AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He yells, “It’s a good ass.”
Giggling to myself, I yell back, “Agreatass!”
After I switch on the coffeemaker and get dressed, we place our coffee in to-go cups and head out for our walk. I look up at him. “Tell me about your first love.”
He gives me a small smile. “Her name was Mandy, and she was an artist. I met her my freshman year of college. She was a year older. A bit of a free spirit.”
“Most artists are.”
He nods. “Yes. I fell quickly. She was sweet and kind and beautiful. I thought she was my forever. A few months in, she started falling in with the wrong crowd, doing drugs. She began to change. I was an athlete. I had no interest in that lifestyle. I honestly thought it was just a little marijuana. I didn’t realize it was more than that for a while. Sebastian wasn’t a fan of hers because of it. He thought she would drag me down. He didn’t think she was as into me as I was her. It turns out, he was right.”
He then tells me the story of how he found her on ecstasy one night. He tried to take away the drugs and get her out of a bad situation, but the police came and arrested him for possession.
“I was suspended from the team pending a drug test. When that eventually came back clear, I was reinstated to the team. I was excited to tell Mandy. She was beside herself with guilt over the fact that she may have cost me my dream. I couldn’t wait to go and tell her I was back on the team and she didn’t need to feel guilty anymore.”
He looks down as if it still pains him all these years later. “I walked into her room, and she was in bed naked with two men. I don’t know what she was on, but it was extreme. She was completely out of it. I lost my temper and grabbed one of the men. He reached for something sharp and started swinging aimlessly. He ended up stabbing me in the elbow.”
“That big scar? I’ve seen it.”
He nods. “Yes. It sliced through every tendon and muscle. My career ended in that moment.”
I stop and wrap my arms around him. “Oh, Dominic, I’m so sorry. That must have been terrible for you.”
“I was completely devastated and heartbroken at the time, both because of my baseball career ending and losing Mandy. But it’s been twenty-five years. I’ve moved past it.”
“What happened to her?”
He shrugs. “I don’t know. I never saw or spoke to her again after I left her bedroom for the hospital. She dropped out of school and disappeared. I was angry. I didn’t consider chasing after her. I had never met any of her family. She said she had none. She vanished, and I was too messed up to do anything about it.”
“You never looked her up?”
“Before I left for Cuba, Sebastian suggested looking her up for some closure. Obviously, my experience with her shaped my relationships with women for the past twenty-five years. In thinking about it over the past year, I realized that going to the sex club enabled me to keep women at arm’s length. No feelings, no pain. I had confided in him that I was planning to ask you and Luke to move in with us, and he encouraged me to reach out to Mandy to finally get some closure before doing so.”
What? That’s news to me. “I didn’t know that you wanted us to move in.”
“I never got the chance to discuss it with you before I left.” He’s quiet for a brief moment. “I did search her name. Nothing much came up. She lives in Philly and has a daughter. There was nothing else.”
“Do you want to speak with her?”
“I’m indifferent to it. It doesn’t take a shrink for me to know that I kept an emotional distance from women because of how much she hurt and betrayed me. I would have liked a proper goodbye, and perhaps to know what I did wrong, but that was a long time ago.” He takes me in his arms. “Maybe I was just waiting for you my whole life, princesa.”
I want that to be true, but I think I agree with Sebastian. He has no closure on his first love. It impacted him so deeply that he never dated anyone until me. That can’t be healthy.
I momentarily forget about the troubles of his past when his lips brush across mine and he gifts me with the sweetest kiss. It’s not intended to lead anywhere. He’s simply loving me.
It’s taken all of twelve hours for me to completely fall back in love with him. If I’m being honest with myself, I know in my heart that I never stopped.
I do want things to work out, but we have to take it slow. We’re both damaged.
---
“Luke, hurry up. I need to get to work.”
“I’m coming, Mommy.”
He walks down with his hair combed perfectly. It’s always messy, so I know something is up. He’s also wearing his favorite blue shirt, the one he only wears for special occasions.
I give him a skeptical look.
