The Fayette County airport was small. So when we arrived it didn't surprise me at all that they didn't even take the plane to the gate. Kenz and I just walked off the plane out onto the tarmac and waited for our luggage. After about half an hour standing around in the very hot sun we walked through the gate to see my father standing looking more casual than I'd ever seen him before. And by casual, I mean khakis and a golf shirt, because that's really going crazy for my dad. He was a businessman, a lawyer, and a pretty big one at that. It wasn't hard to keep all the terms the divorce hush-hush, because he did it as a profession. Charity stood next to him practically bouncing up and down with excitement over our arrival. Her paid for boobs hardly moved during all her bouncing, and it was nauseating. If she didn't look so fake, or act so obnoxious, perhaps I would've believed it a little bit more. But her overly bubbly personality just made me want to gag. I couldn’t believe this woman was going to become part of my family.

“Hi Dad,” I said as I wrapped my arms around him in a light hug. “Charity, nice to see you.”

She put her arms around me before I had the chance to pull away, “Oh I am just so excited you're here!”

She had a sweet southern drawl that felt unnatural.

Mackenzie stood behind me but barely nodded at either of them. I thought she and Dad were back on speaking terms, but sometimes I couldn't keep up with their lack of relationship. But Dad deserved that; he had done it to us, and it was no one’s fault but his own.

“We're really excited to have you girls here for the wedding. Thanks for coming.” I could tell he was being sincere and genuine, but it didn't make it any easier. Wedding. It felt like poison every time he said it. When we had talked on the phone over the past couple months to make arrangements, every time he said it I could tell it hurt him. Even if he loved Charity, which I assumed he did, it didn't mean that it didn't hurt him that this was his second marriage. That his marriage with my mother had failed, epically.

“I'm really excited to be here to Dad, and I promise we'll be on our best behavior.” Everybody looked at Mackenzie, but she didn't respond until I jabbed her in the stomach with my elbow.

“Ow! What was that for?”

I looked over my shoulder and mumbled to her, “You know what that was for. Play nice.”

I turned back around and smiled at both of them just as I had seen my mother do thousands of times when we lived in Fayette. Passive aggressive was our thing, and we could do it with style.

“Well let me grab your bags,” my father said, and hurriedly picked up our two suitcases while I grabbed my carry-on. “I'm really glad you shipped a lot of the stuff, I can't imagine how much you would've had in baggage fees if you didn't.”

I smiled at him, but it was awkward, and he knew it as well as I did. I don't think anybody couldn’t feel the palpable tension that was going on in our new little unit. Before my dad dropped a bomb on me in the car, you could cut the tension with a knife. And then the shit storm hit.

“So Charity and I have some exciting news, and I think you girls are really going to like it.”

Finally, Mackenzie sounded interested in the conversation, “Oh? And what's that?”

She turned to me and mouthed the word ‘baby’, but I just rolled my eyes at her.

He looked at both of us in the rearview mirror, “Charity and I have gotten a place of our own. We just signed the papers on the old house.”

“What? You sold our house?” I was floored. This hadn’t even been debated with us. That was our childhood home. A lot of great memories were there.

This time Charity piped in, at the wrong moment. “Well really … I mean, you girls haven't visited in quite a long time. I just kind of felt like it probably wasn't even home to you anymore, and that's the only reason that David was keeping it anyway.”

David. I hated how she said his name. “Well David didn't have any right to sell our house without discussing it with us first.”

I looked over at Mackenzie who was leaning against the window looking out like she was in another world. “Kenz did you hear that? They sold our house.” I knew I was being childish with my reaction but I couldn’t help it. These were phone conversations, where you couldn’t see the smug satisfaction on your step mother to be’s face.

She looked back at me without any emotion, hollow almost. She just shrugged her shoulders, “Dad mentioned something about it on the phone a couple months ago. I didn't think he was serious.”

I looked back at the front seat where my father was sitting silently, “So what, you told her but not me? Is that because you knew I would have a real reaction? You're still such a God damn coward.”

“I will not have you speaking to me like that, Lila. I thought you and I were over our issues.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, “We will never be completely over our issues.” So much for me accepting who he was. I guess I was wrong, we were still a freaking mess of a family.

The rest of the ride was silent. I'd only been back in Fayette for half an hour, and already I was making plans for an escape.