AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That settles deep, settles heavy, but I just look down at Roxie and smile.
Focus on what’s important.
“Let’s get you changed.”
Twenty-One
Stefan
“You’re messing up the best thing that’s ever happened to you.”
A pulse of pain slices through my temple. “Mom, swear to God.”
She lifts up on tiptoe, presses a kiss to my cheek. “I love you, but you’re a mess, baby.” Then, before I can respond and tell her—a-fucking-gain—to mind her own business, she pats my jaw, shoves Mr. Fluffernut into my arms. “I’m going down to meet your father. We’ll see you back at Brit’s house.”
I nod. “Drive safe.”
Her face softens, and she touches my cheek again, any trace of frustration leaving her eyes. “Always looking after me, my baby boy, aren’t you?”
“Mom—”
“So, when are you going to trust the people who love you to look after you in turn?”
That settles like an anchor chained to my heart, pushed overboard and sent down into the darkening blue depths, drawing me further and further under the frigid water.
Or maybe that’s the reality of the future I’ve been looking toward smacking me in the face.
Likely knowing she struck deep with that, she pats my cheek again. “Tell the girls I’ll see them back at the house.”
I nod woodenly, tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth.
And then she’s gone.
And I’m left alone with my thoughts.
And my regrets.
* * *
“Can you move the pillow a little higher?” Rox asks Tiff.
Tiff—ever-patient as always—adjusts the pillow to Queen Roxie’s liking. “That good?”
“Uh-huh.”
A flick of her gaze over her shoulder, mouth curving, eyes dancing. Then Tiff is looking back to Roxie. “Okay little munchkin,” she says, holding up the bottles of nail polish, “what color do you want?”
I leave them pondering the merits of fire engine red with gold sparkles over alternating sky blue and sunshine yellow.
Brit and my parents are in the kitchen, holding a quiet conversation, though I’m able to pick up enough of it to dive right in.
“I’ll skip the games if I need to,” Brit’s saying, pointing to the screen on her cell. “But this is the team’s schedule for the next couple of weeks. Dan”—her brother—“is going to come on Sunday and stay for a week or so. I think by then Rox will be good to go back to school and I’ll focus on hiring a nanny to cover my time?—”
I frown.
“—I should have done that a long time ago?—”
I open my mouth, but she keeps going.
