Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
The softness in her expression as she gazed up at me always seemed to fix the shit in my chest. It had been that way since the first day I had walked into Momma’s house to fix her broken dishwasher, only to find Salem sitting at the kitchen table with school books spread out. She’d lifted her head, and those eyes had met mine. I could still remember feeling like someone had sucked all the oxygen from my lungs.
She had been a month away from turning sixteen, and I was nineteen. I didn’t live at home anymore and had gotten an apartment with a friend of mine. I’d decided college wasn’t for me, and I’d gone to trade school instead and gotten certified in motorcycle repair with a specialization in Harley-Davidsons. I had just started working at a place halfway between McIntosh, where Mom lived, and Ocala when Salem came to live with her.
Everything in my life changed that day. The plan I had set for my future shifted, and she was the only path I wanted. The only one I could see.
When Mom sent me pictures of Salem with some fucker, all dressed up for prom, I threw the wrench in my hand through the Sheetrock. Following that, I got drunk, broke things off with the girl I’d been fucking, and decided I was moving back to McIntosh. Giving Salem time to grow up, graduate—hell, become legal—was no longer in the cards. I had to go protect what was mine. Even if she didn’t know it yet.
And I did. Then she left me one year later. She graduated, got a scholarship in art, and went off to pursue her dream. Momma was so fucking proud. She was getting to do what Momma had always wanted to do herself. But instead of getting to create art for a living, Momma had had to settle for teaching it to high school kids. Which was how she’d found Salem. How she’d saved Salem from an abusive home and brought her into hers. Salem had become ours.
Bending my head, I pressed a kiss to her lips, wishing I could pull her against me and taste the candy sweetness of her mouth. But now wasn’t the time. I’d been gone too long. Mom needed us.
“Let’s go,” I said, then reached down to thread my fingers through hers before leading her down the hallway that would haunt my dreams.
Salem’s tiny hand squeezed mine, and although simple, it gave me strength. She’d be there with me through it all. When my world was yanked out from under me and Momma was…gone, I’d have Salem to help me find a way to make it without her.
When I had been three years old, the man who had helped create me left Mom for his younger secretary. He’d gotten her pregnant and wanted to have a family with her. Although I knew Mom had left the door open for communication, he never contacted me, reached out, or tried to have a relationship with me.
It was just me and her.
Every football and baseball game, she’d been there. Cheering me on. When I was sick, it was Mom who took care of me. When I’d decided college wasn’t for me and I chose not to take the baseball scholarship to the University of Florida but instead became a motorcycle mechanic, she’d stood by me.
She wanted me to live the life I chose. Not one she chose for me.
The only thing in my life that I’d wanted that she didn’t approve of was Salem.
Mom loved her like her own daughter and had worked hard to get Salem a scholarship so she could do something with her gift. That was what she called Salem’s art—a gift. She swore she’d never seen someone so young who could create such intense emotion with the stroke of her brush.
“She’s young, Rome. And her soul has been damaged. It’s one of the reasons her art is so deep, so moving. And you, my beautiful boy, want different things. You see life in another light. One she doesn’t fit into. There is only heartbreak in your future if you continue this. Let her go now before it’s too late. Before you love her.”
That had been the month before Salem left for college. I’d wanted to laugh. Before I love her? I’d been in love with her since day one. That ship had sailed before I took my next breath. I’d never had a chance to not fall in love with her.
Stopping outside the door that led into Mom’s room, I prepared myself for the frail woman who was lying inside on that bed. She looked nothing like the vibrant, smiling beauty she had once been. Cancer had taken its toll on her body.
Salem pressed a kiss to my biceps since her head barely reached my shoulder, and I pushed the door open, then stood back for her to go inside first. Mom’s eyes were closed, and if it wasn’t for the heart monitor, I’d think she’d passed on. So pale and still. So fucking small.