Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 84295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 421(@200wpm)___ 337(@250wpm)___ 281(@300wpm)
I wipe at the tears on my cheeks and take a few deep breaths, trying to calm my sobbing. When a truck pulls into the parking spot next to me, a woman rolls down her window. “Get in, honey. I’ll take you home.”
I struggle to climb up into the cab of the truck and can’t help but wonder why nobody seems to have any normal-sized vehicles around here. I no sooner put my seatbelt on than we are pulling out onto the main road.
“Thanks for taking me. I live downtown,” I tell her. The woman is beautiful. Even under her bulky jacket, I can tell she’s thin. Her blond hair is peeking out of her toboggan and her blue eyes are expressive.
“Yea, Cane told me where you lived,” she says before she turns to me and smiles.
And when she smiles, it hits me. “Oh my God. You’re his wife, aren’t you?”
I put my head down in my hands, trying to figure out what I did to deserve this. I mumble to her apologetically, “I promise I didn’t know he was married.”
“Probably because he’s not.” She grins. “I’m his ex-wife. We’ve been divorced for four years.”
“Ex-wife?” I ask, wanting to make sure I heard her right.
She nods. “I cheated on him. It was the worst mistake I’ve ever made in my life. But we’ve worked through it. We’re friends now. Well, as much as we can be.”
Oh my God, she cheated on him… and I just called him a cheater.
“And you have a son together?” I ask, trying to figure it all out.
“Yes, Mason. Have you not met Mason?” she asks me.
I shake my head, and when I remember she’s not looking at me, she’s concentrating on the road, I mumble, “No, I didn’t know about him. Why wouldn’t he have told me?”
She’s quiet for a minute. “Now, I’m not sure about that. Mason is everything to him. I’m a little surprised he didn’t tell you either.”
I go back through all of our conversations, trying to see if he ever hinted at it, but I know I would have remembered that. I think back to our conversation last night, and I remember telling him about my “Mr. Right” list and wanting a man without any kids. Oh my God, I totally fucked all of this up.
The cab of the truck is silent the rest of the drive. I point to my house and she pulls into the driveway. I turn to her, thanking her for the ride, and she stops me from getting out by reaching over and touching my shoulder.
She stares at me for a minute, and I can tell she’s trying to see what kind of person I am. “Honey, if you feel anything for him at all, he’s worth it. I know he was really hurt by whatever y’all were fighting about. I don’t know or understand everything that’s going on, but I do know he’s a great man and a great father. You can’t just throw something like that away.”
I inhale deeply, trying not to cry, not sure how I’m going to fix this. “Thank you. For the ride, and well, everything.”
“Sure, honey. No problem.” I start to shut the door, but I stop when she says, “Cane volunteers at the soup kitchen on Christmas every year, so he’ll be there tomorrow morning.”
She smiles with a gleam in her eyes. I nod, shut the door and walk into my empty house.
Cane
I stand in the entrance of the tree farm watching my ex-wife pull out of the parking lot with Candy in the passenger seat. She had struggled to get into the truck and I had to force myself to stay put and not go over to help her.
Mason tugs on my pant leg. “Hey, Daddy! Where’d your girlfriend go?”
I bend over and lift him up on my hip. “She had to go home.”
He nods his head, like he’s got it all figured out. “Oh, she had to go be with her family for Christmas Eve, didn’t she? Will I get to meet her, Dad?”
His words gut me, because I know she’s not going home to family. She’s going home to an empty house and no one. I know how hard Christmas is for her, but I also know she doesn’t want to see me. She made that perfectly clear.
Chapter 8
Candy
I stand outside the soup kitchen wringing my hands, nervousness coming over me.
When I finally get up enough nerve, I walk in and instantly my eyes are drawn to Cane spooning up mashed potatoes and putting them onto the plate of the man standing in front of him. The smile he has for the man and every person after him melts my heart, but also makes me remember all the nasty things I said to him.
“Hey, you were the one kissing my dad yesterday.”