Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78048 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
“She talked about my grandma,” I admit, and anger fills her eyes.
“Is that all she did?”
Shrugging, I mutter, “She told me to stay away from Colton, that he’s hers. That you have been trying to get them back together.”
“Has Colton talked to you about what happened to him?” she questions, and I nod, watching her shoulders slump. “When she broke up with him, I got where she was coming from. I understood the future they planned was ripped apart and that she was scared of the unknown, scared of being with a man who would never walk again. I understood that, because I was suddenly faced with the reality that my baby boy might never walk and that things with him might not ever be the same.” She pulls in a breath then lets it out. “I should have realized what she did was wrong in a way that it would never be right. If she really loved my son the way she said she did, she would accept him whole or broken. Some of this is my fault,” she whispers the end, and I see tears gathering in her eyes. “I didn’t think about what it said to him when she left him during a time when she should have held on tighter. I just wanted everything to be back to the way it should have been. I wanted to know my boy could still have the future he had planned for himself.”
“Rose,” I whimper, seeing the tears now falling freely from her eyes and running down her cheeks.
“Colton’s dad was pissed at me for even trying to get them back together, but I didn’t understand why until you moved to town, when he asked m-me…” Her words end on a sob that kills me to hear. Pulling out a few Kleenexes from the box on the desk, I hand them to her then wrap my hand around her arm and rub, trying to comfort her in some way.
“He… he asked me what if it was me who was shot and lost use of my legs? How would I feel if he told me that he couldn’t be with me, because he couldn’t handle the idea of me never walking again? Then what would I do if I got use of my legs back, and he suddenly came around wanting things to go back to how they were?” she finishes on another sob, and I flinch in response. “When he explained it to me like that, I finally understood.” She sniffles, and I wonder what I should say, what I could possibly do to make this better for her. “I get it now, and I know I messed up by even talking to her.”
“You were doing what you thought was right for Colton,” I comfort quietly, and she shakes her head in denial.
“I was doing what was right for me. I didn’t want to remember what happened. I wanted to pretend like everything was the same.” She’s right about that, but I don’t say anything. I just wait for her crying to die down. “I’m sorry for dumping all of that on you.”
“It’s all right,” I assure her, then ask, “are you okay?”
“Better now.” She wipes under her eyes. “I think I needed to get that out of my system,” she says, giving me a watery smile. “I’ll make it clear to Lisa that she is not allowed here anymore from now on.”
“I don’t want to cause any problems,” I tell her honestly. “Lisa already has it out for me, so I don’t really want to give her more of a reason to hate me than she already does.”
“Her coming here and upsetting you is the problem, honey. And Colton has made it clear he doesn’t want to be around her either, so I’m not only doing this for you. I’m doing this for my son.”
“Okay,” I agree, even though a part of me doesn’t want to give Lisa the satisfaction of knowing she affected my life or Colton’s, in anyway.
Reaching over, she wraps her hands around the tops of mine in my lap. “My son cares a lot about you.”
“I—”
“I won’t tell him what I saw on the video, but I think you should talk to him about what happened,” she urges, and I swallow, lifting my chin and letting her know I heard her. “You can trust him.”
“I’ll talk to him,” I agree, thinking it’s not exactly a lie, since I will talk to him. I just don’t know when I will do that.
“Good.” She lets my hands go. “Go on. I’ll be out as soon as I finish up this order.”
With a nod, I get up and shut the door behind me as I leave her in the office. Pouring myself a cup of coffee, I mix in creamer and two spoons of sugar then lean with my elbows on the gleaming wood surface of the bar as I take a sip from the cup in my hands. I still have a little bit of cleaning to finish up, but nothing that can’t wait.