Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 410(@200wpm)___ 328(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
She got to the meat of it.
“It also doesn’t say Dad,” she told me. “He’s even pulling away from Tony, have you noticed?”
I had.
Liam and Tony were tight, now it was like…not like he didn’t love his Uncle Tony, just like he didn’t need him like he used to.
Like he was getting accustomed to it being him and me and that was going to be all he had.
I looked around the backyard, trying to locate my son.
When I didn’t see him, I knew where he was.
In the front drive, shooting hoops at the basketball goal Dad had mounted for him.
Shooting hoops alone.
I stood, saying, “I need to find my son.”
Toni caught my hand. I looked down at her.
“I’m worried too,” she said. “You were a teen mom, lost, but not alone. You found your way. Now you’re twenty-six, living your life for a man who shows in your bedroom one night every couple of months for nookie with no promises.” She shook her head and squeezed my hand before I could say anything I’d regret. “No, I’m not being cruel, I’m being real, because I’m worried. Don’t say anything and don’t get mad. Just think about what I had to say.”
“I’ll think about what you had to say,” I said between my teeth.
She gave my hand a squeeze and let go. “That’s all I ask.”
I took off, trying not to feel all I was feeling, something that was getting tired.
Because I’d been feeling it now for years, along with putting in the effort not to feel it.
Mom and Dad were worried, I shouldn’t be surprised.
Toni too, also not a surprise.
But I was too.
Because I’d had patience.
And it wasn’t working.
I heard the dribble of the basketball before I made it to the front, the bang of it hitting the backboard, more dribbling.
When I got there, I saw my son setting up for a shot, and even with my thoughts in turmoil, my heart hurting—because if I allowed myself to admit it (and I wasn’t there yet), I knew Toni was right, something had to give with Darius—I loved that even at Lena and Kenneth’s engagement party, Dad wouldn’t let anyone park in the driveway so Liam could shoot hoops.
“Hey,” I called.
“Hey,” he called back and let fly.
It whiffed the net.
I winced.
He needed to be taller, stronger, keep practicing, he’d get there.
Liam didn’t show any emotion to the whiff. He just went after the ball and kept dribbling.
“I bet Tony would play horse with you if you asked,” I suggested.
“Nah, he’s got Talia with him,” Liam answered, stopped, planted his feet and let fly.
It hit the hoop and bounced to the side.
Damn.
He went after the ball.
“I could confiscate Talia, no skin off my nose,” I said.
Liam grinned while dribbling. “You spoil her more than her own momma does.”
“That’s what aunties are for,” I said, bending to put my drink in the grass. I straightened. “Throw it here.”
He stopped, tossed the ball to me, and I caught it.
I dribbled twice, set up, then tossed the ball. And in a dress and heels, I didn’t do too badly, though it flew clean over the hoop from side to side, missing it altogether.
Liam chased after it.
“Want it again?” he asked after he nabbed it.
Out here, alone, shooting hoops.
My boy with no daddy.
“Is it upsetting to you?” I asked. “Talia, I mean. That Tony has his little girl now?”
Liam tipped his head to the side. “Naw. Why would it?”
“I think maybe he misses you a little bit,” I shared.
His eyes wandered to the side of the house. “Ya think?”
“Heads up,” I warned, then with two hands, I passed the ball hard. No problems, he caught it. “There are things you can’t do with baby girls.” I jerked my chin to the hoop. “And your granddad didn’t put this up for you to hog it.”
Liam grinned at me.
I then jerked my head to the side yard. “Go, ask one of them to hang with you.”
“You sure?”
“Absolutely. I know for a fact your grandfather would kill for an excuse to get away from an engagement party he didn’t want to have in the first place. He thinks Kenneth is touched.”
Another grin, this one bigger, because Liam agreed about the touched part, then with ball under his arm, he dashed off.
This spoke volumes.
My boy, he liked his alone times. I’d noticed it more and more when he started to get older. He was just one of those people who were good in their own company. And he was like his mom. A reader.
Even so, he had those times where he wanted to be social.
But what boys liked to do together wasn’t an awful lot like what girls liked to do, especially grown-up girls. I couldn’t mix him a mojito and dish about Lena’s boyfriends with him.
He needed a man in his life.