AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So what do I do? Let you build a snowman with Toby, and pretend everything’s okay, that he has a home here?”
“You let me help. No strings attached. I want nothing in return. When the snow clears, you’ll be free to leave, I’ll even give you some money to help you on your way.”
“You don’t have to do that,” I protest.
“I know that, but I want to.”
“I don’t understand why,” I admit, confused by this man’s kindness. Wary as hell.
“Just call it a random act of kindness,” he says softly, tipping his head to the side as he regards me.
“I used to believe that it exists… Kindness, I mean,” I blurt out.
“And now?” he asks.
“Everything comes at a price. The question is, what’s yours?” I probe, folding my arms across my chest, ignoring the pain from the bruises on my back which only serve to remind me how little kindness I’ve experienced the past few years of my life.
Drix heaves out a sigh, then levelling his gaze at me says, “When I was a kid, a man called Hubert took me in. I was fourteen, and by that time had been in foster care for almost five years of my life. He took me under his wing, gave me a home, his name. He had no reason to be kind other than the fact he was. He taught me that for every shit person in the world, there is a good one, a kind one. He never wanted anything in return, but he always said to me that if I ever met someone who needed my help, to give it without question. That’s what I’m striving to do now. I’m paying it forward, Lia.”
I blanch, surprised by his honesty. “He sounds like a great guy.”
“He was,” Drix replies. “Been dead for over a year now and I miss him.”
Silence descends between us, interrupted only by Toby’s excitement over the snow as he gazes out of the window and claps his hand in glee.
Drix looks over at Toby, his gaze softening. “He’s a good kid,” he says.
“He is,” I agree.
“And you’re a good woman. A good mother,” he adds, turning back to face me. “You deserve a chance to rest, a moment’s reprieve. I can give you that at least.”
“Just until the snow clears?” I question him.
“I give you my word. If, by the time it’s safe to drive, you still want to leave. I won’t stop you.”
“Okay,” I reply before I can change my mind. What does a few days matter in the grand scheme of things? Whether I can learn to trust this man or not, Toby needs this.
“Okay?” His tone is filled with warmth and relief, and it’s such a change to what I’m used to that I don’t know how to act in the face of such empathy, concern and… kindness.
“I’ll stay until the snow clears,” I reply, my voice fading to a hushed stillness as Toby comes running over, hopping on his feet as he tugs on Drix’s hand.
“Can we make a snowman now? Can we? Can we, please?” he cries, his happiness making Drix grin widely and my heart break a little knowing that we’ll be leaving this place behind just as soon as the snow clears.
SEVEN
DRIX
We pull into my drive an hour later, Toby chatting incessantly about the huge snowman we built together on the front lawn of the hotel. I don’t think I’ve smiled as much in a while. His exuberance, his joy, was like a breath of fresh air, and I gulped it down like a man who hadn’t breathed deeply in a long, long time.
“You did good, buddy. That was the best snowman I’ve ever seen,” I say, grinning, my gaze flicking to Lia who has been quiet for the entire drive here.
She stares out of the window now, her slender hands folded in her lap, lost to her thoughts, and even though she’d helped us build the snowman, smiled the whole time, laughed when Toby lay flat out in the snow and rolled around in it like a puppy might, I could tell her thoughts were elsewhere, that her heart wasn’t really in it.
It makes me wonder when she last smiled, laughed even, not because she wanted to make the experience better for her son, but because she truly wanted to. It's clear to me that it’s been a long time since she was relaxed enough to experience that kind of happiness for herself.
“Here we are,” I say, parking the car right outside the front door of the home I share with my sister, Daisy.
“This is your home?” Lia asks, surprise littering her voice as Toby gasps at Brownstone Estate, a sprawling homestead built around two-hundred years ago when Hubert’s great-great grandfather settled in Princetown.
