The boys and I rented a boat one day and took it to a remote island. It reminded me of trips to Point Loma when I was a kid. We combed the beach alone, once again searching for the perfect shells.
Derek found two sand dollars, and Alec found an entire bucket of perfect conch shells. While we walked the length of the Gulf side of the island, Alec searched for a lettered olive. Although I doubted he would find one of the rare shells, he eventually did.
Derek mentioned Alec’s luck, and seemed disappointed that he hadn’t found one like it.
“We’ll be back here plenty of times,” Alec said. “You can find one next time.”
Hearing his response filled me with hope that their trips to see us would continue at the same pace.
When we returned from our day-long excursion, we sat by the pool as Jess cooked hamburgers. Her hair was curly that day, the blond locks tickling her shoulder as she flipped the burgers to the other side.
“Almost ready,” she said over her shoulder.
I gazed at her with loving eyes as she tapped her foot to music only she could hear. Once again lost in admiring the woman she’d evolved into, I recalled meeting her the second time. The immediate attraction I’d felt. The grip she had on my heart. The undeniable love that still remained from the day we’d met.
“Did A-Train tell you about that girl he pissed off?” Derek asked.
I snapped out of my daze. A-Train was a nickname I’d given Alec when he was three. He moved non-stop, and at one speed. Full throttle. Just like a train.
“I guess not,” I said.
“Tell him, ‘Train.”
Alec sighed. “Erin set me up with this chick, and she was really hot. Tall, blond, athletic. So, we started hanging out—”
Mid-sentence, Jess stepped to our side, holding the plate of burgers. “I want to hear this,” she said.
We stood and walked in the house together.
Alec continued his tale as we walked. “So, we hung out for a few days, and then it had been a few weeks. She was awesome. We went to the show, got coffee together, and kicked it back at the crib. Then, after about a month, she was like, what about that dick?”
He looked at Derek and laughed. “So, I said, uhhm, you’re not gonna get it. I don’t just give away, it takes time. You’ve got to earn it. She got pissed, and texted Sis, saying I was a douche, and that I wouldn’t give her the dick. She wanted to know what was wrong with me. I told Erin to tell her there wasn’t a damned thing wrong with me. Some chicks are just crazy, huh, Pop?”
I’d never explained to Alec what happened with Jessica and I regarding the thirty-day rule. Hearing him tell his story, in many respects, gave affirmation that he resembled his father in more ways than met the eye. It also gave me hope that he valued love as much as his father.
I looked at Jess and smiled. “Yeah, some of them are nuts, Son. When you find that one that isn’t, you better grab ahold of her.”
We ate dinner, and eventually ended up back out on the deck, sitting by the pool with a cup of coffee.
Alec peered over the top of his cup. “Pop, I got a question.”
“I’m like Dumbo the elephant,” I said, reciting one of my father’s sayings. “I’m all ears.”
“Dee and I were talking. You think you’d let us come stay for the summer? We’d get jobs and work while we were here.”
I tried to hide my excitement. “We’d love that,” I said. “You’re always welcome here. You can stay as long or as short as you’d like.”
He looked at Derek. “What do you say, Dee?”
Derek nodded. “Let’s do it.”
“I’ll start looking for jobs when we get back,” Alec said. “But, plan on it.”
“Look forward to it,” I responded.
The two weeks came to a close. In a day, their sister was showing up to stay for a two-week stay. On the night before they left, they washed their clothes and packed their bags.
Jess got ready for bed and bid them farewell. Their plane left at six am, and we were planning a trip the airport at four, long before she would be awake.
“Gimme a hug,” Alec said. “I won’t get a chance to give you one tomorrow.”
After hugging both the boys, she walked up the stairs wearing a prideful grin. As we laid side by side in bed, she expressed her satisfaction regarding the changes that had transpired since we moved to Florida.
“Alec’s come a long way, hasn’t he?”
“He has. I feel like we’re a family now. A normal, cohesive family.”
“So do I,” she agreed.
We fell asleep that night, both satisfied about the same things.
At four am the next morning, I dropped the boys off at the airport. Before Jess took the kids to school, she joined me at the desk to check her emails. We worked side by side at the same desk, all day, every day. It was a drastic change from writing books as a hermit, but I couldn’t imagine life any other way.
