Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83244 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83244 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Damn. This place just kept getting better and better.
I looked down at my little girl, and all the thoughts that had been running through my head all night came rushing back. This year made fifteen years that I’d walked this earth without him. He had no clue what I’d been through or how his leaving me had changed the course of my life.
I wondered what he would’ve thought of me, of the life I’d made, and whether there was any part of him that would’ve been proud of the man I’d become. Without giving myself a chance to change my mind, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.
I didn’t have the number saved, but it didn’t matter. I still remembered. I dialed and held my breath as I listened to it ring. Three came and went, and I was beginning to think he wasn’t going to answer when I heard him say, “Hello?”
“Hey, Pop.” My voice was strained as I told him, “It’s me.”
There was a moment of silence, and then I heard his shaky breath ask, “Brayden. Is that really you?”
“Yeah. It’s really me.”
“I’ll be damned. I thought we’d never hear from you again.” The sound of anguish in his voice took me by surprise. I wasn’t expecting him to be so emotional. I also wasn’t expecting him to say, “Your mother talks about you every day… She tried finding you… We both did. We’ve always wondered if you were okay.”
I had so many things I wanted to say, but the words wouldn’t come.
I could only stand there and listen as he said, “I’m sorry, son. I’m so damn sorry for everything.”
I looked down at Anslee, staring out at the water, and sighed. The anger I’d carried for so long didn’t disappear. Neither did the hurt, but I wasn’t the same kid who’d left home all those years ago. So, I told him, “I’m sorry, too, Pop.”
“You don’t got nothing to apologize for.”
“But I do.” I took a second to collect myself before saying, “Back then, I didn’t get the distance and the pain in your eyes.”
This was harder than I thought it’d be.
But Brooke was right.
I wasn’t the same man I was all those years ago.
“I was young and hurt, and I couldn’t understand.” I held my daughter a little closer. “But I do now.”
EPILOGUE
TWO YEARS LATER
They say time heals all wounds.
Time had changed me. The knocked-knee kid who carried a mountain of hurt on his shoulders had grown up, become a man and a father. I still had my ghosts, but they no longer haunted me like they once did. I had a home now, a family, and a kind of peace I never thought I’d find.
That’s what time had given me.
But it hadn’t done anything for the old creek where Aiden and I used to fish. It looked just like it did the day I lost him.
The water still rolled over the smooth stones, bubbling and twirling like it had a life of its own. The trees didn’t seem quite as tall as they used to be, but they still shaded the bank. The wind rustled through leaves, and somewhere off in the distance, a mockingbird was carrying on like it wasn’t happy that I was encroaching on his territory.
He didn’t have to worry. I wouldn’t be there for long.
I glanced down at my son, sleeping against my chest.
I couldn’t look at him without smiling. He was barely three weeks old and had a head full of dark hair that refused to lie flat no matter how many times Brooke tried to smooth it down. His little fists were balled up under his chin like he was preparing to take on the world, and every now and then, he’d stretch and squirm, making me wonder if he was about to cry.
But he never did.
He was the best baby, and with each sleepy sigh, I wondered how something so small could completely own my heart. I brushed the pad of my thumb across his little, round cheek and had to swallow the emotion building inside of me.
He had Brooke’s nose and her freckles, and deep blue eyes like his sister and me. He scrunched up his face, and my breath caught when the corner of his mouth lifted into the tiniest crooked grin. It was the same lopsided smile my brother used to flash whenever he was about to talk me into something we weren’t supposed to.
“Well, how about that.” I swallowed. “You sure picked a good time to do that.”
The little guy stretched again, completely unaware he'd just proven I’d made the right choice when I’d named him Aiden. I leaned down and kissed him on the forehead before saying, “We did everything together. If there was trouble to find, we found it. If there was a creek to fish in or a tree to climb, we were already halfway up it before Mom knew we were gone. He was fearless."