I made sure to wake up before her the next day because I wanted her to get more rest. It still bothered me that she was surviving on four hours of sleep at night. She’d said that Sunday was the day she rested and I’m going to make sure that she does. If her ass is up I’m putting her back to bed.

So I was the one in the kitchen making breakfast when Travis came in, yawning and rubbing his stomach. He grabbed a glass from the drying rack and walked blindly to the fridge and grabbed the juice and poured a glass.

“Morning!” He finally acknowledged me after downing it. Funny kid. I grunted out a good morning, not quite used to this domestic scene. I don’t know the last time I made my own breakfast.

“Did you check on your sister?” Judging by the closeness between the two of them and the way they are with each other, I was pretty sure that he had. His nod confirmed it and he answered me after emptying his second glass of juice.

“She’s still out. I stood over her messing with her for two whole minutes and she didn’t budge, that means she’s really tired.” He didn’t seem any more pleased by that than I was.

“We’ll let her sleep in then.” I plated our breakfast and left hers in the warmer before joining him at the table. “Before she wakes up, tell me more about what things were like after your mom’s death. How was your sister?”

He gave the question some thought before answering. “Like I said, she changed. It was like she gave up on everything she used to like. She wasn’t the fun loving sister I knew any more.”

“At first I thought it was because she had to take care of me because dad wasn’t interested, but it was more than that. It felt like she locked herself off and no one could get through to her.”

“I know she thinks that I don’t understand, that I didn’t see what was happening with her because I was so young. But back then I was so afraid because she was all I had left of my family, that I watched her closely.”

“That’s why I was able to see the change in her. How I was able to follow along. It pissed me off that she gave up everything for me and I couldn’t do anything to help her.” He folded his fist around the fork.

“That’s one of the reasons I hate my dad, for what he did to her. Even if things went bad for him and mom, we’re still his kids. But he didn’t care, he just threw us away and never looked back.” He looked down at his plate and I felt for him. He was still hurting too, as much as his sister.

“Sis puts on a brave front, but I know it hurt her. She’s always been a daddy’s girl while mom and I were closer. And we always did everything together.”

“On Saturdays Annie and dad had coffee together at the local coffee shop to catch up, while mom and I went to practice and for ice cream after.”

He swallowed hard at the mention of his mother and I felt a tear in my heart. Looks like he’s guilty of putting on a front as well. Neither of them, have healed.

My responsibility became very clear. I had to get

both of them back to where they once were. Maybe if I work on her brother she’d see that she could trust me. She’d learn that I never make promises I don’t intend to keep.

“To tell the truth, I didn’t know she was so strong until all this happened. I used to think her only interest was dance, she lived for it. But then she gave it up without a thought so she could take care of me.”

“I owe her big time, but I still wish there was a way for her to go back to the way things used to be. You saw her yesterday while she was teaching those kids. It was the first time in a long time that I’ve seen that spark in her.”

“It used to be she was always like that. She didn’t have a care in the world. Every free moment was spent dancing or doing something pertaining to dance.”

He stopped and stared down at his half empty plate, lost in the thoughts in his head. It was obvious that he loved his sister. That he was a good kid caught in a terrible situation, they both were. She couldn’t have been more than eighteen when her world completely changed.

I’d been the same age when my life changed as well, only mine had changed for the better. My dreams were finally coming true while hers had ended.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll make sure she looks like that all the time from now on. I’m going to need your help though. She doesn’t trust me, which is understandable given what you both went through.”

“I can only show her through my actions what she means to me…”

“And what’s that?” I wasn’t expecting the question out of the blue like that, wasn’t completely sure how to answer him.

“Everything!” It was the only thing that came to mind, the only thing that said it all. I’m baring my soul to a teenage boy at my breakfast table. How had I come to this?

“Then I’ll trust you with her, but if you fuck up I’m going to break both your legs.” I’m pretty sure he meant that shit. The little shit didn’t even crack a smile when he said it. Just went back to eating like he hadn’t just threatened me in my own damn house.

We went back to eating in relative silence as I let my mind work. If I was going to do this then I had to do it all the way. If I make one wrong move, one misstep, she’d be gone, I’m sure of it.

The first and most pressing thing on the agenda was getting the kid set up in school. I’ll let mom take care of that as I’m sure she’d put her two cents in anyway.

Then I have to work on putting a smile back on my girl’s face. I can’t give her back her mother, or the life she once knew, but I can do the best I can now. To give her a future, a good one, with me.

