Turned out Loretta hadn't even been sure America was the same girl in the alley she'd seen with me. I fessed up for nothing, damn it. I didn't really want to talk about it anymore, but I had to know. Was Loretta really trying to cause problems between us over something that happened so long ago?Madeline explained that, for weeks, Loretta had been saying she was certain she knew the new girl at her work from somewhere else. Because of the not-so-common name it'd finally come to her that she was the same waitress that waited on her way back in that restaurant in Kings Falls—something I was not aware of.Even then, she hadn't put America and I together in that alley. I'd been right about her not having gotten a good look at America in the alley. It wasn't until my dad went into the feed store the day of the confrontation in the cave. America and one of the other girls who worked there began gossiping about the Cortez brothers loud enough for Loretta to hear. America mentioned how I dro
When I arrived at Madeline's house, I was greeted with the usual giddy hug and kisses I was used to. She was especially full of squeals this time, given the huge bouquet I arrived holding. After handing the birthday gift to her, I pulled out my anniversary gift and she went silent.She set the bouquet down on the table just inside the door. Before she even took the other gift, her hand was already at her mouth."Happy anniversary," I said, handing it to her.She smiled even as her eyes welled up and she reached for it. I hoped the fact that I wasn't down on a knee was heads-up enough before she got too ahead of herself about what it might be. She opened the box and her hand was back over her mouth. "I know it's not much, Peanut," I said with a wince. "But it's just a promise ring. A promise that someday I'll have so much more to offer you."With her face already crumbling and her sweet brows pinching tight, she took it out of the box, but I reached for it so I could slip it onto he
Tense was probably the best way to describe the entire build-up to the actual moment we told Loretta. But it was done and now we could move on. When I heard from Madeline again a few hours after I'd left the hospice that day, she explained what I'd expected. Loretta had had a whole lot to say once I was out of there. Mostly, she had questions, some more alarming than others. How long had this gone on? Was she certain there was no basis to my bastard kid stories? Had she slept with me yet? At first, to my utter relief, Madeline lied and said we hadn't."I spared her having to hear about how I was the one who insisted we could go there," Madeline had explained. "But only because I could tell she was looking for something negative to say about all this. If she'd made a single comment about how it's likely all you were in this for was sex or that you pressured me into anything, I would've told her exactly how it happened. I didn't want things to get ugly."Turned out Madeline had a few s
The twins, like my brother Nolan, were officially high-school graduates now. Although Nolan had had his GED for months. When he left to do his internship, he switched to doing school online and finished that way. We'd talked about taking a road trip to Chicago this summer before Maddie started college in the fall to check out some of the art museums there, but just after she graduated, she was temporarily promoted. While she'd already told her boss she'd be quitting once she started school, she was asked if she'd stand in as the store manager at the Little Caesars where she worked at for a few weeks while they found a full-time replacement. Madeline was actually a little excited about it. She was already a shift manager, so she knew she could handle the added responsibility, but she was more excited about getting our dream going.So, our road trip would have to wait a few more weeks, which was fine. Only drawback to her temporarily higher-paying position was she was putting in a lot m
Loretta liked to say Grandma Betty held on to see her granddaughters graduate from high school because just a few weeks after they did she died. I'd never say it out loud, but I was pretty sure mentally she was gone long before then. She'd lost both legs up to her thighs near the end there, but the people at the hospice ultimately just made her comfortable, ignoring any other pointless surgeries she might still need. The last time I'd seen her, which was days before she passed, she wasn't even talking anymore. She was so lethargic. Only good thing about it was, as close as Madeline was to her, she had time to process and accept the fact that she was losing her. By the time she did go, as sad as my peanut had been, she was more relieved her grandma was no longer suffering.Madeline having to work such long hours as she continued with her temporary promotion also helped. It kept her too busy during those first few weeks of mourning to think too much about it.It wasn't until near the e
"She didn't answer," Nolan said, only making my already beating wildly heart, thump harder."Fuck!" I said, running my fingers through my hair, and tried Madeline again. "Come on, Maddie," I said, lowering my voice. "Answer your phone, baby.""Why?" Nolan asked; then his eyes went wide as he watched me pace with the phone at my ear. "You think maybe . . .""Check that local news group on Facebook," Xavier suggested, and Nolan got right on it.I walked over to Nolan because at this point I wasn't sure what to do with myself. I wouldn't be able to concentrate now on anything until I heard from Madeline. "Did they say anything else about the accident, Dad?" I asked as Nolan scrolled through his screen."No, Hijo. The guy just said he heard it was a bad accident.""Here it is," Nolan said, and everyone's attention was on him now.He skimmed quickly, reading out loud through the post about it, skipping over everything that didn't give us any facts."A single-car accident involving a
What we knew about the accident at the very beginning was that somehow Madeline lost control of the car and it flew off the side of the embankment. They'd had the car's convertible top down, and all three were ejected from the car as it rolled over several times. It'd been confirmed the fourth person hadn't been a passenger in the car with them, so I knew, if there was the slightest hope the newscaster had it wrong and Madeline hadn't already been gone, she would be soon.Then I got the call from Loretta that confirmed my worst nightmare. My peanut was gone. She and Shelby had been pronounced dead at the scene while Maggie had been flown to the trauma center in Livingston. Only time anyone was transported there was when their injuries were as critical as Maggie's apparently were.I fell apart all over again, just as I did every time I woke from my drug-induced slumber—the only slumber I could get during those first agonizing days and weeks that followed her death.I knew I had a fam
The only reason I didn't shake my head adamantly and argue was because this was my father. He should've been part of the reason why I needed to move on. "It's okay to grieve, Hijo. You should. Take all the time you need. I lost your mama and felt those deep, deep feelings of despair too, but I won't sit here and say I know what you're going through. This is your grief. No two people are the same, and so no two people will grieve the same way. It may take you months, years, to heal. All I can promise you is, in the end, it will happen. Trust me. I know." He took a deep breath and sat back. "When your mama passed, I, too, had moments of feeling like I just wanted to die. Mind you I had four little boys who were counting on me to be there for them and those thoughts still crossed my mind. Don't let those feelings make you feel weak. They're perfectly normal. Accept them; just please don't act on them. They will pass, and little by little the memories will be what you'll live for." He hugg