Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 75754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 379(@200wpm)___ 303(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Beautiful white smile.
Long, elegant fingers.
She was slim.
Not even an inch bigger after two more kids.
“I’m sorry,” I said finally.
She frowned.
“Sorry for what?” She asked.
“Sorry I didn’t get a hold of you earlier,” I said.
I could’ve spoken with her months ago…but I hadn’t.
I’d been that poor, scared kid again watching as his mother walked away from him.
Watching as life as he knew it ended.
A tear slipped out of the corner of one eye and she smiled sadly at me.
“It was me who messed up, son. It’s always been me. I couldn’t make good decisions to save my life, and you were the one who suffered because of it,” she said solemnly.
I shrugged.
“And from what I understand, you didn’t get into any better of a situation after I left you. So I didn’t win, and I could see why you never answered my letters,” she said softly.
I shook my head. “I didn’t answer your letters because I didn’t get them. My foster father…” I didn’t want to say anything about Thomasina. She’d suffered enough at that monster’s hands. She didn’t need any more scrutiny. “He wasn’t a good man. Never saw a single one of the letters that came there.”
She frowned.
“I personally delivered two to that man…” she said. “Delivered money there, too. Every time I’d ask about you, he’d say you didn’t want to see me.”
My jaw clenched.
“He was a piece of shit that deserves to fuckin’ die,” I growled, eyes going far away as I dreamed about all the ways I could kill him.
“Sterling, darling,” she said. “Don’t you do what I see dancing in your eyes. He’s not worth it.”
I crossed my arms over my chest as I watched my mother, the woman who’d been stolen from me by my foster father.
“You don’t know me that well,” I said defensively.
She laughed.
“Oh, honey. I was the one to diaper your bottom. Hold you in my arms when you were born. I saw you through the chicken pox, pneumonia, your first steps, potty training, your first broken bone, your first lost tooth,” she smiled fondly. “And a mother never forgets, trust me. She knows when her child is thinking devious thoughts. Just like I knew you were here, and why I pushed Able to come meet his daughter. Two birds with one stone.”
My mouth dropped open.
“You knew I was here all along?” I asked.
She nodded.
“I was there the day you graduated high school. The day you went to prom with Lizzette Boreguard. The day you graduated from boot camp. I’m very proud of you,” she whispered.
I blinked.
“Does your husband know all this?” I asked carefully.
She smiled a secret smile at me.
“My husband doesn’t know everything about me.”
I shook my head.
“I thought you forgot about me.”
Tears instantly filled her eyes.
“I’d never forget about you. You were my first baby,” she whispered fiercely. “Not one day passed that I didn’t cry for you. But I didn’t know what else to do. I just kept digging myself deeper and deeper, and pretty soon I just couldn’t see my way clear of the hole I’d dug for myself. I just wanted you to be happy…and safe.”
My eyes drifted closed, and only opened when I felt my mother’s warm embrace pulling me into her.
“I love you, Sterling. Always have, always will.”
I coughed to cover up the emotion roiling through me.
“I’m marrying Ruthie,” I told her.
My mother leaned back and placed her hands on my cheeks.
“I can’t wait to have grandchildren,” she said enthusiastically.
I smiled.
“Hopefully that’ll come sooner rather than later.”
She leaned up and kissed me on the cheek.
“Now, how about you introduce me to your fiancé.”
So I did what my mother asked of me.
I introduced her to my Ruthie.
***
Later that night
“I need you to give me everything you have on Pete Sorbet,” I said to Silas later that evening.
Ruthie was asleep in the bed on the opposite end of the house, and I knew that if I didn’t go take care of this, I wouldn’t sleep.
It had to happen.
“I’ll come get you, you can follow me,” he answered instantly.
I smiled.
Pete Sorbet wouldn’t know what hit him.
And he had some penance to pay.
I would see to it for all of us. Thomasina, Cormac, Garrison, my mother and me.
Chapter 22
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Ruthie
One month later
“I never wanted to be here, doing this. I wanted to sit in those stands right there,” Sterling pointed to the spot next to me from his spot near the batter’s circle, “and cheer Cormac on. I wanted him to see me sitting there encouraging him, and know that he had love and support. Something we didn’t have when we were growing up. It was the Three Musketeers. Us against the world.”
A tear slipped down my cheek.
“So I’m going to try out, because I know that’s what he always wanted to do. I’m going to fulfill each and every item on his bucket list with our other best friend, Garrison. I’m going to hit that home run that’ll shatter all kinds of records. Garrison and I are going to go mountain climbing, even though we’re both scared of heights. Because Cormac deserved to live longer than he did, and for that I’ll try my hardest to do everything he wanted to do, and live my life the way he wanted me to live it.”
Sterling handed the microphone back to the reporter, whose face showed tears just as I had on mine.
Just as everyone in the entire stadium had.
I was sure he hadn’t meant for that to go to the entire stadium, and if he’d been thinking a little more clearly he would’ve noticed how his face was on the huge screens sporadically placed throughout the stadium.
But he wasn’t in the best state of mind.
He was somewhere he never wanted to be…at least not for this reason, anyway.
I smiled as he took a couple practice swings.
“Little tight,” Garrison called. “Loosen it up.”
Garrison and he had been working for this day for a few good weeks, now.
They’d hated every minute of it, not having Cormac there with them, but they knew how important this had been to Cormac, so they did it anyway.