Spending twenty-four hours a day with Jess wasn’t a burden, it was a gift.
“I need to decide what I’m writing next,” I said.
“Erin will be here tomorrow.”
“I know. I’m just trying to decide what’s next. Between the books in this series.”
My phone beeped.
I swiped my thumb across the screen. Surprised to see a text from Alec, I opened it.
When I read the message, a lump rose in my throat.
Pop. Got out before Jess and the kids woke up. Forgot to tell Jess I loved her. Tell her for me, will you? Tell the little kids, too.
I typed my response.
Will do son. Let me know when you land. Talk to you soon.
“Who was that?” Jess asked.
“Alec,” I said.
That one-word response got tangled in my throat.
“What did he say?”
I couldn’t respond. If I had, I would have cried. With the screen of the phone illuminated and still on the text message, I handed it to her.
She read the message, and then looked up. Her eyes welled with tears. I nodded in acknowledgement, still incapable of speaking. She read the message again, and then handed me the phone.
As she wiped her eyes, I let what happened sink in.
Jess may have been my missing puzzle piece, but throughout or relationship, our family was missing one piece from being complete. Alec’s text message snapped the last piece of our family’s puzzle firmly into place.
Our family was complete.
“I think I know what I’m going to write,” I said over the top of my screen.
“What?” Jess asked.
“A memoir.”
“About what?”
“Well, a memoir is like a piece of a person’s life. A slice of their life’s pie. I was thinking our relationship. That piece.”
She scoffed. “Nobody would want to read that.”
“There’s one way to find out,” I said.
I labeled a new folder Lover Come Back and grinned at the thought of writing a memoir. In an instant, the power of Alec’s message hit me, and I struggled not to cry.
“Babe, are you okay?” Jess asked.
“I’m fine,” I lied as I wiped something from my left eye.
Then, with a full heart, and eyes that were brimming with tears, I began to type.
A Reflection From Jessica
It was July 4th. I usually looked forward to this holiday. Barbeques and fireworks by the lake brought back cherished memories of my childhood. Memories that I clung to as an escape of the previous 4 years of my life. I wasn’t necessarily miserable with my life at that time. I had a boyfriend. I had two kids. I had a decent job doing hair at a salon my friend had opened. All in all, things could have been worse.
My phone vibrating in my purse caused me to snap out of my thoughts and remember where I was. My boyfriend’s family had invited us to come to town forty-five miles north of Wichita to celebrate the holiday with them. While the kids were jumping in and out of the pool, he
and I sat in lawn chairs drinking beer on the deck. I hated beer. Just the smell of it made me want to throw up the hotdog I had eaten thirty minutes prior. Not wanting to disappoint him, I finished the one I was drinking and got up to grab us both another.
I opened the red Coleman cooler and grabbed two Coronas. My phone vibrated again, reminding me I had a new message. I tucked the beers under my arm and dug in my purse until I found my phone buried at the bottom. I clicked the side button to illuminate the screen.
316-988-7363: You.
Confused, I typed in my unlock code and opened my messages. I knew that number. That number hadn’t texted me in almost a year. I dropped the Coronas. My phone vibrated again.
316-988-7363: I wrote a book. Broken People. You should read it. I think it would benefit you greatly.
As if on cue, my boyfriend walked up at that moment. I felt him peering over my shoulder and instinctively shoved my phone back in my purse.
“Who was that?” he asked.
Not wanting to lie or cause an argument I simply replied, “Scott. He was just telling me he wrote a book.”
He winced at the mention of Scott’s name.
I met my boyfriend at the gym about a month after Scott and I had decided to go our separate ways. I had unintentionally mentioned my friend Scott in conversation a few times. My new boyfriend didn’t like the thought of me having a male friend of any kind.
“Let me see your phone,” he demanded.
Reluctantly, I handed him the phone. I’d rather let him see it than deal with the fight that would surely ensue if I didn’t.
After opening my messages, he typed a response and pressed send before I could see what he said. He then picked the beers up from the grass and went back to his lawn chair.
I nervously fumbled with my phone before opening it to see his response.
His reply wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. But a part of my heart sunk at the thought of Scott leaving me alone for good. I had waited almost a year to hear from him and now I was certain I never would again. It was silly to let a man I would never see again make me feel this anxious over one little text message, but I couldn’t deny it.
