Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72196 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 361(@200wpm)___ 289(@250wpm)___ 241(@300wpm)
I knew better, though. She’d hold dinner until midnight if she had to. Then my father would call me all pissed off because he was made to wait, and I’d never hear the end of it.
“I don’t know…”
“Finley and Leida are here for the weekend. I’d count it as a favor if you deigned to grace us with your presence. I already know that Hannah, the girls, and TJ will be coming.”
I winced, remembering that Alex would be there tonight. I’d forgotten that she was coming, which instantly made me feel like shit.
What I loved, though, was that she had no problem speaking directly to Hannah.
They had a special relationship, and had from the very start.
The first day that my mother had met Hannah had been the day that Hannah had come to my office to tell me that she was pregnant. It’d all been rather awkward, and to be honest, I was fairly sure that my mother fell in love with Hannah, right then and there.
***
250 days ago
“Thanks for lunch, Mom,” I murmured softly. “Are you okay?”
My mom looked every single one of her sixty-six years, and she hadn’t used to. She was a farmer’s wife, and later a businessman’s wife. She’d always aged well, but the passing of Dante’s wife and children, as well as my sister taking her life, had taken its toll on her.
She wasn’t the same smiling woman that she used to be, and I could understand why.
It didn’t mean that it hurt any less to see.
“I’m okay, baby.” She smiled. “I’m heading to see Tobias and Finley this weekend. Was there anything you wanted me to take to them?”
I shook my head. “I sent the stuff I had for Tobias in the mail last week. He got it and sent it back to me already.”
She nodded, her eyes taking on a faraway look as her eyes focused on Dante’s empty office door.
“How’s Dante?”
I didn’t have any good news for her. What Dante was, was not good. In fact, if there was one thing he was, it was a mess.
“He’ll get there, Ma,” I soothed.
I didn’t mention that my brother had gotten rip roaring drunk two weeks ago and fucked some random woman he’d met at the club, and then had skipped town the next day.
Though, it wouldn’t be long before she knew.
Especially since that same girl was the same woman who was the hostess at the club for a little over a month—that was before Dante had broken her with whatever he’d said or did. She wasn’t a gossip by any means. In fact, she was so quiet, I never would’ve expected her to go for Dante in the first place.
She’d lived across the street from me for a little over two months before she’d shown up for a job interview. The man in charge of hiring hadn’t known the connection to me, and had taken her on with exuberance because we were so short staffed.
It would only be later, when Dante was taking her home and showing up at my house the next day hungover as hell asking for a ride, when we realized who exactly she was.
Regardless of what Dante had done, it was a big fucking mess. She knew that Dante was in no place to be doing what they did, and she showed that by leaving the very next day. Everyone in the entire freakin’ town had known about Dante. Everyone, including her.
We hadn’t seen her since.
“I hope so,” she whispered, voice shaking. “I miss them so much. It’s so hard not being able to kiss them. I miss waking them up from their nap and having baby girl ask me to bake something.”
Baby girl was what my mother called Dante’s eldest. She was the second grandchild in the family, and since Leida, her first grandchild, didn’t live here, she’d been the most spoiled. Then came along Dante’s baby, and my mother was in love.
From the moment Dante and his wife had returned to work after having her, my mother had watched them instead of them being taken to daycare.
Now, my mother had time on her hands, and she used that time to think about the things that she could no longer change. Now she used most of her free time to bother me, and visit with our other brothers who lived a couple of hours east.
“I know you do, Mom,” I grunted and stood, wrapping my arms around her. She was smaller than the last time I did this. “You need to eat more.”
She started to laugh a watery laugh, and my belly clenched.
“I want you to find a woman, Travis,” she whispered. “I want you…”
A knock came at my door, and I looked up to see Tate Casey standing there. “You have a visitor.”
I looked past Tate’s shoulder to see Hannah shifting from foot to foot nervously.