It’s not going to be easy getting her onboard I’m sure. Colombia is nothing to sneeze at. But she’d once chosen Juilliard hadn’t she? I just have to make it so that she can make that choice again.

I understand that asking her to put her trust in me isn’t as easy as it sounds. That it was going to take a lot of effort on my part to get her to that point. I just need that one small opening. The first sign that I was breaking through those walls of hers and I’d take it from there.

She slept until noon. I checked on her I don’t know how many times before she finally joined the land of the living, and each time she was sleeping so soundly she didn’t even know that I was there, standing beside her.

I waited anxiously for the water to turn off in her shower, like a lovesick puppy whining at its owner’s door. Pitiful! Even Travis thought so.

She ate her lukewarm eggs and downed a cup of coffee before I dragged them both to the park. It was a crisp winter day, but that didn’t stop the locals from coming out.

I found my favorite spot and spread the blanket I’d brought along for her to sit while Travis and I threw the football he’d found at my place.

It wasn’t long before others joined us for a quick game. A group of teenage boys and men who usually search me out whenever I come to the park.

The kid was in his element. If dance is her thing then it was obvious the game was his. “Not bad kid.” I wrapped my arm around his neck as we made our way back to her when the game was over.

He was smiling, sweaty and happy. “You ready?” I stood over her where she sat on the blanket playing with her phone. I had her bundled up like a newborn with one of my scarves wrapped around her neck twice.

She nodded and got to her feet, gathering up the blanket and the unopened snacks we’d brought with us. Travis regaled her with stories about the game we’d just played and the new people he’d met like she hadn’t been sitting there watching.

She listened to his every word until her eyes started glazing over when he tried explaining a play he’d made to her. The shit was funny.

We spent the rest of the day lazing around the apartment. Travis and I watched Sunday football while she made lunch, and pretty soon it was time to head to the airport to pick mom up.

I was nervous as hell as we stood at the gate waiting for her to appear. I expected her to be tired after the long flight, but she came through the doors loaded for bear.

She bypassed me and went right for Annabelle, grabbing the poor girl in a hug like they were long lost friends. Poor Annabelle looked over her shoulder at me, begging for help with her eyes.

I didn’t make a move. No way am I getting between mom and whatever the fuck she had going on in her head. She’s another hardheaded female who’s stuck in her ways. Once she gets something in her head there’s no use trying to pry that shit out.

It was only then that I wondered what all Tony had told her. I forgot to ask. He was being very squirrely now that she was here, staying to the sidelines. Nosy ass!

When she was done with Anna she moved on to Travis, and by the time we made it back to the car she had them eating out of her hands. She never stopped talking.

I knew I was in for a long night when she decided to head to my place instead of taking her ass home. Funny, I’d been hoping she would help me bring Anna around, but now that she was here I had the sudden fear that I’d bitten off more than I can chew.

She sat between us in the backseat and had a running conversation with Anna about dance and how she liked working for me etc. She dug into her shit better than a trained interrogator.

I just sat back and let her work her magic. Mouthy didn’t dare give her any of her shit like she does me, and I learned more in the hour it took us to get back to the city than I had in all the time I’d known her.

When Travis had said she was a prodigy he hadn’t just been talking scholastically, but also in dance. Someone at Juilliard had actually scouted her. The same someone who’d encouraged her to keep coming back one day a week. Probably in the hopes that she’d come back full time.

I didn’t know mom knew so much about dance, it was obvious she’d hit up Google because she was asking all the right questions. I didn’t know that she was setting the stage for what was to come. I should’ve. She’s a Pro.

Back at my place the five of us went up in the elevator and mom gave me a look. I knew what that meant. She had shit to say. I used the guise of taking her to the last spare room, which she knew very well since it’s hers, to get some private time with her.

“I know everything, just leave this to me.” We’d barely cleared the door.

“What do you mean you know everything? How?”

“Didn’t you tell Tony?” Nough said. I forgot when it comes to her he has bitch teeth in his damn head.

“What do you plan on doing?”

“Don’t you worry, you just leave it to me. And don’t push.” What the hell did he tell her? I followed her back out to the living room where the others were waiting.

“I’m starving, that airline food isn’t fit for a dog.” I knew she was lying because she flew first class and had already told me how great the food was on her trip out.

