The Inn at Rose Harbor by Debbie Macomber Page A

was most proud of accomplishing in high school?”
    “Oh Josh, I hardly know what to say …”
    “Why?” he demanded again. “What could I have possibly done for him to hate me this much?”
    Josh sank onto the end of the bed. Michelle sat with him and reached for his hand, gripping it with both of her own.
    “I think he did it the day he learned Dylan was dead,” she said.
    “How would you know?”
    “I don’t for sure. It’s an educated guess. He was in such pain that he lashed out.”
    “At me? But why? Explain it to me if you can, because frankly it looks pretty sick.”
    “Because you were alive and his son was dead,” she explained. “You were only here on the day of the funeral, but I was around afterward and it was bad for Richard. So bad that my parents called me and asked me to talk to him. Richard was inconsolable, in such terrible grief that no one seemed to be able to reach him. My family thought I might be able to help. You have to understand that he didn’t come out of the house for days. He didn’t eat, didn’t bathe.”
    “I was alive and his son was dead.”
    “I realize that makes no sense.” Michelle squeezed his arm in consolation.
    Josh wanted to lash out at his stepfather, make him sorry for what he’d done; instead he forced himself to calm down.
    “In other words, punishing me for being alive made sense to Richard,” Josh said.
    She leaned against him. “Letting your anger get the best of you now wouldn’t do either of you any good.”
    Josh knew she was right. As difficult as it was, he’d need to simply let it all go. “Actually, in some way it doesn’t come as that much of a shock. Richard never liked me. I was little more than an encumbrance that he had to tolerate while my mother was alive.”
    “Your mother loved him, though, despite his flaws,” Michelle said.
    “She did.” Josh sighed and realized Michelle was right. His mother had been happily married to Richard. Josh’s father had abandoned the family when he was barely five and Teresa had struggled as a single mother, doing the best she could. She viewed Richard as an honorable man. And to her, he had been all that and more.
    Unfortunately, Josh’s stepfather had never taken a liking to him. Josh tended to think that Richard had never tried. He’d married Teresa and found in her a wife and a mother for the son he loved. As it happened, Teresa had come with a bit of baggage in the form of a son, whom Richard did his best to ignore.
    It hadn’t taken very long for Josh to figure out the lay of the land. Dylan was the apple of his father’s eye. It was always Dylan, and nothing Josh accomplished would ever measure up in Richard’s eyes. Josh had been a fatherless boy, longing for a male figure in his life, which only made it worse. While Dylan didn’t excel academically, he was a star in both football and basketball. Joshhelped him get a passing grade in geometry, earning his stepbrother’s respect. The two got along just fine.
    Not so with Richard and Josh. They locked heads often, and although Josh was almost always on the losing end, it didn’t stop him from challenging his stepfather.
    “He was good to my mother,” he said, deep in thought.
    “I see this same scenario in my work again and again. Richard loved your mother, but wasn’t at all loving with you.”
    In response Josh snickered. “You could say that.”
    “Did he … did he ever abuse you?” she asked. Being a social worker, this was probably a subject she dealt with far too often. It’d been bad, but never as bad as that.
    “Never with his fists.”
    “Verbally?”
    Rather than meet her stare, Josh looked away. “Every chance he got.”
    “Didn’t your mother—”
    “He was careful around her and she never heard the things he said.” Nor had Josh told her. His mother had been happy and Josh wasn’t about to destroy the little bit of contentment she’d found in her marriage to Richard Lambert.
    Josh stood and opened