Page 129 of Unbroken

“Sabrina.”

“Ooo, Shelly and Sabrina, how perfect.”

She cracked a small smile and sighed. The sigh of someone thinking about the person they love. I knew that sigh well, I’d heard it from my own lips a time or two.

“I can’t wait to meet her,” I said, then stopped, thinking a little longer about it. “Have you told Devon or Sydney yet?” If Devon knew, he would have mentioned it, it wasn’t something he’d keep to himself.

“I haven’t,” she confessed. “I’m a little nervous about how they’ll react, especially Devon. He has a hard time letting go of things, including his watchful eye over me. I think he’s scared I’m going to get sick again, but it may happen whether I live here or not. And if I do get sick, I want to live a full life for as long as I can.”

“All of that is completely understandable, and you’re right about Devon. It’ll probably take a little bit for him to get used to, but he wants you to be happy, and if this makes you happy, then that’s great. I just…”

My words faded on my tongue as I thought better of it, but Shelly gave me a reassuring look and silently encouraged me to continue.

“He was just so scared, which I know you know, but when you moved to Houston, that was the first time he’d ever admitted to me that he was scared.”

A nostalgic smile played over Shelly’s lips as she showed me a photo of Devon and Sydney when they were younger. They were both in swimsuits, eyes squinting against the sun in what I guessed was the middle of summer.

She added the photo to the pile of family photos.

“He’s always been my gentle giant. So quiet and stoic, youknow there are a million things happening in that head of his. I know he’ll be happy for me; I just need to find the courage to tell him. And I know he’ll be okay either way, no matter what, because he has you.”

She handed me a few more photos, and I hid my smile behind my drink, taking a sip.

“You’ve always been special to him, I noticed it the first time he brought you home when y’all were still in college.”

“We were so young back then.” I laughed.

“You were, but I’m telling you, a mama always knows.”

Her words sat in the air around us. We continued sifting through photos, a companionable silence settling, but for the occasional comment about a photo she found more intriguing or a memory it sparked. I loved hearing her stories, especially about the man I loved before I knew him.

I found myself staring longingly at a photo of Devon right after he graduated college. He was clutching the diploma in one hand, raising it high above his head, while the other pointed directly at the camera. He was beaming with happiness.

“This is a good one,” Shelly said. I forced myself to put the photo down but in a separate pile of ones I wanted to take with me. Shelly was pointing out people in another photo she’d taken during her hospital days. “This is Randy, and Tanya is next to him. Louise is beside her, and the one on the end is Pete.”

She handed over the photo, and I glanced at their smiling faces.

I began to set it down but had a nagging feeling that I should look at it once more. The group was standing in a cafeteria or a break room of sorts. Round tables were lined up behind them, with party favors sitting in the middle of each. There were red and blue balloons in a corner, and streamers hung on the walls.

Others were caught in the background, milling about and cleaning up the party that had just taken place.

“Was this after a party?” I asked.

Shelly peered over my shoulder. Her eyebrows drewtogether, eyes narrowing, before she nodded. “Yes, it was Tanya’s sixtieth. I remember she had chocolate cake that I was so excited for. Turns out, it was a boxed cake and the worst I’d ever had.”

She made a halfhearted gagging noise, and I laughed at her dramatics. But it was a lackluster laugh that was impeded by the sinking feeling in my gut.

There was one person I couldn’t stop staring at. My mind was reeling, trying to place them, but I kept coming up blank. The photo was of their side profile and was slightly blurry since they weren’t in the foreground.

“How long ago was this?”

“Oh, that was right after I got there.”

The feeling grew stronger, and my body began to react in a way that my mind couldn’t keep up with. Like my body knew what was happening before I’d registered it.

“Do you know who this man is?”

A quick glance at the photo was all it took. “He was a volunteer. I can’t remember his name, but he was nice. Kind of quiet and a little weird, but nice nonetheless.”

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