Page 44 of Every Sunset
“Don’t mom, please,” he pleaded as his eyes met mine. “I already feel so shitty. I let that ass call you trailer trash. I let him say you were a bad parent, and I fucking agreed with him. I should have had your back, just like you always have mine, and I didn’t. Thank fuck Logan and Madd were there.” His voice was so tight as he spoke, and I could see the glassiness in his eyes.
“No Max. It’s not your responsibility to look out for me, that’s not how this works. I protect you. You didn’t do anything wrong, you hear me? And I don’t need anyone to back me up. I’ve been taking care of myself my entire life. I’d have handled things myself last night if I needed to.”
I know,” he nodded. “But I’m glad they were there for you. I don’t like you always having to handle everything. You deserve someone who cares about you too. I think Logan and Maddox do.” He looked to me pointedly, but I wasn’t replying to that comment. There was no way I was discussing my messed up love life with my fifteen year old son. “And as for the other thing, I should always back you up, mom. We’re a team, like you always say, and I was far from a team player last night. That won’t ever happen again.”
“How about we just start over this morning, huh? Forget about last night? Logan told me something. He said every sunset is a chance for a fresh start. How about we take that fresh start this morning and run with it?” I suggested, knowing we wouldn’t get anywhere with the back and forth we were entering into. Max wanted to protect me and I wanted to protect him. Neither of us were going to back down on that.
“Yeah, okay,” he agreed. “But mom. I love you. I know how lucky I am to have you. You have always been, and will always be, the best mom I could ever wish for. I’m sorry if I made you doubt that last night.”
“I love you too, honey,” I told him as I got to my feet and went to him, wrapping my arms tightly around him. Maybe it was time I accepted that he was almost a grown man, instead of constantly fighting it. I was just so afraid though. I dreaded the day that he wouldn’t need me any longer. I’d always be there for him, of course, but I didn’t know who I was without taking care of him constantly.
CHAPTER 18
ANNA
It was after ten that night when I finished up the late shift Cat had given me at the diner. Greg, the cook, had told me he would lock up as he walked me to my car. I hadn’t argued because I was exhausted. It had been a while since I last worked a shift waitressing and I had forgotten how much hard work it could be. Not that I was complaining. The work had been familiar and comfortable, and Cat’s diner was one of the cleanest and most modern I’d ever worked in. As I’d told her the night before, I would happily take any shift she could offer me.
But it had been a long twenty-four hours with the events of the night before, and me not sleeping. Max and I had eaten a late breakfast together, and things between us had seemed to feel normal again, but I think we were both carrying guilt, not just about our actions the night before, but about everything that had happened in past weeks. It was like this enormous, ever increasing bubble of tension between us. I was desperate to break it, but I just didn’t know how.
Then there was what had happened between Logan and I in the pool before Max’s call. I’d given in to my desires and it had been so much more than I thought it could be, and that had just been a taster of what I could have with Logan and Maddox if I chose to give things a go with them. My resolve to keep pushing themboth away had definitely crumbled down a whole lot more since Logan had given me a taster of how amazing sex could be. I hadn’t known what I was missing out on before, but now that I did, I just wanted more.
Clearing my mind of all of the noise that had been trying to distract me all day, I started my car and set off for home, wanting nothing more than to just fall into my comfortable bed and just sleep.
I was about halfway home, out on the now deserted road that led out to home, when some asshole sped up behind me and shone his high beams through my back window. Cursing I slowed down and pulled further over to the edge of the road so the asshole would just go around. I was too tired to drive any faster, not that I was much below the speed restriction on that road anyway.
“Fuck me!” I growled when he didn’t go around, but instead just got even closer to the tail end of my car. I slammed my hand on the horn, worried he was going to drive right into me, then started lowering the window to wave him past me. I was wondering if he was drunk. It would make sense with the way he was driving.
I’d just wound my window down with the old and creaky lever - no fancy electric for me in my relic of a car - when finally the asshole behind me slowed up enough to pull back from my rear slightly. He moved to go around and I sighed with relief, working to roll my window back up as he started around me.
But he didn’t go around me. Instead of driving past, he veered his car towards mine violently, hitting the rear driver’s side so hard the whole car spun out of my control. I cried out as I grabbed the wheel with both hands and tried to correct the course, but it was too late. The car ran off of the edge of the roadstraight into a tree, head on. I was wrenched forward, as the metal of the car screeched, and bent in front of, and around me. The windscreen had smashed and glass rained down over me as my head bounced off of the steering wheel. The seat belt was the only thing that held me in place and I could feel it digging into my shoulder and chest as my hands flailed around to find purchase anywhere I could.
Then there was silence, other than the frantic gasps of breath coming from me. I lifted my head and instantly regretted moving as pain tore through me. Blood was trickling from my forehead and my right leg felt as though it were pinned in by the mangled front end of my car. Branches from the tree I had hit were pointed in through the smashed windscreen, and apart from the overhead light that had come on in my car, I sat in utter darkness. Even the headlights of my car were out, likely destroyed by the impact.
I listened for the car that had hit me, but all I heard was sounds from the woods around me, and there were no lights on the road from the car either.
“Drunk asshole!” I groaned as I reached for the handle on my door and pulled on it, praying it would open. Visions of the car catching fire and exploding like they always did in the movies were playing in my mind and I was desperate to get out of there.
Luckily for me, the door opened with a loud creak and I lifted my left leg out, placing it down on the rough verge that ran the edge of the road. My head was throbbing, as were my chest and shoulder from the seatbelt, but the bleeding from the cut on my head was slowing, and nothing else was hurting more than a dull ache. I had to wrench my other leg free of the twisted metal holding it in place, but I got it free and studied it closer, relievedwhen all I found was a deepish scratch that was bleeding a little. All things considered, I knew I’d gotten off lightly.
I grabbed my purse from where it had fallen into the footwell of the passenger seat, then got out of the car and collapsed onto the ground around ten feet from the wreckage.
I pulled out my cell as I sat trying to catch my breath and calm the adrenaline coursing through me. I should call the cops, but I couldn’t do that. The last thing I wanted was to garner interest of any type from the cops. Instead I found Logan’s contact and dialed it. I hated to call him when it was so late, but I needed a ride, and I’d need helped to get the wreckage of my car towed before the police found it and started asking questions.
“Hey Anna. You just getting home?” Logan asked the second he picked up my call. I hadn’t seen him or Maddox that day yet and to say I missed them was just too pathetic for me to even admit to myself, but I couldn’t deny the relief and emotion that flooded me at just the sound of Logan’s deep voice.
“Er, no. Not quite,” I answered a little shakily.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“It’s been better,” I sighed as I readjusted my position to try to ease the pain in my chest. “Some drunk asshole ran into me not far from your place,” I told him.
“What? Who? Where are you? Are you hurt?” he asked all at once as his tone completely changed into one of panic and a little anger.
“I’m okay. I’m on the road, about a mile from your place. Can you come pick me up please? I’m sorry to call you, but I…”
“Stop, Anna. Don’t you dare start that bullshit. I’d have been pissed if you didn’t call. I’m on my way. What happened?”
“This asshole. I don’t know. He was up my ass, shining his high beams, then when I tried to wave him past he drove right into the back end of my car and I lost control. I think he just drove off. He’s not here now,” I explained as I dabbed at the blood trickling down my face with the hem of my t-shirt.
