Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Hunter
“Coach says if I play hard, I might even make ‘A’ team next season,” I tell excitedly.
“I only have one more shot to prove myself,” She finishes putting on her makeup, rises from her vanity and spins around to check out her appearance in a nearby mirror.
I watch her from my spot on her bed and wonder if I’ll ever really fit into the shoes my dad wants me to fill.
My father and her were made for life in Hollywood.
They carved out a place for themselves here.
I couldn’t care less about following in my father’s footsteps.
“You’ll prove yourself, Son. I wouldn’t be worried about that,” my father says as he walks out of their large closet and eyes my mother. The admiration in his stare makes me wish one day I’ll be as lucky and find someone like momma that makes me feel the way he feels about her.
At least we have that in common.
My father leans down and whispers something in my mother’s ear that makes her blush.
He kisses her shoulder and looks up at me.
I hold his stare, confident, determined to make him see just how much this all means to me.
Baseball has been my outlet. My life. The one thing I found that I am effortlessly good at.
When I am playing the game, I don’t have to pretend anything. I can just be me.
“You’re a natural, Hunt,” my father says.
I blink a few times, taken aback. Shocked.
My mother catches my eye in the mirror as she puts on her earrings, a knowing smile graces her flawless face.
“Seems to me you found what makes you tick. What gives you drive. You need to keep at it.” He fastens his suit jacket and waits for his words to sink in while my mother grabs her clutch on their dresser.
“Those kinds of gifts don’t come around often in life, son.
The best thing is to grab hold of it with both hands and never let go. ”
He winks at my mother as she comes up to his side and links her arm with his.
“But…” I begin, as I rise off the bed and follow them out of their room and towards the front door. “What about the network? And Edward?”
He drops my mom’s arm as they reach the front of the house and waits patiently for her to get her coat.
“You let me worry about that,” he grins. “I’m not saying there won’t be things that won’t be expected of you, but there is no point in living life without a heart. If this is where your heart is, so be it. For now.”
A weight lifts off my shoulders as my mother gives me another breathtaking smile and follows my father through the front door.
“Seriously?” I shout a little too enthusiastically. My father laughs.
“Seriously.”
He wraps his arm around my shoulder as my mother descends the steps of our house and makes her way to a car that is waiting for them.
“You got to follow your heart, son. Wherever it leads. Even if in a few years you find it pulls you in another direction. That is life. But there is no point in walking through it without grabbing hold of what sets your soul on fire. I made my path, and I will always welcome you back in it. But if you need to make your own, I’m fine with that, too. ”
He lets go of my shoulders and follows my mother.
“Besides,” he spins around and gives me a genuine smile. “Your path will always lead you home, Hunt. No matter how far you’ve wandered.”
As I stand on our front porch and watch their tail lights get further away, an uneasy feeling wraps itself around my heart as their car disappears through the front gate.
Shaking the felling off, I turn and make my way inside. The Dodgers are on in thirty, and I haven’t missed a game this season. No reason to start now, no matter how uneasy watching my parents leave just made me feel.
* * *
“We can’t let him go into a foster home, Edward. Robert and Paula, they would…” Sylvia’s shaking voice echoes through my house a few hours later.
Gone. They’re gone. They’re never coming back. I fight back the lump rising in my throat as I try and wrap my brain around the painful truth I never want to accept.
“Who said anything about foster care? He was my best friend, damn it. Don’t you think I know what kind of obligation that leaves me in, Sylvia!”
My throat closes up and I have to bite my bottom lip to keep my tears from falling. Sulking further into the shadows, in a place I used to call home, I stand and listen to Edward and Sylvia argue over what is to become of me as I watch police officers come and go from my front door.
“He needs to come live with us. Robert and Paula would want…”
“For fuck sake, Sylvia! I know what they would want!” Edward slams his glass down on a table in the living room. I jolt from the sternest in his tone, the harsh, grating sound of glass hitting glass, and the beating of my heart that’s breaking with every painful second that continues to pass.
It’s all too much.
“What are our options?” Sylvia asks one of the officers as a tear finally falls down my cheek and my body begins to shake.
