Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107944 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 540(@200wpm)___ 432(@250wpm)___ 360(@300wpm)
“I am clean. I am. I just had a bad night. It’s fine. Take me to your dad,” he ordered, coughing up blood.
“I can drive him over,” I offered. “My car’s right around the corner at the bakery. It’s not a big deal.”
“It is a big deal,” Aiden said through gritted teeth, but he agreed.
He helped get Jake into my car, and I drove over to the Walters’s house. As Jake lay in the back of the car, he mumbled, “I didn’t know you were back in town, Aiden. If I did, I would’ve visited.”
Aiden huffed. “Yeah. Just like you did all those other times while I was growing up,” he sarcastically remarked.
I was no stranger to the relationship between Aiden and Jake. Or more so, the lack of a relationship. The Walters, or Samuel, thought it was important to keep Jake in Aiden’s life. Laurie wanted nothing of the sort. From a young age, Aiden felt special enough to have two fathers. That was until he realized that Jake wasn’t the most consistent one in the world. At a young age, Jake would make grand promises about how he’d take Aiden to baseball games. About how he’d always show up for birthdays. About how he’d get sober for Aiden.
Aiden thought it was a big deal—someone wanting to get clean because of him.
Yet Jake always let him down, time and time again.
Some days, when we were kids, I’d show up at Aiden’s house and find him waiting on his front porch with a baseball bat and ball because Jake said he’d take him to the dugout to practice batting.
He’d sit there until the sun went down and his parents made him come inside.
Then he’d do it again another day. And another. And another. Until one day, he realized that Jake’s words were empty promises that would never come true. If there was ever a reason for Aiden to have trust issues, it was because of Jake Walters. I knew that was why it hurt Aiden to his core when he found out that his father was the reason he and I stopped talking five years ago. Samuel was supposed to be to him what Jake never could’ve been—honest.
After parking the car, I helped Aiden walk Jake up the steps and waited for one of Aiden’s parents to answer the door.
When Samuel appeared, he grew alert when he saw his beat up and bruised cousin Jake standing on the porch. “What the hell happened?” he asked, pushing open his screen door.
“What do you think happened? It’s Jake. He did what Jake does best—fucked up. He asked to be dropped off here, so here you go.” Aiden lightly shoved Jake into his father’s arms and turned to walk away. I felt completely uncomfortable, so I followed his lead.
“Aiden, wait,” Samuel said, calling out to his son. “We should talk.”
“I don’t have anything to say to you.”
“Son—”
“Have a good night, Samuel,” Aiden said coldly.
I felt the sting from his words as Samuel took a step back. My heart slightly cracked as I watched Samuel shatter within his own eyes. I wanted to give him comfort, but I knew Aiden deserved my gentleness at that moment. Samuel wasn’t my concern—his son was.
The two of us got into my car and drove away. The ride was silent, and I wasn’t exactly sure where we were heading. Aiden hadn’t spoken a word, and his hands were still in fists as he stared with a stern look out the passenger window. His right foot tapped aggressively against the floor mat.
I pulled the car over to the side of the road and placed it in park before I turned to Aiden. “Talk to me.”
“I don’t have anything to say.”
“You didn’t have anything to say to your father, which is understandable. But it’s me, Aiden. You can tell me everything.”
“I sure couldn’t for the past five years,” he snapped. Then his shoulders lowered, and he cussed under his breath. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to say that.”
“Maybe you did, and that’s okay.” I placed my hand against his shoulder and turned him toward me. “You’re allowed to be mad at me, too, Aiden. You can say anything to me—even the hard stuff that might hurt me.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” His blue eyes looked so heartbroken. “You’re the last person I’d ever want to hurt.”
“Tell me the hard parts, and I’ll help you through them.”
“Seeing Jake didn’t bother me. Don’t get me wrong, it was hard and irritating, but that was Jake just being Jake. He’d been that way my whole life. But facing my father? The one who wasn’t supposed to be a hot mess? The one who I’d looked up to my whole life and just learned that he lied to me for five years straight? That’s the hardest part. Because now it feels as if I’m staring straight into the eyes of a man I never knew.”