Country Mile

SO CONVINCING

Delilah grabbed some sprites from the fridge. She slid one across the table to Genna while her eyes remained locked on her father.

He had pulled out his phone again and was reading something. That goofy smile slid right back into place.

"What are you readin' that's so funny?" Delilah asked.

Adam didn't respond; instead his thumbs pecked feverishly at the screen.

"Dad.." Delilah's hand found her hip as she grew annoyed. "DADDY."

"Huh? What is it, baby?" Adam inquired, yet his eyes never left his phone.

Delilah looked at Genna with an expression the brunette couldn't quite put a name to. It was somewhere between disbelief and aggravation.

"Who are you textin'?" Delilah asked outright. Not even attempting to hide the irritation in her voice.

Adam looked up upon hearing it. "Just a friend." He placed the phone in his back pocket again. "So, how was your day?"

"You already asked us that," Delilah snippily reminded.

"Right. Well, what do y'all want for dinner?"

"Can we order pizza?" Genna chimed in.

Adam smiled at her. "Pizza sounds like a great idea. I'm gonna head out to the barn; got a shipment of hay comin' in about 20 minutes. You girls decide what kinda pizzas you want and I'll order it when I'm finished out there."

"Ok, thanks, Dad."

Genna watched him depart. When she turned her eyes to Delilah, the blonde was visibly upset.

"Are you alright?"

"No, I ain't alright! You know as well as I do that his "friend" is a woman!" Delilah's soured face and exaggerated use of air quotations mirrored the disgust in her voice.

"Oookay? So?"

"So, that ain't something I'm okay with!"

Genna rolled her eyes and grinned. "You've gotta be shitting me."

Delilah's only response was to cross her arms. A small pout formed on her lips.

Genna's smile dropped. "You cannot be serious right now. Delilah—"

"It's always just been me and him, though."

Genna gestured to herself, "Um, hello!"

Delilah waved her off. "Oh, you know what I mean!"

"D," Genna sighed, "he deserves to be happy."

"He is happy."

"He deserves to move on from the trauma of losing someone and have a new someone. A female someone."

Delilah narrowed her brows. "Genna, he has us, he doesn't need anyone else."

"Oh for fuck sake." Genna leaned back in her chair. "We don't count! And if we're going by your warped logic, break up with Logan. If Dad doesn't need anyone but us, then we don't need anyone but him."

Delilah raised her chin indignantly. "That's not the same."

"Listen, it's gonna be different, it's gonna suck sharing him, but you've done it before when I came along. He is so happy staring at his phone, let him be happy like that all the time, everywhere."

Delilah sighed and looked down in defeat. She scuffed the toe of her shoe on the floor a few times before looking back up at her sister. "Gaining a sister is different. Do you really want another mother?"

Genna physically recoiled at Delilah's words. "That... it's not... he isn't even that serious with this person."

"Yet," Delilah mumbled.

Letting out another heavy sigh, Genna shook her head. "I don't wanna talk about this anymore. He seems happy, we've not been thrusted into a Disney plot with some evil stepmother. We don't even know if who he's talking to is a love interest. We don't know shit. He gets just as happy about new farming equipment."

Delilah nodded. "Fine, but if I'm right, and he is talkin' to some woman, I swear I will make her life absolute hell if she don't treat him good."

"Bet." Genna laughed in agreement.

Silence spread comfortably between them as they retreated to their own thoughts. Each wondering just who was on the other end of the line. Each envisioning their own idea of what a potential love life for Adam would look like and how it would effect the family trio.

Genna kept replaying Delilah's words over and over again in her mind: Do you really want another mother?

The freshness of her grief after the holidays gave her sister's innocent question greater weight than intended. She would never allow someone to try and take her mother's rightful place in this world. The disrespect of such an act made Genna's chest burn with anger at the mere thought of it.

But Adam deserved happiness.

She tempered her nerves with that thought. If Delilah could take the high road and make room in her life for her, she could do the same for someone else on Adam's behalf... right?

Suddenly Genna's own words, even to herself, didn't sound so convincing.