Total pages in book: 52
Estimated words: 51744 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51744 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 172(@300wpm)
“She’s a mom.” Grady downs the rest of his soda. As if moms can’t be pretty. Or dateable.
The server comes back with the cake, which Grady inhales. I take a few sips of the mediocre coffee. I nod to Mom. “You ready?”
I want to get home and get mom to tell me the rest of what she was going to say before Grady interrupted us. I know it’s important and a secret she’s kept for years.
She twists her lips. “Yes. Let’s go.”
Grady barrels inside and heads to his room to play video games. I sit down on the couch, slouching so my feet can rest on the coffee table.
“Avery…” Mom begins, standing behind a matching chair and holding the back.
“Yes. I know. Let’s talk.”
She looks around. “Not here.”
I frown. “Why not? Grady’s in his room. He won’t hear us.”
Most houses in Phoenix are one story because of the heat. The cost is too great to keep a second story cool. Ours is like that. Still, Grady’s room is down a long hallway at the back of the house. If he’s playing video games as he planned, he’s got a headset on and ’wouldn’t know if a bomb went off three feet behind him.
She sighs and takes a seat on the couch next to me. Very close. “Okay. You’re probably right.”
I turn my head and study her closely as if she’s a suspect I’m interrogating. I know her tells better than any criminal’s. Or do I?
“Level with me. There was no aunt who left you money, was there?”
She sinks her head into her hands.
Yeah, I figured it out. In fact, now that I know, it all seems so clear. I just didn’t notice at the time because I was heartbroken over Chance, and then hormonal with the pregnancy. Nearly losing my life delivering Grady put things in a new perspective for me. Chance was gone, but Grady was here, and he needed me. He became my life, and I buried the past.
Mom finally lifts her head. Her eyes are bleak. “I’m sorry.”
“Did Jonathan Bridger come to you? Or did you go to him?”
She purses her lips and swallows hard. “It’s not that simple.”
“Sure it is. Who made the first step?”
“He did,” she says. “But the first time he came to me I told him to go fuck himself.”
I jerk forward, drop my feet to the floor. “Wait a minute. This wasn’t a one-time thing?”
She shakes her head. “He didn’t want you with his son, Avery, and he was willing to pay a lot of money to break the two of you up.”
I know that, but it still hurts. It makes no sense. Why do something like that?
“What did he have against us?” I wonder.
“He said we were trash.” She sighs. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“I never felt like trash, Mom. I was thinking that earlier when you were fixating on the mobile home. I never thought about it. I was perfectly happy.”
“I’m glad.” She pats my knee. “I never wanted you to feel that way.”
“I didn’t. Not until you started talking about it.”
She sighs. “Jonathan Bridger made it very clear how he felt about us. And about you dating his son. But I saw how happy you were, Avery. How happy Chance was. It was so obvious you two were in love. I couldn’t give you much, sweetheart, but I could at least give you that. I wasn’t going to take you away from your first love.”
“Except you did,” I say, my words practically a whisper.
She blinks back tears. “You have to understand. I didn’t see any other option.”
I lean into the back of the couch, let my head rest against the high back. My whole body feels like jelly. God, this has been a long day. Just this morning I woke up in Chance Bridger’s bed.
Now I’m home.
And I’m hearing the truth from my mother’s lips.
“I’m trying to understand, Mom. We were behind on rent. The factory was closing.”
A nod, and then, “Yes. I was going to be out of a job within months.”
I close my eyes. Did Bridger have a hand in the factory closing? Anything’s possible at this point.
“Look at me, Avery.”
“I’m sorry, Mom. This is all so much. And I’m exhausted.”
“Please. Look at me.”
I open my eyes, force myself to sit up, and meet my mother’s gaze.
“I went to Jonathan about a month before we left. I told him about our troubles. I hoped he might help without making us leave. By then it was clear how smitten you and Chance were. But his offer was the same. You and I had to leave town, and you had to sever all ties with Chance.”
“I see.”
“In return, he agreed to pay me half a million dollars.”
I jump to my feet. “Half a million dollars!”
“Avery, quiet!” my mother whispers. “Remember Grady.”