“Annabelle why don’t you help me in the kitchen? We’ll put together something for this horde.” The poor girl looked trapped as she followed the harridan from the room. I almost felt sorry for her, but she deserved it

If her ass wasn’t so stubborn I wouldn’t have to sic the bloodhound on her. That didn’t stop me from being nervous the whole time they were out of my sight though.

What does this woman want with me? It was obvious she was on a mission. I’m not that dumb not to have picked up on that, but what? I’d got the feeling that she and her son were close.

Maybe she was here to check out the girl who had moved into her son’s home. To make sure I was worthy or something along those lines.

She was a bit confusing. One minute I got the sense of a sweet motherly type, and the next it was like sitting under a heated lamp being grilled by an expert.

She kept flitting from topic to topic until I could barely keep up. “That boy never knew how to stock a kitchen. It’s a wonder he didn’t starve to death while I was away. As old as he is, I worried about

him every day while I was away.”

“So you love to dance huh.” She switched up so fast I almost missed it. She was still rummaging through the freezer as she asked so I couldn’t see her face.

“Yes, I always have.” I got nervous at the look she gave me when she finally lifted her head with what looked like steaks in her hands. She just nodded and went to the microwave to defrost the meat.

“I heard you go to Juilliard, that’s the best isn’t it?” I gave her a rundown of the school and some of its past alumni, people whose names she would know since they were famous.

“That must be something, I have two left feet, so does Max. I used to break out in a cold sweat every time I watched him run with a ball in his hand. I always just knew he was going to topple over and break his fool head.”

“But put a ball in his hand and he becomes a different person. For as long as I can remember that boy always had one dream, to play professional football. I’m glad he got the chance even if it didn’t last that long.”

“For those years that he played he was the happiest I’d ever seen him.” She took the meat from the microwave and moved to the sink to wash it before grabbing seasonings from the rack.

“It’s every parents’ dream to see their child excel at something they love, and my boy was good. I’m so proud of him, proud of the man he’s become.” I could almost believe that there was no rhyme or reason to the conversation, but somehow I didn’t think so.

“And your parents? Are they in the city?” I swallowed hard not sure where to begin. Her stare had me opening my mouth and everything came spilling out. Why did I have the feeling that she already knew?

That didn’t make sense since I hadn’t shared any of my past with her son. She nodded as I spoke and before I knew it, the steaks were on the indoor grill and we were sitting at the table with my hand in hers.

“You’ve had a rough few years haven’t you? I don’t agree with what your mother did, but I can understand. That kind of betrayal, it takes a lot of inner strength to withstand.” She patted my hand.

“She didn’t do it because she didn’t love you and your brother. She probably thought she had no other way out poor thing. That kind of heartache is hard to overcome for some.”

She spoke as if she knew the feeling firsthand. I didn’t realize I was crying until she wiped my face with her fingertips. It had been so long since there was anyone to wipe my tears that I cried even harder.

“I bet you had to grow up pretty fast didn’t you. I know the feeling.” She went on to tell me about her teenage pregnancy and the hardships that followed.

As the story unfolded I realized that Max and I had more in common than I thought. I don’t know where I got the idea that his life was always as it is now. That he’d always lived a life of luxury and ease.

I listened in near shock as she told the story of their near poverty or as she put it, living paycheck to paycheck. Of how hard he’d worked to get the scholarship that changed their lives.

As she spoke I started to see him in a different

light. The man I’d thought was nothing more than a shiftless womanizer had actually been the prefect son. If everything she said about him was true then he was almost perfect in every way. And she did not gloss over his imperfections.

“He can be mule headed when he gets his mind stuck on something and he loves having his own way, but he knows better than to try that mess with me. You have to be firm with him or he’ll run you over.”

She nodded and patted my hand that was still held firmly in hers again. “But all things considered I couldn’t ask for a better son. I’ve never, not been proud of my boy.” She got a sweet little smile on her face.

“Whether it was my raising or his own inner moral compass that made it so, that boy has always been decent. I never once had to hang my head in shame where he was concerned.”

I believed her, it never entered my mind that I shouldn’t. But the more she spoke the more horrible I began to feel. I’d let my own prejudice cloud my judgment it seems.

I was slightly ashamed of myself for judging him without knowing all the facts. She painted a very different picture to the one I had in my head. And what she said next only made me feel worst.

“He grew up watching me struggle. He saw all the hardships that I faced. Once he came of age, he never stopped finding ways to take care of me. Even when he was away at college, he never forgot to call me.”

