AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You feeling up to walking down with me?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Slides and sling,” she insists.
***
Walking out the front door, we find our way to the wood-slated walkway that leads over the dunes to the beach.
“It’s a bit colder than I thought it would be. Sorry, sweetheart.”
“It’s a new adventure and gets me moving. Don’t be sorry. It’s good for me.”
“Hurting worse today?”
“I feel much better than last night,” I admit but quickly add, “Which was better than I thought I’d be.”
“That’s”—she pauses and clears her throat—“good. Very good.”
“Your daughter’s a detective, Deborah York. Spill the beans.”
When she pauses, it hits me right in the tits.
“Oh God, did you hear?—”
“Not unless you wanted me to.”
“Mom, I hope you know I was?—”
“On drugs and venting?”
I nod.
“I hope that some of those parts were true. Like the part about me being a strong role model.”
“I mean, of course that was.”
“And so was the part of me fighting the bonebags. I would do that, but please, don’t ever put yourself in a place where you could be locked up.”
“Promise me that you won’t talk about me being …” I hold my hand over my belly because there is a highly likely chance that what happened in college has made it impossible to stay?—
She gasps and holds her hand over her mouth. “Are you? Right now, are you?” She leans in and whispers, “With child?”
“No.” I fire off a lie so quickly that I know.
“Gwendolyn?” she says as quickly. “College?”
“Holy motherfuuuu … shit.” I throw my hands in the air. “Please tell me what you actually heard so that I can just?—”
She stands in front of me, shaking her head, hands over her mouth.
“Mom, breathe.” I give her hand a gentle squeeze.
“‘Our Song,’ pro-baller cum, and calorie? Big Mac. The wonderful things about me, and”—she pauses—“fucking rocks?”
“Okay, well, until an actual baby comes out of me, you heard nothing. I’m having a hell of a time thinking about going through that again, physically and emotionally, and I can’t, Mom. I can’t handle it if people know. It would make it so much harder. You and Leland, that’s it. Promise?”
When her lips form a tight line, telling me that she’s literally holding something back, I ask, “Mom?”
