Page 6 of Aftersome
“Stop. You’re gonna make me cry.” I laughed, feeling a single tear slide down the curve of my cheek and down my chin.
“I am, though. I am so proud of all you’ve done and accomplished,” she continued. “Greg and I are so thankful and so proud to be a part of your life, Wren. You have no idea how much we love you.”
It hurt too much to cry. Nearly a decade of my life was spent with red-rimmed, sore eyes and although right now these were happy tears, it was still painful.
“Shelia…” I shook my head in hopes she would stop, but instead she reached for my hand and intertwined our fingers.
“Trust me, I didn’t plan on making us both cry when I came here tonight.” She laughed through her tears, causing my hazy eyes to meet hers. “I just… I wish I could go back in time, when you were the lost twenty-two-year-old girl, or the mad-at-the-world twenty-six-year-old, and tell her just how proud of you I was.”
My heart clenched in the worst possible way.
“You let us into your life when you didn’t have to, and we know…” She choked up. “We know we aren’t your parents, but we will always love you like you are ours.”
Dropping my head, I inhaled deeply.
“Always, Wren. And Hayes.”
My head instantly lifted.
I’d seen Shelia smile many times. I’d seen her sad and every emotion in between but the way she was looking at me now nearly knocked me off my axis.
“Hayes would be so proud of the woman you’ve become.” She tried to smile, but it fell short on a cry. “Not would be, he is. I know he is… So proud, Wren.”
My lip quivered.
My eyes burned with the tears that desperately wanted to fall as I held tightly onto her words the best I could without falling apart. Though it was nearly impossible, I managed to close the distance between us and throw my arms around her in a hug. The expression on her face, the heartrending sound of her cries, I couldn’t take it.
We had held on to each other for the longest time. Soaking in the importance of this moment and what it meant to us.
What we had overcome and the hurdles we were still overcoming.
“He’d be proud of you too, you know,” I whispered. “He’d be proud of both you and Greg.”
She didn’t say anything in return, but she didn’t have to.
The steady drops of tears on my shoulder was all the response I needed.
Hours later, we were officially full of pasta and hanging out in the living room when Shelia spoke.
“Okay, I lied,” she broke the silence over a Dove commercial. Immediately my brows clashed together as I shot a confused look in her direction. “I didn’t just come over here to drop off some leftovers.”
Her shoulders fell sluggishly as she refused to make eye contact with me.
“Okay.” I laughed. “Then why else did you come here?”
Bringing my legs up onto the couch, I watched as she gnawed profusely on her bottom lip. With her lack of eye contact and constant fidgeting, I could instantly sense her uneasiness.
Frankly, her uneasiness was beginning to rub off on me and I knew within seconds of her not responding, I had to react. So quickly reaching for the TV remote, I pressed down onto the power button, forcing her to finally glance over at me.
“I…” she began, but then suddenly stopped as she took a deep breath in. Whatever it was she wanted to tell me had her stressing.
Heart hammering, I smiled at her in reassurance.
It couldn’t be that bad, right?
“I… I’m just going to say it. Greg and I need your help, Wren.”
My heart sunk imagining the worst. Was something wrong with Greg? Or could there be something wrong with her? Everyand any scenario you could ever imagine was currently playing my head and wreaking havoc on my already pounding heart. I couldn’t even process what she said, let alone speak.
