by Deb Rotuno
“My worst fear was becoming him, but instead, I made it my life’s goal to love my son, my wife, give them what I lost after my mother died. And I couldn’t have him in my life anymore. There’s absolutely nothing toxic in my life. I did what my mother wanted for me—school, career, a beautiful wife and son. Tyler is opening his own architecture firm soon, and Faith is working her way up at the museum. Both are married, happy, and Tyler will have his own little one soon. No. Just…no.”
I shook my head, looking over at Robbie, who was playing with a Cheerio before putting it in his mouth. To say the things to him that my father had said to me would make me sick. But I also finally understood why my mother had wanted to simply walk away. I couldn’t fathom putting Robbie in a situation where all the ugliness could surround him, bear down on him. I also knew I’d never need to make that decision because Dani was the epitome of love, home, happiness. Leaning over, I pressed my lips to the side of her head, whispering that I loved her.
Looking back to Sean, I said, “Thank you for telling me, but we all wiped our hands of him when we packed up the house in Key Lake. That hasn’t changed.”
Sean nodded, his gaze raking from me, to Dani, to Robbie, who was chugging from his sippy cup. “Robyn has to be beaming with pride right about now,” he whispered, his brow furrowing a bit. “This…This was what she wanted for you, for Tyler and Faith. And I’m happy to see it.”
I gazed over at Dani, thinking about how my mother would’ve loved her, how I was pretty sure if Mom was watching, she had to have been responsible for my Library Girl, but if I believed that, then deep down, I had to believe that she might have had a hand in my father’s fate. Maybe it was seeing her in my looks that set him off after all this time. Maybe it was knowing that we had erased him from our lives, moving on with good things, prosperous things, that nothing he’d done to us had held us back. Maybe guilt and hate and everything else in between just hit him all at once, taking over. Or maybe she intervened, stopping him from trying to approach me one last time. I’d never know, and I didn’t really want to know.
“Evan, you okay?” Dani asked, tilting my face a bit so I could look her in the eye.
Nodding, I kissed her lips. “Yes, ma’am. I’m okay. I’m better than okay. I’m…” I trailed off because the word “free” came to mind, but I was already free of my father long before he’d gotten himself killed. “I’m just ready to go home, pretty girl.”
She smiled, glancing at Sean when he chuckled at us. But when she looked back to me, she nodded. “Me too, handsome.”
I smiled at her and then at my son, who was babbling innocently around his fist as he watched us with big, curious eyes. They were my home. Home was our new house that still needed unpacking, that would see a huge Christmas this year, and that held everything that was precious to me. Home was Florida, with warm weather, sea air, and friends and family I wouldn’t trade for anything. Home was what I’d unknowingly found the second I set foot in a small college library years ago.
I smiled at my wife, nodding once. “Yeah, definitely ready for home.”
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Jenny Rarden, because nothing I do is possible without her. Much love to my husband, John, and thanks to my friends, who are my hand-picked family.
About the Author
Deb Rotuno was born and raised in central Florida, where she currently lives with her husband and four cats. She’s worked in retail for almost seventeen years, but if she were able to do anything she wanted, she would be a full-time reader, writer, and fur-baby mom. She has always been a big reader, and writing was something she started late in high school, but she began to dabble in it again once she discovered fanfic in 2009. Since then, she’s read and written plenty in her spare time, especially since she cannot watch a TV show or a movie without thinking about how she could write a story like it.
Website: www.debrotuno.com
Twitter: @Drotuno
Facebook: Facebook.com/drotuno
RR Books
Website: www.rr-books.com
Twitter: @RR_Books
Facebook: Facebook.com/writers.at.rrbooks/
Other works by Deb Rotuno:
Rain Must Fall (Rain Must Fall book 1)
Sun Still Shining (Rain Must Fall book 2)
High Heels & Hard Drives