Page 72 of The Rest is History

I begin to eat slowly, wondering how I’m going to finish everything. My mother is as she has always been. Food is love. So, what can I do but eat?

She joins me at the table with a cup of tea. Setting her elbows on the table, she gives me a big smile. Man, she’s gotten old over the last five years, since Dad died. I return her gaze, wondering how I got so lucky. My mother is an amazing woman.

“How is Sawyer?” she asks.

I laugh. “First of all, I’m fine.”

She swats my arm. “He’s my favorite.”

“That’s illegal. You’re not allowed to have favorites.” With a smile playing on my lips, I say, “He’s fine.”

“Busy at the woodlot?”

“Yeah. He’s been working a lot these last few months.”

“Tell him to slow down. I worry about my baby.”

I give her another scowl. “And this baby?” I point to myself. “You don’t worry about him?”

She laughs. “You’re my other favorite. And I don’t worry about you as much as I used to. My Sawyer is too good to you.”

“The pie is great,” I say.

She nods and, of course, gets up to get me another piece. “Tell me what’s been going on around your parts,” she says when she returns.

“If you stayed near us you’d know.”

She waves me off. “This is my home. Dad said this is where we’ll grow old. So this is where I’m growing old.”

My heart thuds a little harder at the thought of telling my mother about Reece. But she loved him like a son, and I know how much it hurt her too when we had to leave. She didn’t want to leave him, but in the end she had to choose between my wellbeing and his.

So, I just come out with it. “You remember Reece, right, Mom?”

Her eyes immediately cloud over. “Oh, honey. How could I forget Reece? He was like a son to me.”

“He called me a few months ago.”

She smiles. “He got brave?”

“I think so.”

“How is he, Asher? Really, how is he?”

“He hasn’t had a good time these last few years.”

“How so?” Her forehead creases with a frown. “What happened to him, honey?”

“Well, he got married about three years ago.”

Her face hardens. “To who?”

“Someone named Julie.”

My mother scoffs. “Must have been his father’s idea. Reece denied everything, but he knew the truth. I don’t understand that man, Ash. I was so scared he’d do something to you when that journal came out.”

“Yeah. I hate him so much.”

“I know. I know, baby. But, at the same time, you’ve got to let all that rage go at some point, you know? He’s a bad man for how he treated his own son, but we can’t hold onto the bad feelings forever.”

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