Page 85 of True Honey
“You stopped, why?” She asked. I knew she would.
“Because I couldn’t afford the medication but Mrs. Shore, I want you to know that I am by no means with your son because I think it’s a payday.” I said, not giving her the chance to object with that idea because I knew it would be swimming around in her head the second I told her. Lying felt wrong, especially when she was sitting here just trying to make sure her son had the best. I would have done the same thing.
“So why are you with Silas then?” Sylwia questioned gently, her expression never shifting. “Because if not for his money I would love to know how a woman, with a grown child ended up with a ring on her finger and living with my son when two months ago he was spending every night of the week with a different Hilly’s waitress.”
I swallowed roughly, I had heard the rumors about Silas. Kayla had run her mouth more often than not about all of the time they had spent together tangledup. Back when she told me, I barely listened but now where indifference once bred, jealousy blossomed.
“I was one,” I answered honestly. “The newest.”
Sylwia stopped drinking.
“Silas is very charming, very sweet. I refused his offers, most of them at least,” I smiled, that part was true enough.
“Until you didn’t,” she asked.
“He made an offer I couldn’t refuse,” I said, “he can be persuasive.”
She finally laughed and I felt myself relax a little. “That’s the Silas I know,” she shook her head. “Drew I have been through my fair share of hardship this past year and I hope you understand that all of my questions come from a place of wanting to protect my son from the kind of heartbreak it is to never really know the person you’re marrying.”
I nodded, listening carefully.
“I had the wool pulled over my eyes for years, and I love my son for all he is, even when he’s being blinded by the need to do what he believes is right. His heart is too big and too soft,” Sylwia cautioned. “Promise me that you’ll do your best to take care of him.”
The question struck me as strange considering she could have asked me for anything. Not to marry him, to be honest, to be loving. But she had considered what her son needed and asked for that.Take care of him. All she wanted to do was make sure that Silas was looked after in a way that he’d never look after himself.
My heart was pounding in my chest again, terrified to make the promise when I knew there was a chance I couldn’t keep it. The question that kept rising up,what if I screwed up?But she had added, do your best on purpose, I could see it in her eyes. She was giving me grace when I probably didn’t deserve it.
I swallowed roughly and wet my bottom lip.
“I promise.”
I held my breath, terrified that she could see right through me. Panicking deep down about fights, and situations that hadn’t even happened yet. My anxiety clawed at my insides screaming to get control but I inhaled slowly, pushing themdown. She waited a moment, her lips pressing into a tight line as she watched me, “good, let's plan a wedding then.”
SHORE
“Take it slow,” I said to Cael, trying to get him to ease into the stretch but much like my own, his mind was everywhere today. He groaned into the motion, his shoulder shaking. “Stop, stop,” I said, pressing my hand to his forearm to keep him from moving. We had been at this for thirty minutes and we weren’t getting anywhere because he was trying to do movements that his shoulder wasn’t ready for.
“I can do it,” he fought, not looking up at me but he put pressure on my arm and tried again to get through the stretch. There was sweat beading around his temples, his eyes exhausted as he worked through the pain he was going through.
“Cael,” I warned him.
“It’s just a stretch, I can do it.” His words were strained, and he barely got them choked out between a ragged breath.
“Your will power and your ability are two very different things,” I snapped, my frustration slipping through the cracks where it shouldn’t. “I’m sorry,” I said, taking a step back from him. I should have learned my lesson by now but my mind was swirling with a thousand problems and my focus wasn’t on Cael. “Let’s try something else with less impact.”
“Or you could tell me why you’re mad at me?” Cael mindlessly rubbed a couple fingers into the skin around his healed incisions. His blue eyes were so bright with pain it took everything in me not to convince him just to take something.You can’t, I bit down on my tongue and turned away from him to a bottle of water.
“I’m not mad at you,” I said, swallowing tightly. It was the truth. I couldn’t have been further from mad at him. I handed it to him on the wrong side and cursed myself as he raised his good arm.
“I’m sorry I hid it from you,” he said next, scratching like a needy cat on a door I shut in his face. I had worked through my guilt and didn’t want to rehash it because Cael thought I was mad at him.
“Cael,” I said, the annoyance in my voice was thick.
“It started getting sore after the game against Boston,” he continued, “I was using hot showers and ice baths to soothe it and keep the swelling down like you taught me. I thought I could get to the end of the season, go out on a high note.”
“Boston?” I looked up from the ground with a scowl on my face. “That was before playoffs,” he had been hiding the pain for so long and I never once noticed.
“You had all that family stuff on your plate, with your dad and Josh. I didn’t want to add to it, I should have let Ella handle it but she would have brought it to you anyways…” Cael sighed.
