Page 54 of Reckless
17
Gage
I inhaled deep, surprised by the calming effect of the scent of lavender.
Lavender smelled like home, but only when mixed with the sweet scent of sugar cookies, which had been constantly coming out of the oven when I was a child.
The pale blue living room wallpaper that had been the backdrop to family movie nights with just Mom and me soothed my battered soul. My heart didn’t race quite as fast as it had when I’d gotten out of the car.
My mother’s voice came from the bedroom. “Enough! I’m arranged already. Now leave me alone, my bones are like glass.”
The back of my eyes burned, and I squeezed them shut. It had been four days since she’d moved from the hospital to home, and each day she got weaker.
Hold it together.
I made my feet move to her room, and her face lit up when she saw it was me. “There’s my baby.”
“Hi, Mom. Is there anything I can get you?”
“No, I have everything I need, but you can pass me the paper. I want to show you something.”
I grabbed it and sat on the chair closest to the bed.
“Turn to page eighteen.”
I did as she commanded. I basically did whatever Babs asked, especially since I’d returned to New Hope. She knew what she wanted and wouldn’t give a centimeter.
Mom kept telling me I needed to adjust and accept, but that was far easier said than done. To even think that she had only days on the planet, never mind hours or minutes, it made me sick to my very core.
“Okay, Mom, page eighteen, what is…shit.”
“Don’t curse.” Her frown turned into a soft smile. “More pictures of you and Kelly together. You look like a real couple in that one, even more than the last lot.”
“We aren’t even touching. We’re standing next to one another. There’s nothing to suggest we’re together at all.”
“Oh, come off it,” she scoffed. “Will you take a look at yourself?”
I studied the photo again. I knew what Mom meant. Even in the grainy black and white photo, our eyes shone. No wonder the world thought we were together, we were absolutely lit up.
When I compared Kelly to all the meaningless encounters that had come since I moved to New York, the difference made my head spin. She dragged me back from a dark place I didn’t even know I’d been in. She changed me, made me a better man…or perhaps she simply pulled me back to the person I was before. I felt more likemearound her, like the last seven years were a distant dream.
Either way, it was a feeling I didn’t want to let go of.
“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on, or do I have to guess?”
“I…” For a second, I couldn’t find words that meant enough. All the words in the world couldn’t describe the way I felt when I was with Kelly.
“I have to assume that you’re already in too deep.”
My face broke into a grin. “Yeah, maybe you’re right.”
“And how is that going to work when you go back to New York?”
I couldn’t keep my plan in any longer, I yearned to share it with someone. “I want to take her with me. I want to take Kelly away from New Hope and show her the world. She can come on tour with me and see all the major cities we travel to. I think she needs that after she’s been stuck—”
Mom held up a hand. “Before you get carried away, have you asked her about this?”
“Well, no, but I think—”
