A Family Reunion Read Online Free Page A

them.
    Taye nervously opened the door, wondering why her parents were here. Had something happened to Poppa Ethan or one of her brothers? Bryan, her oldest brother, was almost forty, and Darryl was thirty-six. Both were married and had two kids and lived in Dallas.
    Taye entered her living room and looked around. There was no sign of Sebrina or Monica, or her parents for that matter. In fact, the house was unusually quiet.
    “Sebrina. Monica. I’m home!” she called out.
    When she didn’t get a response she walked through the house, only to turn up nothing and no one. When she got to the kitchen she noted the back door was slightly ajar. Walking over to it, she then noticed her father and her daughters in the backyard on their knees. They appeared to be burying something.
    Taye went to the window for a closer look. They weren’t burying anything but were on their knees planting something. Tears formed in her eyes when she realized what her father and the girls were planting. It was a peach tree.
    Her father, who enjoyed the outdoors, had helped her plant her very first peach tree when she was Monica’s age. Together they had planted it and together they had watched it grow. From her father’s love of nature she had grown up appreciating the environment, and she had taught her daughters to do the same.
    As she blinked back her tears, she saw that Monica had looked up, noticed her standing at the window, and waved. Whatever her younger daughter said to her grandfather made him and Sebrina turn their heads and look up, too. Taye was then reminded of the information Sharon had shared with her about Monica’s curiosity regarding her father’s identity. Taye knew it would be a good idea for her to have a discussion with Monica this weekend about her father, since Sebrina would be spending the weekend over at a friend’s house. Just what she would say to Monica she wasn’t quite sure, but one thing was for certain: she wouldn’t divulge his identity just yet.
    As Taye brought her focus back on the three people outside the window, she noticed they were now heading back toward the house. She walked over to the door to meet them.
    Automatically, unashamedly, her daughters embraced her and told her how glad they were to see her. She had always encouraged their open display of affection. She told them daily that she loved them, and they did likewise with her. They didn’t know how much she needed to hear that. Everyone needed to know they were loved.
    “Grampa helped us plant a peach tree in the backyard,” Monica said excitedly. “Isn’t that great?”
    “Yes, sweetheart, that’s wonderful.” Sebrina, Taye noticed, was hanging back with an all-knowing and an ever-observant eye. Three years older than Monica and three years wiser, her older daughter had long ago picked up on the strained relationship between Taye and her parents.
    Taye let her gaze leave Sebrina to come to rest on her father, the mighty Joe Bennett. For some reason today he appeared taller and his shoulders wider. Since his retirement from the railroad four years ago, he still dressed in the work clothes he’d worn for years, denim overalls over a blue shirt and a billed cap that covered his graying head. She thought he looked in pretty good shape for a man who would be fifty-seven later this year.
    “Dad, it’s good seeing you. What brings you here for a visit?”
    “I had you and the girls on my mind and thought I’d drop by and see you. On the way in I stopped by Victor’s nursery and got that peach tree for the girls.”
    Taye smiled. Victor Senior, her father’s youngest brother, and his son, Victor Junior, owned Bennett’s Nursery. Since Macon was a good hour away, there was no way her father could have just dropped by. It had to have been a planned trip.
    “Besides,” he was saying, “I promised Cousin Agnes I’d get this to you.” He pulled a folded letter out of his pocket.
    “What is it?” she asked, taking the letter from