Page 50 of Taming Bull

It didn’t.

Still sad about her untimely passing, and a little betrayed she hadn’t come to me, my heart no longer felt like it was trying to tear itself out of my chest when I thought of her.

It was time to let Amber go. For real, this time.

Scooping up our memories, I stuffed them back in the box and called my parents.

“Hey, Mom.” I said when she answered. “How are you?”

“I’m good, Deryk. Better now that you called. It’s been too long. We worry when we don’t hear from you.”

The guilt trips Mom tried to take me on every time I called only made me want to reach out to her less, not more. Besides, my cell worked both ways, and she and Dad hadn’t exactly blown up my phone trying to reach me. Hell, I couldn’t even remember the last time one of them called. These conversations were awkward for all of us, regardless of how she tried to play them off. Still, there wasn’t any way to point that out without sounding like a disrespectful little shit, and I’d been raised better.

“Sorry. You know I don’t mean to worry you,” I said, accepting the blame. “Is Dad there?”

“He’s sitting right here, watching the news. Do you want me to hand him the phone?”

“No. Can you put it on speaker phone so I can talk to you both at the same time?”

“Okay.” Mom sounded different, further away.

“You can both hear me?” I asked. When they both confirmed, I sucked down a deep breath and got right to the reason for my call. “I’m seeing someone.”

Mom didn’t miss a beat. “That’s wonderful, Deryk. What’s her name?”

“Lily. She’s… she’s really great.”

“What’s her family like?” Mom asked.

“She doesn’t know where her parents are. Her grandma raised her, but she died a few years ago.”

“Oh, that’s awful. Poor thing. You should bring her with you for Christmas. We’d love to meet her, wouldn’t we, hon?”

“Yeah. Sure,” Dad said.

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” I said.

I could hear the news anchor still blabbing in the background, and knew I only had a sliver of my father’s attention. Like usual. I had to figure out a way to get his ear so I could adequately explain the situation and make sure they didn’t want to rescind Lily’s invitation. Opening the drawer of my nightstand, I removed a strip of pictures from the mall photo booth she’d dragged me into during one of our many shopping trips. I always pretended to hate hitting the mall with her, but truthfully, Lily made everything fun. I’d purchased the goofy photos and stashed them in my nightstand, and was damn glad I had. Lily’s smiling face had gotten me through a lot of lonely nights and difficult mornings. Using my phone, I snapped a picture of the photo strip and sent it to Mom.

“Why wouldn’t it be a good idea, Deryk? Nobody should have to be alone for the holidays,” Mom said.

She had me there. Still, I needed Mom to know what we would be dealing with. I could try to explain, but some things were easier shown than told. “I just sent you a picture of Lily.”

“You know we don’t care what she looks like,” Mom huffed. “It’s what’s on the inside that counts.”

I wondered what Mom expected Lily to look like. “It’s not like that. She’s pretty, Mom. Please… just open the message and look at the picture.”

A few seconds later, Mom gasped. “Frank, look,” I heard her say. “This girl looks just like Amber. As I live and breathe…”

I heard the television click off.

“That’s not Amber?” Dad asked.

“No. That’s Lily. She’s the lady I’m seeing,” I said.

“What is this? Looks just like Bill’s girl,” Dad sounded upset and confused. “We buried Bill’s girl. You remember the funeral, don’t you, Liz?”

“Yes. You sure you didn’t send us an old picture of you and Amber, honey?” Mom asked.

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