Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91748 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Picnic. I turned away from him before I winced. Another picnic. A reminder I didn’t need right now, but I couldn’t explain that to Calvin. Well, maybe I could. I just would rather die first.
“Where did you find a Popeye’s?” I asked him, walking toward the bathroom.
“It’s Mississippi,” he replied. “It wasn’t hard.”
I hadn’t been out of the confines of this property. How was I to know what fast-food chains were close by?
“You got the loaded Cajun fries?” I asked.
“I said I got your favorite, didn’t I? I also got the Big Easy sandwich in case you had an appetite.”
There was no way I’d be able to eat all of that, but we always shared, and Calvin could finish it off alone, if given the chance.
“Hurry up. I’ve got it in a temperature-controlled container, but I don’t know how long it will keep it warm.”
I quickly washed my face and dried it before glancing back at myself in the mirror. Calvin was here. He always knew how to make things okay. Cheer me up.
But this time, I wasn’t sure that would be the case.
Thirty-Nine
Forge
Mom looked healthier than she had in a long time. The pale, sick appearance that had been so fucking hard to see was gone. She was still too thin, but she was eating, talking more. She’d even gotten up and cooked breakfast the past two mornings. All our favorites—Kash’s pancakes, my cheese grits, and Oz’s sausage balls.
We’d laughed together at the table this morning while Mom retold the time that Kash had stuffed his boiled eggs into the potted plant near the back door so he wouldn’t have to eat them. The smell that began after a week or so got so bad that my parents were convinced there was a dead animal in the walls. They even called in a contractor to see about cutting a piece out to get the animal extracted. Then Dad moved the potted plant, and he saw the hidden boiled eggs. The smell had made him gag so bad that he almost vomited all over the plant and Mom’s Persian rug. It had been good to feel like we were normal again. Enjoying each other. The shit I had taken for granted. Thought would always be there for me when I needed it.
Maybe the treatments had been killing her. She was strong. She didn’t need them to fight this. Did she? She sure seemed like she was beating it.
Kash and Oz had already left for the day. I stayed around. Not wanting to leave. Reassuring myself she was okay and hadn’t written her death sentence by coming home.
Sinking down onto the sofa in the living room, I set my soda down on the table beside me. Mom was reading a book, and she looked up, smiling at me.
“I thought you had left with the others,” she said.
I shook my head. “No. Didn’t have any plans today.”
She closed her book and rested it in her lap. “That’s very unlike you,” she replied. “I can’t imagine sitting around the house with your mother is very thrilling for you.”
“Don’t want to be anywhere else.”
Her chest rose and fell with a deep sigh. I could already tell that this was about to become a talk I did not want. I just wanted to be here with her. No talk about other things that I was trying not to think about.
“Forge, you can’t just sit here with me every day. That’s not a way to live life. You must soak it up, enjoy every moment. My wild middle child who I can always count on to be up to no good. Don’t sit here with your mother while you can be finding things worth living for out there. Or someone worth living for. You won’t find her under this roof. All the females that come and go here are taken.”
The teasing lilt to her voice made me smile.
“Not looking for a female, Momma,” I told her even though there was a pair of silver eyes haunting me. Especially when I lay down at night.
The worry that she was having a nightmare alone was eating away at me. I’d almost cracked and gone home in the middle of the night to check on her. But after the way I’d yelled at her, I didn’t think I’d be welcomed in her bed. I wouldn’t blame her either. I’d handled that poorly.
“Hmm,” she said, raising her brows as if she didn’t believe me.
I’d seen that look on her face a thousand times in my life.
“I’m not,” I repeated.
She reached over and picked up her cup of tea. “I see. So, the friend of Calvin’s you’ve been spending so much time with means nothing.”
My brows snapped together. How the hell did she know about Elsie? We weren’t supposed to tell her.