They arrived at the house about 20 minutes later.
"We fixed Brad's old room for you Colleen, I hope that's okay." Jill said as she helped Colleen take her bags upstairs.
"Anything is fine, thank you so much Mrs. Taylor, I really appreciate you letting me stay here."
"Oh you're welcome dear, I could use some female company. And please, call me Jill. But uh, if you don't mind my asking, why couldn't you go home?" They went into the room and set all the bags down. Jill helped Colleen unpack her things as they talked.
"Well my dad didn't want me going on the trip, he thought I should stay home and take care of my little sister, but there was no way I could pass up the opportunity. So when I told him I was going he told me never to come back."
"Oh dear, are you okay? That must have been horrible."
"It's okay Jill. Really. I've gotten used to the idea." Colleen shrugged.
"Well, if you ever need to talk." Jill began.
"Thank you for the offer, but I'm fine."
"Okay, but I just want you to know the offer always stands, even if it's not about that."
"Thanks." ~ Downstairs in Randy's room ~
"So Colleen seems nice." Mark commented.
"Yea, she's great. I'm glad you guys like her." Randy said as he put his things back in the drawers.
"What I don't get is why she's here. Don't get me wrong though, I think it's great." Tim thought aloud sitting on the bed.
"Well she doesn't really like to talk about it but all I basically know is her father told her if she went to Costa Rica, she couldn't come home but she decided to go anyway."
"Oh no." Tim grunted softly, "that's horrible."
"Yea, I don't know how he could ever do that to his own daughter." Randy sigh dropping onto the bed next to his father.
"Some people just shouldn't be parents son, but try to look on the bright side, you made a great new friend, and you're helping her out." Tim patted his middle son on the back.
"Yea I guess. Can we change the subject? How's Brad doing?"
"He's still at college, he and a few friends are sharing a large apartment. He's actually planning to come home in a about a week, he really wants to see you and meet Colleen."
"Great! I miss hanging out with my brothers. Hey mark, how about you, me and Colleen go down to the pool hall after dinner?" Randy suggested.
"Sounds great." Mark agreed.