The Tale's Willow

A Flicker of Redemption

After more than a year of the back-and-forth between his home and the Foust household, Heather decided she wanted the house. Their father left it to him but she was now a married woman and they were wanting to start a family. She promised to keep him a room at the house. He asked for time to think about it since where he was staying in Texas wasn't his home. He needed to talk to the owner to see if he could make his permanent residence there.

She quickly agreed as he packed his bags again. There were some of his father's papers from his study he was taking with him. Stocks and bonds that he wanted to sell. He shoved them in his bag, not realizing the letter his father never sent to the man he'd hit was with them. He hugged his sister before throwing his bags into the backseat of his truck and hopping into the driver's seat. With a wave, he took off back to Nederland.

Each time he returned to Texas, Tim was always sitting on the porch waiting for him when he returned. Although neither had admitted feelings, nor touched one another except for the occasional hug, they acted like a couple. Emotionally, at least. Chance would help Tim with whatever he needed instead of Austin doing it. They always sat together wherever they were at. Dena knew how both men felt but refused to say it.

After a long talk with Dena who then brought it to the rest of the family, it was finally decided Chance would move in with them. Tim was thankful to have another male around the house to help take care of things. Austin tried but between working and going to school, sometimes things didn't get done. Chance was more than happy to help with whatever was needed. He kept his clothes in Tim's room but slept on the pull-out bed in the living room.

Dena felt bad the man didn't have his own bedroom but he constantly reassured her he was perfectly fine with the arrangement. She was very thankful she had more help. Emily was adjusting to having her days and nights flipped since she'd been put on the night shift. Dena hated bothering her daughter knowing she'd be working all night.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tim was helping Chance pack up a bag since he'd be gone a week for some photography work around Dallas. As he was placing some folded shirts into Chance's bag for him, he found an envelope. Picking it up, he realized it was rather old. Curiosity got the better of him and he took the letter out. His eyes widened as he read through it. He turned to look at Chance.

"What the fuck is this?" Tim thrust the letter out in front of him.

"Where did you get that?" Chance walked over and took the paper from Tim's hand.

"Who the fuck knew who hit me? Why do you have this letter anyways?" Tim demanded, nostrils flaring as his face flushed.

This is not how Chance wanted to explain things.

"Chance? I asked you a question." Tim hissed.

The green-eyed man moved to sit on the edge of the bed as he ran his face over his hands.

"After my father passed away, I went to cleaning out his office. He worked from home a lot and he went away on business a lot. As I was digging through stuff, I found this letter. (Chance sighed as Tim rolled himself away from Chance some) After reading it, I began doing a little digging. I wanted to know more about this accident.

My dad has a couple newspaper clippings talking about this accident in this area and it confused me. He went through here sometimes on a few of his business trips but other than that, we have no ties to this area. Hell, I hadn't even been this direction before my first trip here after he passed. The more I discovered, the more I began to think that perhaps it was my dad who'd been involved in this accident.