by P. S. Power
His mother didn’t have a good track record in relationships as far as he knew. That could be due to her having been in love with someone else his entire life. He’d never considered that growing up. Not even once. There had been no mention of the idea. So maybe it was just what needed to happen, the two of them meeting up again.
“They’re all great. Everyone there. Did you see that Denny West got the Lincoln fight? If he wins that he’s fast tracked to a major title shot.” It had been announced a few weeks before. Really, Tony had nearly cancelled the trip to see his bio-dad over that. Denny didn’t really need his help, however. Not until the last month, when Tony had orders to learn how to pretend to be his opponent for sparring. That would take working out constantly, so that he wasn’t too weak on the left hand side. It was doable. Maybe. If he could, then he might even be a big way back toward repairing the ten percent that he was supposed to have lost forever.
At least learning how to work around it well enough. That was almost the same.
Sally danced as they walked. It was a happy thing. It looked cute and all her working out meant she had a tight body, which he noticed, even if she was a bit too old for him.
“So, do you have a girlfriend, Tony?” The nearly thirty-year-old woman saying that got his mother to stare at her, as if she were asking for herself. That wasn’t the case of course. Sally didn’t really care if the men she slept with were dating other people to start with. At least she hadn’t the first time they’d met.
“Not really. Sandy… We were kind of talking on the phone, she got a steady boyfriend, so, you get the idea. Off to being just friends for me. It’s a good thing. She had this brain thing that should have killed her, but it cleared up. I think it was a misdiagnosis, but either way, she isn’t going to just die now, so I’m cool with it. She lives too far away anyway. That kind of thing doesn’t work, most of the time.” The thing there being that Tony actually was all right with it.
Oh, she was a great person, but he didn’t need to have her in his life directly to be happy. Not even to feel secure.
It was a thing that Tony just knew about his world now. He was wanted. There was, at the end of the summer, a real home waiting for him. With Rick and Jen, not his mother, but even she was doing better. They all were, it seemed.
Smiling at his mom, he waved a bit with his right hand. About a year before he’d done that as she’d driven off, abandoning him with strangers.
She didn’t get it, so smiled back at him.
“Hello?”
He nodded. That was better than always saying goodbye to everyone. A lot.
So he followed along to Adam’s nice red car, then rode to his place. It was new to him, but Tony Winters kind of thought it might be another real home for him, after a fashion. That now his father knew he existed, the man would actually be there for him. That had taken a long time to happen, but now that it had, it wouldn’t be easily undone. So it was kind of a gift, really.
A place that wanted him. More than one, actually.
People that did as well, which was better than he’d thought he’d ever have, even a year before.
It was kind of nice.
Better than that.
It was perfect.