I shook off my feelings, blaming them on the buzz I was feeling from the beer and went back to watching the kids splash in the pool.
Later that day we ate again, drank some more and set fireworks off in the driveway behind the house. It made me happy to see the kids enjoying themselves. I had always wanted days like this for them. Spending the summer playing outside, swimming in the pool, barbequeing in the backyard… being a carefree kid. It seemed, at least for that moment, they had that. I wasn’t, however, sure that this was where I belonged.
I spent the next few weeks questioning my relationship with my boyfriend. My family liked him, he was pretty good with the kids, and was going to school to get his doctorate.
On paper he would be the perfect husband.
But.
He wasn’t Scott.
Scott came into my life like a tornado without warning. He was kind. He was caring. He was responsible. Dependable. Honest. Confident. The list could go on and on. Every single box on my checklist of requirements, he checked off.
He was also the epitome of everything my parents hated. He was a biker. A felon. An older man. A man with children. A divorcee. None of it mattered. I knew I loved him when we met, and I still loved him now.
I had spent the past thirteen months of my life suppressing my feelings for him, even masking them while in my new relationship. The time had come to be honest. With myself, and with boyfriend.
The relationship with my boyfriend ended soon thereafter. I knew I needed to take some time to reflect on the life I wanted for myself, and for my children. I decided to do anything that I could, within reason, to better my life.
I started spending my mornings and evenings at the gym, sending the kids to the childcare center while I worked out. I got a new job at a salon in the downtown district of Wichita. I bought a new (to me) car. I chopped my hair off into a curly asymmetrical bob.
Nothing I did filled the Scott-sized void I felt.
One evening after putting the kids down for bed, I downloaded the Kindle App on my phone and purchased Broken People, by Scott Hildreth. After devouring the book over the next couple days, I concluded that the only thing that could fill my Scott-sized void…was Scott.
Also by Scott Hildreth
Broken People: http://amzn.to/2FO1189
Baby Girl Series
Baby Girl - Ruined: http://amzn.to/2FAxe6G
Baby Girl - Owned: http://amzn.to/2FCVxku
Baby Girl - Loved: http://amzn.to/2peR1yw
The UN Series
Undefeated - Book One: http://amzn.to/2pbBsHW
Unstoppable - Book Two: http://amzn.to/2pjrsv8
Unleashed - Book Three: http://amzn.to/2pfgIPh
Unbroken - Book Four: http://amzn.to/2FCnbOs
Selected Sinners Series
Making the Cut - Book One: http://amzn.to/2v2D5fS
Taking the Heat - Book Two: http://amzn.to/2vVAcwo
Otis - Book Three: http://amzn.to/2vUJ9G4
Hung - Book Four: http://amzn.to/2wuUvC9
Ex-Con - Book Five: http://amzn.to/2wkgVWf
Money Shot - Book Six: http://amzn.to/2x9nwQK
Hard Corps - Book Seven: http://amzn.to/2wuJpNH
Filthy Fucker’s Series
Hard - Book One: http://amzn.to/2jNSCpZ
Rough - Book Two: http://amzn.to/2iAYjcJ
Dirty - Book Three: http://amzn.to/2jUWqpd
Rigid - Book Four: http://amzn.to/2n3js02
Nuts - Book Five: http://amzn.to/2rI1IMw
Thick - Book Six: http://amzn.to/2AZeLxa
His Rules (spin off): http://amzn.to/2FYFcG6
Devil’s Disciples Series
Baker - Book One: http://amzn.to/2EgT9iH
Cash - Book Two: http://amzn.to/2DwaL4Q
Book Three Coming Soon
Bodies, Ink and Steel Series
Blurred Lines: http://amzn.to/2pexYEo
Pretty in Ink: http://amzn.to/2peziad
Stand Alone Books
Threefold: http://amzn.to/2pe7Aub
Karter: http://amzn.to/2HBvxTc
Snatch: http://amzn.to/2FTq2Cb
Fuck Buddy: http://amzn.to/2pffofr
Dick: http://amzn.to/2phAXMn
Brawler: http://amzn.to/2FDaOld
The AlphaBet: http://amzn.to/2FKnUJx
Finding Parker: http://amzn.to/2pbyzXx
LOVER COME BACK_An Unbelievable But True Love Story Page 26