Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
He couldn’t imagine a parent putting anyone over their child. Shane’s mom was a lot of things, but he knew she would never let anyone physically hurt him.
“So you came for her?” he confirmed.
“Yes and no. I think I need to try. I’ll always wonder if I don’t. And maybe I just knew I needed to make peace with my past to fully move on. She’s going to sell the house. I figured I can help her pack and clean things out. Then I’m gone.”
The word gone hit Shane in the chest, nearly stealing his breath. Shane would never be gone…. I have a life here. I’m happy. And in a lot of ways, he was. Still, he envied Van—the ability to go when he wanted to. He also realized the two of them might have more in common than they ever thought they did.
Van was there. Despite how his mom had let him suffer, he was there. Unless… Shane’s spine went rigid. “Did he hurt her, too?”
“Fuck no,” Van replied sharply. “I would have never left her alone with him if he had. He saved that for me. I was the disappointment. I was the one he wanted to walk in his footsteps. Make him proud.”
Shane sighed, leaned back in the chair, and took a drink of his beer. A breeze rushed through the trees and he saw Van shudder. If it was from the chill, or his memories, Shane didn’t know. What he did know was that nothing was as it seemed. No, that wasn’t true. Van had still been wrong in what he’d done, but his life wasn’t what Shane had always thought it was. Van’s reasons for his actions weren’t what Shane thought, and that somehow altered how he viewed the past. It still hurt, but in a different way.
“They really have the ability to fuck us up, don’t they?” he asked.
Van looked up at him, honesty in his eyes. He obviously knew exactly what Shane meant… “Yeah…yeah, they do. How is she?”
The hairs on the back of Shane’s neck rose.
Shane’s mom is crazy.
What happened to her?
What’s wrong with her?
He shook his head. The last thing he wanted to talk to Van about was his mom. He must’ve understood because Van nodded and said, “I’m sorry.” He looked out over the water then. His forehead wrinkled when he squinted his eyes. “It really is beautiful out here. I forgot how beautiful Last Chance could be. It didn’t look like this to me anymore…not by the time I left.”
Shane took in the water, the trees, all that fucking green. He couldn’t imagine looking around and not seeing the beauty there. Yes, he had his resentments but he couldn’t look around him and not appreciate this. “Don’t let other people steal your joy. If there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s not to let other people take what you love. Hold onto that shit.”
Van’s eyes snapped up to him. Just as he opened his mouth to answer, the ring of a phone broke through the quiet.
Van pulled his cell out of his pocket, before silencing the call. It made Shane take a glance at his which sat on the arm of the chair, to make sure he hadn’t somehow missed a call from his mom.
“Shit,” Van said. “I should go. I need to go help my mom.”
His mom. Van was in town helping his mom despite the pain she’d let him endure…the same way Shane did with his own mother.
Van pushed to his feet. He was so damn different from what Shane remembered. His hair wasn’t cut as short as it had been, and had grown out in curls. He had scruff on his face and kindness in his eyes.
“Thank you…for asking me out here. For listening.”
Unable to reply, Shane nodded.
Van took a few steps away, then stopped. “I probably don’t have the right to ask you this but…would you want to have a beer or something while I’m here?”
“You won’t be busy with Jonathan?” Shane found himself asking.
“No. I ran into him yesterday and I have no plan to rekindle any kind of friendship there. We’re just too different. He reminds me of what I don’t want to be.”
Shane didn’t answer. Time stretched between them until Van finally said, “That’s okay. I understand.”
He took another few steps before Shane’s mouth opened and the words, “Round Table,” tumbled out. “I hang out at Round Table. I’ll probably be there around nine tonight.”
There was a short pause and then Van said, “Yeah, I’ll probably be there around nine too.”
CHAPTER NINE
“Where were you?” Van’s mom asked when he stepped back into the house. A heaviness sat on his chest just from being inside.
He still couldn’t believe he’d spent time with Shane that morning. That Shane had been willing to talk to him at all. But he had, and they were going for a beer later. He wasn’t sure what made him ask Shane. Maybe because he liked his company, which he did. Maybe because Shane intrigued him, which he did. And also, maybe because Shane was the only person in the town Van thought he might understand, which oddly, he did.