Chapter 25 Parker
Chapter Twenty-Five
PARKER
While I was busy wondering whether or not to call Delaney, things kept rolling along with Luna.
Maybe I wasn’t sure how to handle my feelings for her, but I couldn’t stay away.
I was walking into the station a few days later when Maisie called my name from the front.
When I walked out there, she was at her desk, and an unfamiliar woman was standing at the counter.
Maisie smiled over at me. “Hi Parker, this woman is here to see you.”
Although my brain didn’t quite recognize her, my heart knew this person was my mother. A sense of sheer panic slammed into me. I kept it together and just stood there by the door into the back hallway. “What can I do for you?” I hated that my voice sounded hoarse.
“Parker, do you remember me?”
I shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not.”
Maisie appeared to sense my distress or sheer discombobulation.
Sometimes it felt like everything in the world was a step in a path to a moment.
In this case, a reckoning. Little boy me had wanted for so long for my mom to come back.
Here she was now, and I wanted to vomit and to scream and shout.
Instead, I stood there. Static filled my brain.
It was a miracle I didn’t fall because it also felt as if someone had tripped me.
“I’m your mom,” my mother said.
I stared at her. “Uh-huh.” I didn’t know what she expected, but it seemed like maybe she thought I’d give her a big ol’ hug.
Maisie rounded the corner and literally stood in front of me when my mom turned and began to approach me.
I could sense Maisie’s protectiveness. She took care of all of us here at the station.
As the main dispatcher, she was, both literally and metaphorically, the switchboard through which all communication flowed.
In this moment, I could feel a deeper level of protectiveness.
I knew if I needed her to, Maisie would physically walk my mom out of the station.
Somehow, her sense of protectiveness settled me and balanced me. I still felt a little staticky inside, and my heart felt hollow, but I kept my eyes on my mother and calmly said, “I’m not sure what you expected after all this time, but I don’t really need you now.”
My mother stared at me, her eyes going a little wide and tears shimmering there.
Maybe that should’ve hurt, and I should’ve felt something more, but I just didn’t.
I didn’t owe her anything. I couldn’t say anything more and turned and walked to the back.
I distantly heard Maisie saying, “You can’t go back there.
That’s for staff only.” Her tone was clear and determined as if she was disciplining a child.
I kept it together long enough to go through the back to grab my jacket and walk out to my truck in the back parking lot. I climbed in and pulled up Leo’s text, immediately leaving a message for the therapist.
When Luna texted me later, for the first night since I’d gotten back from the fire, I didn’t go over there.
I told her I didn’t feel good, but I didn’t tell her why.
Of course, to make matters more complicated, Fuzzy was staying at her place.
He adored Luna. I knew he was technically my dog, and he adored me too, but her place was better.
She had more space, and she could let him run loose there.