked.

The joy I felt when I saw my father genuinely trying to get to know the man I cared so deeply for was quickly overshadowed by the words of Mr. Dalton.

"In school? Sure, son. Go ahead and tell them all about how you pissed away thousands of dollars in tuition to run off on your little boat." Frederick scoffed.

I saw Beau's jaw clench, and knew this was headed in a bad direction very quickly.

"Oh, our son is quite the adventurer." Cynthia remarks proudly, trying to steer the conversation to safety.

The air was shifting. Where only moments before it had been lighthearted and fun, it was now getting increasingly uncomfortable for everyone.

"Adventurer? You give the boy too much credit." Frederick laughed, but there was no real humor there. Instead his words were laced with bad intention. "Now that his obligatory summer with the family is over I'm sure he will be racing off again, not to be seen for another year."

My blood turned cold.

"That's enough." Beau said in a low voice.

"Darling, not now? Please." Cynthia pleaded. The look in her eyes made my heart ache for this woman.