Page 21 of All Roads Lead to You

“Well, tell him to come in.”

When I stepped inside, she lifted her hand. I went to her side and held it before sitting down on the edge of the bed. Her room was pretty, with flowers in vases and the sun shining in the windows, but it definitely had that aura of sickness.

She looked tired, and she wore a pretty pink scarf with white flowers around her head. All that thick, brown hair was gone now. She’d recently turned forty, but she looked older.

“How are you feeling, Mrs. M?”

“I’m good, and I’ll recover just fine. You wait and see.”

The prognosis didn’t look good at all, according to Hunter, but at least she seemed positive about everything.

“Do you feel sick and all?”

“Chemo makes me a bit sick and tired, but I feel pretty good right now.”

I nodded and stared down at her cold, long fingers resting on mine. If she died, it would feel like I’d lost a second mom, but it’d be so much worse for Hunter. That was something I had first-hand experience in.

“Now, tell me about your trip. I wish Hunter would go with you, but he insists on staying.”

“Yeah, but we both know he’d rather be here, and he should. The trip’s fine. I’m still going with Nick, though I’d rather it be someone else or by myself.”

She squeezed my hand, and I looked into her dark blue eyes that matched Hunter’s. “Don’t be so hard on him. I know you had a rough time after your father remarried, but Nick lost a parent, too. Maybe his father didn’t die, but he may as well have the way he abandoned that poor boy.”

Honestly, I hadn’t thought about it that way. He seemed to have handled the marriage a lot better than I had.

“I guess.”

“Where’s your first stop going to be?”

“Uhm, just outside of Nashville.”

She smiled, showing the crinkles around her eyes that were more pronounced than usual. “How exciting. Take lots of pictures, okay? I want to see them when you come back for the holidays.”

“I will.”

Would she still be here by the time I made it back? I swallowed the thick lump in my throat that threatened to expose my raw emotions. I didn’t want to get upset in front of her. She deserved better than that.

“I’ll miss you,” I said.

She reached for my face and cupped my cheek. “I’ll miss you, too, sweetheart, but you’re a man now, on your way to do great things in life. Eventually, you’ll move on to have a family of your own. I look forward to seeing what you become, Logan. Same with Hunter.”

Fuck, my eyes burned. Swallowing was getting harder to do. I doubted she’d see that future Logan because I wasn’t destined to have a family. I’d never get married because it wasn’t legal to marry a man, not that I had anyone I wanted to marry. There would be no kids, either.

“You’re leaving the day after tomorrow?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“Good. Call if you need anything, okay?”

I nodded and leaned forward to kiss her forehead, and then I stood and left, unable to take seeing her like that any longer.

Hunter followed me out and closed the door behind him.

“Let’s go over to the creek,” he said.

I shoved my hands into my jeans pocket and followed him outside.

“Mom appreciates you being here, Logan.”

---