Second Chance Valentine by Annie J. Rose

Author:Annie J. Rose [Rose, Annie J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

Travis

Hank sat in his easy chair, his fingers steepled and his chin resting on them. The slight beer gut had become a table for his bag of chips, and a soda pop sat on the actual table beside him. I eyed him, trying to see if I could gauge his true feelings about the matter before he tried to sugarcoat them into words, but he was cagey. He just sat, staring down at his raised feet on the reclined chair, and took a moment to compose his words. Finally, his eyes flicked over to mine, and he straightened up.

“You know, I’ve known you all your life, Travis,” he said.

“I know.”

“And in all that time, I always knew you would be someone who would rise above. Someone who would be better than their upbringing. I think that’s why your daddy kind of left you alone, you know? He knew you were going to be okay. He didn’t want to get in the way of the man you were becoming,” Hank said. “I know you have issues with who your mom and dad were to you. I get that. I even understand it and even though I stood up for him before, I agree with you. They weren’t cut out to be parents. But you are your own man.”

I nodded.

“I can just feel the whole town judging me,” I said.

“Fuck the town,” Hank said, and the bluntness startled me so much I instinctively laughed.

“What?”

“Who cares what they think of you,” Hank said. “You don’t have to let anybody else tell you who you are. My advice is to ignore them.”

There was a moment of silence while I took that in. It might sound good, but simply not caring wasn’t exactly in my wheelhouse. The only thing that ever seemed to help me not care about what other people thought was the primary reason I had a sponsor. It had led me to some dark places.

“I see what you’re saying, but I’ve spent my whole life trying to prove I’m not just ‘the drunk’s kid’ that I don’t even know how to not think of myself that way. It literally defines who I am,” I said. “How do I get past that?”

“I don’t know, kid,” Hank said, digging through the chips to find one he liked and popping it into his mouth. “All I know is that you have to find a way. You can’t spend your whole life trying to please everybody. If you do, you end up a lonely, miserable old man eating cold beans out of a can.”

“I guess,” I muttered.

“Shoot,” Hank said. “You are young and smart and in a profession where you are going to end up wealthy. And now you find out you have a baby girl with the lady you still are in love with? And she’s still single? Son, I’d do a lot of things just to have the problems you’ve got.”

I stayed for a little while longer, but enlightenment was just not to be.

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