AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I reached out and smoothed the cooling blanket draping Tom. Tears silently streaming down my face. He looked so devoid of life. The only thing that told me he was alive was the beeping of the machines monitoring his heart and blood pressure.
“I’ve been great until tonight. I should have tried harder to make him eat healthier and stop drinking. I could have made him listen.”
June wrapped an arm around me, forcing my head onto her shoulder. “Don’t you dare blame yourself for this. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me. I hated him so much for what he had done to me, I turned our children against him. Took away everything he loved most in this world, except you and your daddy.”
“He only ever blamed himself.”
“A few years ago,” she sighed, “I would have been happy to hear that. But lately, I’ve realized how bitter I’ve become. How I let it turn me into someone I’m not proud of. It’s even made me question leaving Tom. He begged me to work it out.” She sobbed. “I was too proud to even consider it, even though he was the love of my life.” She rubbed my arm. “To spite him, I gave up so many of the people and things I loved too. Including you, darlin’. I’m so sorry. I was too weak and humiliated to face anyone or anything associated with Pecan Orchard.” She hiccupped. “And I’m afraid my hard heart has ruined my son.”
My head popped up. “How?”
She rested her hand on my water-logged cheek. “He’s so cynical. He thinks marriage is a hoax.”
I rubbed my heart. That was unfortunate news, considering I had a weird voice telling me we would get married. Of course, I wasn’t stupid enough to believe it. Okay, so maybe I did a long time ago, but I had gotten wiser. Sort of. “Well, he is a divorce lawyer. He probably sees a lot of crazy things.” I tried to make her feel better, even though I believed the real reason was because he was self-centered. He and Morgan were two peas in a pod. Except they were probably too selfish to share a pod.
“You’re sweet to say that, but my boy has never been the same since I left his daddy.” She dropped her hand and gazed at Tom. “We had so many dreams. We should be traveling the world together now and covered in grandbabies.”
“Tom would have liked that very much. He loves to tell me stories about how you met in college and you wouldn’t give him the time of day.” I laughed softly.
She half smiled. “Oh, he was a charmer. Too charming—I couldn’t believe it was real. But he was the real deal. He talked my roommates into letting him in our apartment while I was in class. He hung up pictures of himself everywhere. He wrote on every single one, ‘Call me for a good time.’”
“No way,” I giggled.
“Oh yes.”
“What did you do?”
“I eventually called him after a week. It took everything I had in me not to call him the second I got home. I thought I needed to play a little hard to get. I wish I wouldn’t have waited. I’ve always been too stubborn for my own good.”
“I think everyone is, to some degree. I mean, I had ample opportunity to tell Brooks who I was today. Instead I painfully extracted his blackheads and subjected him to my mag light. Then I may have fudged the truth about how many wrinkles he has.” I felt better after confessing my sins and for making June laugh uncontrollably.
When she got her giggles under control, she said, “Darlin’, I always loved your feisty spirit. And I have no doubt my son deserved whatever you threw at him.”
“I probably let my pride get in the way. I was hurt he didn’t recognize me.”
“As you should have been.”
“And I may or may not still hold a grudge that he stood me up on prom night.”
June swallowed hard and shifted in her seat. “Please don’t blame him.”
I tilted my head while she hung hers.
“Honey,” she whispered. “That was the day I found out about Tom’s affair. Tom and I agreed not to tell Carly and Brooks until after graduation, but Brooks caught me crying in my room. He had come in to ask me how to pin on your corsage.” She sniffled. “I tried to brush off the tears, but Brooks knew something was wrong. To this day I feel so awful telling him the way I did. For ruining your night.”
Ugh. Now I felt terrible too. Here I’d been cursing him for over half my life. Thinking back, June and Tom had seemed off that night when all the parents were taking pictures of us. And it was odd that they hadn’t been more frantic about not knowing where their son was. I had been too wrapped up in my own disappointment to question any of it. Or to think there was more to the story. I had figured Brooks didn’t want to go if Morgan couldn’t be his date. I’d pictured all sorts of torrid things they were doing while I was trying to hold back the tears at prom during all the slow dances or when the photographer wanted to take a picture of the prom king and me with our dates. Looking back, nothing was ever the same after that day. The Hamiltons, in a way, ceased to exist. “I didn’t know.”