“Well, I’m all for what is in the boy's best interest. At least for tonight. Losing both your parents at his age, well, the worst thing we could do is tear him away from what is most familiar. But after that, it’s up to the court to decide.”
“Paula would want us to take him in,” Sylvia demands. The officer sighs. He’s tired, worn out from the burden that was his to carry tonight. Edward on the other hand is angry, annoyed. It never escaped me how much he disapproved of the way my parents raised me. Even if I was his best friend’s son.
“If they didn’t leave a will,” Edward says.
“Forget about wills!” Sylvia shouts. “We have friends in the court system. The judge owes you a favor. And if you think…”
“Sylvia!” Edward yells.
I bring my arms up and wrap them around my middle, tight enough to hurt, tight enough to feel, so tight it reminds me that I’m alive.
Still breathing. Unlike Mom and Dad, who only left here an hour before the officer in the other room showed up at my front door and the babysitter let him in and my whole life changed forever.
I look up and see Edward and Sylvia’s daughter poke her head around the corner. She locks eyes with me. Pity fills her stare. I hate the way it feels.
“What you do and how you do it, ma’am is none of my business,” the officer suggests
“Damn right!” Sylvia hisses, cutting the officer off. “So let’s get a few things straight….”
I don’t even wait to hear what things she is talking about. I bolt quickly from the shadows and run towards the back of the house. The life I knew before is ruined. Tainted. Forever changed. The parents I had, the dreams I was just starting to look forward to, were forever taken from me tonight.
Reaching outside, I try to breathe, try to calm the panic that is rising in my chest. My future? The choice isn’t mine anymore. It’s Edwards. I’ll just be another pawn in his game no matter how hard I try and fight it.
The door behind me opens. I straighten and angrily wipe a few tears from my face. Curious as to who it is, but not curious enough to turn and look, I wait for the intruder to leave. I want to be alone. I need space.
Footsteps sound behind me and I hold my breath. Soon, Edward is at my side and mimics my stance. We stand in silence for a few minutes until his heavy sigh settles on my shoulders.
“You’ll come with us, Son.” He states. It isn’t a question, it’s a demand. I nod my head bitterly.
“Yes, Sir,” I respond. My throat tightens once again and I choke back tears.
“And you’ll do as you’re told. Accept what he left you. What I am giving you. In his memory.”
In his memory? The last words my father told me were to fight and live life with heart.
But I nod again, too defeated by the night’s events to fight for what my father really left me. A reason to keep living. To keep going. To follow your path, no matter where it leads, and know it’ll always bring you back to the people who matter most.
But those people are gone now. As the finality of it all sinks in, Edward’s hand comes to rest on my shoulder. It sits there like another weight, threatening to crush me and all I ever wanted.
“Yes, Sir,” I whisper, as I accept a fate that will ultimately ruin me.
“Good boy.”
He turns and leaves me with the threat of an empty promise I’ll eventually have to break, before it breaks me first.
* * *
Frantically, I suck in a deep breath. Heart beating wildly, covered in sweat, I choke on the memory from my nightmare as I struggle to take another breath.
Fucking hell, it was just a dream. Glancing to my side, Rochelle smiles in her sleep.
God help me, she’s perfect, blameless. Innocent even though I defiled her tonight.
Taking a few deep breaths, I let out a long sigh as my heart settles.
She’s an Angel. A gift from above to replace the ones I lost when I was just ten years old. No child should have to know what it feels like to grow up without their parents. No boy should be forced to fill the shoes of a man. A man he’ll always be prisoner to as he walks through life in his shadow.
I reach out and wrap my arms around my Angel, pulling her close to me.
She sighs. Content. Satisfied. I smile knowing I was the one to make her feel that way tonight, and place a tender kiss on her shoulder.
If I can’t do everything right, especially by Edward’s standards, I vow to always fight to do everything right for her.
For us. It’s a promise I make her as my hands roam down the front of her body.
She stirs as my fingers find her sex. My mouth brings her body back to life as I kiss her neck, slip my fingers inside heaven, and begin to rock her world for the third fucking time tonight.