This is the fifteenth part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, Part XI, Part XII, Part XIII, and Part XIV before continuing.
The laughter helped ease the tension in the room, but I was still nervous around Mike.
I felt terrible about how I had let our relationship fall by the wayside, and it had clearly hurt him. How could I possibly make things right after such a fuckup?
It didn’t help that we were seated next to each other, making for awkward moments every time we bumped into each other or went to reach for the same thing at the same time.
At least it was easy to avoid eye contact.
Instead of focusing on the tension between me and my oldest friend, I turned my attention to asking Uncle Phil about the farm. In the year or so after my mom had died, I had made sure to check in with him regularly, but somehow that had fallen by the wayside, too.
I guess I had let a lot of important things in my life slip through my fingers when I had gotten together with Vincent.
It was tempting to blame him for taking even more things away from me, but I had to be honest and recognize that I had messed this up all on my own. And only I could make it right.
After dinner, Mike and Jen headed home to tend to their own animals while Uncle Phil went to finish getting his cattle settled in. I put away leftovers and washed dishes, then unpack.
I had always stayed in my mom’s old room when staying here over the summer, so I automatically headed there with the first load, only to find it had practically been hermetically sealed.
Everything was exactly where I had left it the last time I was here, which had been … how many years ago now? I knew it had been before COVID, but before that, I couldn’t be sure. Even though COVID had ended just a few years ago, it still felt like a lifetime.
People talk about the things we got used to during lockdown. I guess I hadn’t realized I had gotten used to not coming out here to see Uncle Phil. To talk with Mike. To just get away from it all.
Apparently Uncle Phil hadn’t been in here either because everything was coated in a thick layer of dust. Did the man never clean?
Fortunately, I knew he kept disposable particle respirators for when he was mowing the lawn or working with toxic chemicals. I even remembered where he kept them!
Masked and gloved, the first order of business was to open a window, throw the bedding in the laundry, and give a good scrub down to every visible surface.
By the time I got done with that and unpacking, Uncle Phile came home for supper. I was so grateful he was used to supper being a small, casual meal because I was too tired to do anything more than slap some meat on bread and shove it in my face.
The kitchen table was just a few feet from the living room, where the two recliners my grandparents had used still sat in front of the TV. I looked longingly at them, then at Uncle Phil. “Think we could eat in front of the TV tonight?”
“I thought you’d never ask,” he said, immediately picking up his plate and taking it into the living room.
“What are you watching these days,” I asked.
“Yellowstone.”
I gasped. “Me too! Is there a new season?”
“Yup. Just started,” he said as he pushed buttons on his TV remote and pulled it up for us.
To be continued…