Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Fuck. A fist squeezed tightly around his windpipe. Why did everything have to be so goddamned hard? Why couldn’t the medication or all the doctors just fix her? “There’s no reason to be sorry. You tried. You wanted out and you tried, but can you please talk to me beforehand next time? Just so I know what’s going on and can check on you?”
“You shouldn’t always have to check on me.”
“That’s what family is for,” he told her. They were all the two of them had. “I didn’t mean to snap at you on the phone. It was a hectic day.”
“You’re the last person in this room who needs to feel guilty about anything.”
Then they were quiet again, their breathing and her leg brushing against the sheet when she moved the only sounds in the room. She was the one to break the silence again. “I didn’t realize Max hadn’t been back once in the twelve years he’s been gone. He said he’s an artist—a painter and a photographer.”
Shane sat up a little straighter at that. Max Sullivan was a painter and a photographer? That surprised the shit out of him. “That’s good for him, if he’s happy, I guess.”
“He came back to help his mom because of his father passing away.” She shook her head. “So sad.”
Max was the last thing Shane wanted to talk about. It irked him that Max was trying to be nice, and to his mother of all people.
“You don’t like him,” she said when he didn’t respond.
“Not particularly.”
“Why?” she asked. “Was he one of the boys you fought with at school?”
There was no chance he would explain to her everything Max and Jonathan had put him through. It would kill her to know he’d suffered so much and never told her. It was easy to hide things from people who rarely left the house. “I just don’t think he’s a very nice person, Mom. But I guess I don’t know him anymore. It’s been twelve years.” He wasn’t sure he believed people could change that much though.
“He was nice to me. I don’t know what would have happened had he not been there today.” Shane winced at her words but she didn’t seem to notice and kept going. “He had to have sat in the rocks with me for a good three or four hours.”
His pulse kicked up a notch at that. Three or four hours? He hadn’t known that earlier. Hadn’t known she’d sat on the side of the road that long…and that Maxwell Sullivan had sat with her.
“He told me he’d paint me a picture of town. Said he could take some photographs too for me to look at when I was feeling restless. I don’t know if it will help, but it was a kind offer.”
Shane frowned. It was. And so fucking far from the Maxwell he’d known, he wouldn’t have believed it if anyone else had told him. What was he up to?
“He lives in Los Angeles. Did you know that? He talked about how different the beaches are there, which I knew, but it was both magical and depressing the way he made it sound.”
Shane’s feet slid off the bed and planted to the floor. What the fuck was going on? Max had sat with his mom for hours and talked her down, telling her stories about LA and making promises to her. Promises he’d damn sure better keep. “Why depressing?”
She gave him a small smile. “It’ll probably sound stupid but…it almost sounded lonely. Like there are all those people and all those things but as though everyone is too busy to enjoy it. Or like they’re so worried about their own little world that they don’t visit other people’s. I’m sure that sounds ridiculous coming from someone like me, but…maybe loneliness sees loneliness. I almost feel like I saw a piece of myself in that boy.”
Shane’s throat felt like it was going to close up. His brain wanted to shoot down what she was saying, give her stories and reasons why that couldn’t be true, but he didn’t. What the fuck did he know? But damned if what she said didn’t make him curious.
“Anyway, I’m rambling. The meds still have me feeling loopy. I think I’m going to go back to sleep. Go home, Shane. I’ll be fine.”
He almost said he’d sleep there but instead he nodded and pushed to his feet. “I might go fishing in the morning. Do you mind?”
She gave him a sad smile. “Of course, I don’t mind. And I’ll be a good girl and stay home instead of trying to take the world on by myself.”
“Are you sure? I can—”
“You can go. I want you to go. You’re not my keeper.”
But he was her keeper. He had to be. “Okay.” Shane leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I’ll get you some ice water before I go. If you’re feeling bad, you can have your anxiety meds any time now. No sleeping pills though. Everything else is still on schedule.”