Home Run (The Boys of Summer Book 2) by Heidi McLaughlin

Author:Heidi McLaughlin [McLaughlin, Heidi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2017-01-16T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Ainsley

Watching Cooper walk away was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but it’s for the best. I don’t want his pity where my mother is concerned and I don’t want him to relive everything he went through when his own mother died. I know he has very few memories left, but death is something you’ll never forget.

People linger around me; a few whisper and maybe even point fingers, but I don’t care. It had to be done. I can’t deal with the text messages telling me that he’s missing me or that he wants to see me. This will mean no more voice mails and no more nights in his arms. It’s for the best. He can move on and forget I ever existed.

I wipe away the tears angrily, pissed at myself for letting karma win. My mom told me to stay away from athletes, and if I had listened, maybe she wouldn’t be withering away to nothing in a hospital bed.

Going back into her room, I find the static sound of beeps oddly comforting. This is my life now, watching my mom give what little fight she has left in her until she flat-out gives up. I don’t want her to, but it’d be one hell of a miracle if she were able to pull through this.

The morning shift nurse comes in to check my mother’s vitals. She smiles softly at me, but I can see the judgment in her eyes. I’m not stupid. Cooper is famous around here. His face is known. To these die-hard baseball fans, I just did the unthinkable.

Once she closes the door behind her, I break down and muffle my cries with a pillow. I let the tears flow as I scream out my anger and frustrations. I knew the end for Cooper and me was close, but I thought I’d be able to hang on for a few more weeks.

“Ainsley,” my mother’s weak voice calls out and has me rushing to her bedside.

“I’m here.”

“Okay, sweetheart. I missed you.”

There are moments of lucidity for her, and then there are times like this when she doesn’t make any sense.

“I didn’t go anywhere,” I kindly remind her, but my words fall on deaf ears. Each day, even hour, she’s slipping away from me, and there isn’t anything I can do about it.

“Hey.” The sound of Stella’s voice grabs my attention. She rushes in and pulls me into her arms. “How’s Mom?”

I shrug. I don’t know how to answer a question like that anymore. I can’t say she’s doing well, because the cancer is eating her body up. Where’s the positive in that?

“You’ve been crying?”

“Cooper came by,” I say, which doesn’t seem to surprise her. “You told him where I was?”

She nods and pulls me over to the cot that I’ve been sleeping on. “He came to work, Ains. He was asking for you.”

“You had no right.”

She blanches at my words. “So ignoring him was the way to go? The man came to your office to see you, thinking you’d be there.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.