Livin' Ain't Easy by Peron Long

Author:Peron Long
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Urban Books
Published: 2012-02-21T00:00:00+00:00

Part II

Six Months Later

17

Devlin

“Do you love her?”

“I love her very much,” I replied without hesitation.

“Does she love you?”

“She says that she does,” I said with a huge smile on my face, thinking about that night three months ago as we lay in bed and she professed her love to me.

“So what’s the problem?”

I thought about the question. Why did I feel like there was a problem? Marriage was something that I always wanted, but I had to be sure this was the right thing to do and that we were both ready for the commitment.

“We’ve only been dating for six months. Don’t you think that’s too soon?” I asked.

My father’s head dropped down and I could see a look of sadness fill his eyes. I understood what that look meant. Over the past few months since I had met him, I had learned Henry Carlisle well. It was signs of the demon that was creeping in from his past.

He took a sip of his beer, and looked up into my eyes.

“Son, love is a funny thing. It doesn’t care when it comes.” He glanced at his beer. He summoned the server to come over and ordered another round for both of us. He smiled weakly at me, reached into his wallet, and pulled out a picture. He slowly handed it to me.

I stared at the woman in the picture. It was my mother. Grammy had several pictures of her that I had seen over the years, but this one was new to me. I stared at my mother’s beauty and sadness threatened to overcome my soul. I wished I had gotten a chance to know her.

“She was only woman I ever loved,” he said. “The only woman I ever allowed myself to love.”

As we remained in the booth for several moments not saying a word, I thought about the past six months of my life. When Henry told me who he was, my initial thought was to kick his ass, then kick him out. For the life of me, I could not understand how he waited thirty-two years to contact me.

“You want money, don’t you?” I asked him, springing from the couch.

“No, son, I don’t want your money.” He remained seated.

“So, why now?” I asked, standing up again.

“Devlin, calm down,” Simone had said as she pulled me back down to the couch for about the fourth time in five minutes. Anger overtook my soul.

“You have been dead to me all my life, and as far as I am concerned, you’re still dead,” I said.

Henry reached into his jacket, pulled out a stack of envelopes, and placed them on the coffee table. Then he wrote his number on a piece of paper and placed it on top of the letters.

“After reading these, contact me if you feel like you want to talk. That’s my number,” he said as he walked out the door.

I remained seated beside Simone, staring at the letters. She remained silent. I remained silent.

“This day of all days, he chose this one to fucking tell me this,” I whispered, breaking our silence.

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