AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Edwin sighs into my shoulder. “You are an angel,Sonia.”
I smile. I like being his angel. His good girl. I also like to be a bit bad, but not right now. Not when he needs me.
“What happened, Edwin?” I slide my hand through his hair. “Tell me.”
Edwin lifts his head, pinching at his eyes maybe to keep from revealing the tears I already felt on my skin. He clears his throat. “We don’t need to get into it.”
“Edwin, please tell me. I want to know.”
His eyes fall to the ground between us.
I won’t release my grip on him. I won’t let him get away. “I can tell something has been bothering you for weeks now.”
“I don’t want to burden you.”
“It’s not a burden if I want to know. I…I care for you, Edwin.” I cup his cheek. “You’ve taken such good care of me. Please let me take care of you.”
Edwin lifts his chin, almost like he’s recoiling from my touch. However, his eyes flutter shut a moment later. He’s not used to this.
I wonder, when was the last time someone took care of Edwin Lyons? Has it really been long enough that he doesn’t know how to let someone care for him?
That makes me want to cry.
His next words freeze me to the bone. “It’s my son.”
It takes everything in me not to withdraw. “Your son?”
“Yes, Nathan.”
Oh my god.
It was hard enough to walk through the front hall where pictures of Edwin’s three children clutter the top of a credenza, including a huge portrait of the three of them when they must have been teenagers, Nate standing at the apex of the triangle with his usual, open grin.
Now we have totalkabout him.
I don’t know if I’m ready for this.
But Edwin needs me, so I’ll try.
“What about him?”
“We haven’t spoken in years. My fault.”
My heart breaks for all the times I listened to Nate complain about his father and how his father wanted nothing to do with him, empathizing with my ex, secretly hating his father for what he’d done. Oh, how the tables have turned.
“Anyway, he was in California. Now he’s back and he wants nothing to do with me.”
I should tell him. I feel so guilty for not telling him so far. But I would just be making things worse.
Edwin is bereft. Not to mention, by telling him I’m Nate’s ex, I’d almost certainly lose Edwin too.
“It’s my fault. I was a bad father.”
“No, Edwin.”
“I was. It’s a fact. I was so young and so selfish and–”
I caress his cheek. “We all make mistakes.”
