Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22250 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 111(@200wpm)___ 89(@250wpm)___ 74(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22250 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 111(@200wpm)___ 89(@250wpm)___ 74(@300wpm)
By the time I finally hang up the phone, he’s here. It has to be him. He has dark hair that hangs over his forehead and chocolate brown eyes. We look nothing alike and for some reason, this thought disappoints me.
His curious gaze scans the café and stops when it lands on me. He strides across the floor. He’s so tall. He has to have at least twelve inches on my small frame.
“Journey,” he calls my name softly as he approaches, as if he’s talking to a wounded bunny he wants to calm. There’s something about the way he carries himself and it takes me a moment to understand. It’s his confidence. Just like my fling from the other night, he’s completely secure in who he is. It’s something I wish I had.
“Hi, Derek,” I manage the words out through a tight throat. I gesture at the collection of five coffee cups on the table in front of me. “I didn’t know what you like.”
He takes a seat across from me, ignoring the cups. He stares at me for so long that I start to fidget under his gaze. There are so many things I want to know. So many questions I have. I start with the first one I can think of, “Did you know about me? I mean, that you have a sister?”
He nods. OK, so he did know about me.
I wait. When he doesn’t say anything, I say, “Well, I don’t really remember you, so maybe you could fill me in.”
“You were eleven months old when mom left. I doubt I made an impression on you,” he says. He stares out the window at the rainy street. It’s evening now and the streetlamps are on, illuminating the puddles on the road. Nights like tonight make me miss her and I feel the loss of mom all over again. How can the only shred of family I have left be sitting in front of me and why didn’t I know he existed until now?
He drifts into silence.
I want to grab him and shake him. I want to demand answers, but it seems as far as I’ve come, he’s not going to tell me anything. “I’d hoped to figure out where I come from.”
“Nowhere good,” he murmurs.
Maybe there’s a father out there who will welcome me with open arms even if this stranger won’t. Maybe he’ll want me. Maybe he’ll be delighted to see me again. The thought of a happy reunion forces me to ask my next questions. “Well, what about my dad? Do we share the same father?”
“Yep, same dad.” He doesn’t pull his gaze from the window.
“Where is he?” My birth certificate doesn’t list a father and while Derek’s did, mom had gone through and crossed it out. No matter how many times I willed myself to read through that black ink, I never could.
“Six feet under. He died about ten years back.”
My breath leaves my lungs in a whoosh. There’s no dad. No one that’s happy to meet me. I really am alone in the world now.
He sighs and lifts the hair that’s flopped over the side of his face, revealing a series of small white scars. “This was his birthday gift to me when I turned nine.”
Derek lets go of his hair, hiding the scars again. “She left with you the next day. Said she’d come back for me soon.”
My heart twists thinking of a little boy left behind. No wonder he doesn’t like me. It’s a miracle that he was even willing to meet me.
He drops his gaze to the table, staring at a coffee stain in the shape of a heart. There’s a tremor in his voice when he asks, “Did she ever talk about me? Miss me or anything?”
She left him behind. My mom left this vulnerable little boy behind with an abusive man. She saved herself and me. That’s not the woman I knew. But it’s the woman she was. “All the time.”
He pulls his gaze from the table and tries to smile. It looks more like a grimace though. “You’re a shit liar but thanks for trying.”
“Is that why you didn’t try to find her?” My voice is soft. I wouldn’t blame him for never wanting to see her again.
He shakes his head. “She must have gone by another name. I looked for her for years under her married name and her maiden one. Then every variation of them I could think of. Finally put my DNA into the database website in the hopes that you’d find me. Kind of glad you did. Always wondered what you’d be like.”
“Do you think maybe we could be friends one day?” I blurt out. It’s a stupid question and I regret asking it immediately. He probably thinks I’m a desperate, pathetic weirdo.
This time he does smile. It’s a small one but it reaches his eyes, lighting them up with warmth. “I’d like that.”