“Do you know what that child did with his first paycheck when he went pro? He bought his mother a house and car. He made me quit my job by the second one.”

“The only issue I have with my son is my lack of grandchildren. I’m getting up there in age and he’s not getting any younger. I don’t know what it is with young people today waiting until their forties and fifties to have babies.”

“I know he has a fear of doing the same thing his father did to me to someone else. That’s why I’ve despaired of ever having grandchildren.” She slipped that last bit in there so smoothly that I almost missed it.

“He does?” That sounded so different from what I’d expect. I thought for sure someone like him wouldn’t think too deeply about such things. I wouldn’t think he’d care.

I didn’t see him as the kind of man who would be so conscientious about repeating the mistakes of his father. The way I’m afraid to follow in my mother’s footsteps.

“Yep! He’s always felt guilty because he thought he’d kept me from living my dream. I wanted to be a nurse, but after I got pregnant I had to drop out of school. It wasn’t like it is today with young mothers going to school.”

“Now he’s trying to talk me into going back. That boy is big on dreams. He says it’s because he got to live his and there’s nothing like it.” Her every word seemed to have a double meaning and I was trying to take it all in.

She had no idea that she was ripping away the shield I had in place. Her every word made me rethink things and look at them in a new light. Something I wasn’t sure I wanted to do.

If I accept everything she was saying, what she

seemed to want me to read between the lines, then he was someone I could trust. He knows some of what I’m feeling and have been since the demise of my family.

He had an almost built in reproach for the very thing I am afraid of, betrayal, being left swinging in the wind without an anchor. How could that be? How could he be so close to the only kind of man that I would even consider giving myself to?

After mom died I’d pretty much made up my mind to steer clear of all serious relationships. I knew a lot of it had to do with my anger, but there was a genuine fear inside me that grew over time.

I don’t think even my brother knows the kind of pain mom was in, I never let him read the letter or her private journal that I had found days later. I almost threw up at the thought of the journal that I had locked away in a safety deposit box, so that there was no way of my brother ever finding it.

All my mother’s hurt and pain were on those pages. All the lies and deceit, and the utter betrayal she felt at the hands of her high school sweetheart. They’d been together more than half their lives. And it was all gone in a matter of minutes.

As I sat there listening to her while she checked on the steaks and got a salad ready, I realized that what I was looking for was the one thing I couldn’t have; a guarantee.

I wanted to be sure that whatever man I ended up with if any, that he wouldn’t break my heart. I know that it’s stupid, but that fear didn’t allow for rationality.

The picture she painted sounded so nice. But was it just a mother’s love for her son? Could he really be all those things? A part of me was hoping so hard, and yet another was wary.

I started to rethink everything from the moment we met, looking at it from a different perspective. It’s not like I was going to run and jump into his arms because of one conversation with his mother. But her words did give me something to think about.

Had he seen something in me that first night? Is that why he dragged me off to his office and fed me? I never did understand that, but now it makes sense. He probably took one look at my second hand jacket and felt pity for me.

Is that what this is? Does he see some kind of resemblance between me, and his mom? I hope not, or I’ll feel really stupid. No, that’s not it! He didn’t kiss me like he was thinking about his mom.

I was only confusing myself with my thoughts, and besides it was obvious that his mom wasn’t done. “Grab the plates and set the table love, dinner’s almost ready.” She’d done everything herself I noticed and I felt guilty.

“I’m so sorry, I was supposed to be helping.” I’d been so lost in my head I hadn’t even realized that dinner was ready. Her warm reassuring smile let me off the hook.

“It was good just to have the company. Plus I like any chance to talk about my darling son. I don’t get the opportunity too often. He never brings home any friends, it’s always just Tony. And he’s so private, I don’t dare discuss him with my friends.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to ask her about all the women he’d dated. Women I’d heard whispered about at the club. I have to admit after learning who he is I’d taken a peek at his Google profile and seen plenty in images.

“I can’t imagine that he doesn’t have lots of friends.” That was as close as I could get to asking what I really wanted to know without giving away the fact that I was interested. She read me like a book anyway.

“I can tell you honestly that you’re the first girl he ever brought home to me. I never met any of those things he traipsed around with, except to see them in magazines or the Sunday gossip column.”

She called the others in for dinner after dropping that bombshell. Leaving me with a million questions and more confused than I had been before.