Cherry Bomb (25 page)

“No, I’m the lucky man who is dating his
momma. Which makes him extra special to me.”

When they gave him the numbing shot, Henry
forgot all about Drake’s hand and screamed. I started to step
toward them when Drake took his hand again, and started to tell him
the corniest jokes. And to my surprised, Henry never paid attention
to the doctor as he sown eight stitches into his head, instead he
spent the whole time laughing. I don’t think anyone had tried so
hard except for me to make my kids happy. It was quite possibly the
first time a man had ever took time out to make Henry the center of
attention. That included their father.

“You're all done here. I’ll draw up the
discharge papers then you can leave,” the nurse said without even a
side glance at me. Drake had already scooped Henry up in his
arm.

“What did the football coach say to the
broken vending machine? Give me my quarterback!” I said, mocking
one of his jokes.

He licked the corner of his mouth which
happen to send a chill down my spine. The kind of chill I shouldn’t
have in the presence of my kids.

“Mom, don’t taunt him it worked,” Ruby said
and patted Drake on the shoulder.

“Get your fucking hands off my kids.”

I twisted on the heel of my shoes to come
face to face with James.

James's smile belied his anger. "I paid you
to fuck my wife," he said, "I didn’t pay you to touch my kids." He
spat out each word as if he were discarding something sour from his
mouth.

“Dad what are you saying?” Ruby asked.

I looked over my shoulder. Drake was handing
Henry to Ruby. Our eyes locked. Drake’s crystal clear blue eyes
examined me with far less surprise than I examined him.

“Let’s take this out in the hall,” Drake said
and then tousled Noah’s hair through his fingers. “Stay in here,
buddy. Mommy will be back in a minute.”

It didn’t escape me that he said Mommy and
not us.

I followed Drake down the small corridor and
far from earshot of the kids with James a heavy presence on my
back. Drake suddenly spun around with his hand held out. When he
realized he was pointing he combed his hand through his hair.

Finally, I found the words to speak. “Tell me
I heard wrong. Please, Drake.” I was grasping at straws, I
know.

“I can’t,” he whispered.

“Ten thousand dollars is what it took to give
him the will to touch your sorry ass,” James said behind me and
cackled.

“Why?” I asked James but couldn’t quit
staring into Drake’s eyes. The actor in him made him appeared to be
in actual pain.

“It was cheaper than paying
you another penny of
my
money.”

I felt so nauseous I thought I might lose the
contents of my stomach all over Drake’s Dockers.

“I’m taking my kids home and you two can do
anything you damn will please.”

“It’s my weekend, they are going with me.”
There was a bite to his words I was sure was for my benefit. I had
known for years he was a man capable of doing whatever it took to
get what he wanted, it was a fact with grim certainty.

I turned around to face him and fingered the
necklace at my throat. “You lost that right when you left them
alone to fend for themselves.”

“Cherry, talk to me,” Drake finally said,
humbly.

I couldn’t face him. I had never been so hurt
in my life. James had placed the final knife in my back but Drake
had been the one to twist it.

“Please, look at me?” Drake said.

Unable to hear another lie, I shook my head.
I had fallen in love with a man that wasn’t real. I had fallen in
love with a lie.

I snapped the necklace around my neck and let
it fall to the floor with a loud clank.

I knelt down and scooped the necklace off the
floor, letting it bounce in my hand. Watching her walk away sent a
blade straight through my black heart. She wasn’t supposed to find
out this way.

“I guess you have my proof now?” James
asked.

I swallowed back the pain I was slowly
choking on. I felt as if she ripped my heart from my chest and
threw it away.

“Well, don’t tell me you don’t have it.”

I stood up and turned to face James. I wanted
to start tearing his fucking limbs from his body, nice and slowly.
Just looking at him repulsed me. “You have no idea who you’re
messing with. If I was you I would walk out that door and never
look back.”

“I could say the same to you,” he spewed from
those weak, lying lips of his.

My anger hit its boiling point, my vision
blurred as I gripped his neck and had thrown him up against the
wall before I even had time to make a cognitive thought. “Get the
hell out of my face.”

Cherry emerged around the corner holding
little Henry in her arms. She froze when she saw us.

“Drake, that’s my daddy,” Noah said as he
walked up behind Cherry.

I released the grasped I had on that piece of
scum, letting him fall to the floor, and took off walking in a
frantic burst. I couldn’t explain anything to Cherry until I had
tied up a few more loose ends.

When I reached the front door, I almost
shattered it as I darted from the only person I could possibly give
my heart too. I stood on the sidewalk, thinking. I had no
transportation. Not even sure where this chapter in my life would
end. I took off running through the crowded parking lot, and across
the main highway. Horns honked, tires screeched, a woman yelled
profanity out her car window, but I didn’t give a flying fuck. I
just wanted out of there. I flagged down a taxi and jumped in when
he stopped within mere inches of me.

I mumbled out my address. The driver looked
at me like I was a lunatic. I just shrugged my right shoulder and
smirked. Deep down, I knew he was probably right to a point.

I snapped Henry into his car seat, relieved
the medicine they had given him had knocked him out cold.
Hopefully, he wouldn’t remember the embarrassment of the night.

“Momma, what was dad talking about? It made
Drake mad,” Noah asked as he crawled into his booster seat and
fastened the seatbelt around himself. I looked back at him as I
closed the door, unsure how to answer him.

“Noah, you know how dad is. Drake was just
trying to protect Mom,” Ruby said and shot a smile in my direction.
Her smile vanished when my eyes met hers.

I started the engine, stunned Ruby would lie
to save Drake’s ass.
What the hell was her motive?

I backed out of the parking lot and spotted
Drake standing on the sidewalk in front of the hospital. His
shoulders were sagging, his head hung. He was no longer the
confident, commanding alpha male I gave my heart to. I thought
about him driving me to the hospital. There was an air of
hopefulness and joy around us. Now every moment between us was
tainted. I flipped on the radio. I couldn’t let myself look back.
That chapter in my life was closed. But it wasn’t a chapter of
regret. It was a chapter of growth. I had learned so much about
myself and what I was capable of.

I pulled out onto the street when it hit me,
it was not the fact that James had paid someone to get dirt on me
that hurt. I was use to his game. The pain gnawing at my chest was
because I had lost the first person in my life to ever get to the
core of who I was. My life again had flipped on its axis.

I turned onto my driveway, and the first
thing I saw was his motorcycle parked right outside my front porch.
I blinked back the tears filling my eyes. My kids would never see
me go there.

“I’ll read to Noah tonight," Ruby said,
uncharacteristically. “Just put Henry to bed.”

Where was my daughter? And who had taken
over her body?

“I’m fine,” Noah said as he hopped out of the
back seat and slammed the car door. “I’m not five anymore.”

“Okay, but at least get a bath,” I said and
unbuckled Henry’s car seat.

He snored as his head fell against my
shoulder. “Oh, sweetie,” I whispered, taking in his angelic face
with his new Frankenstein scar. “I hate to wake you up for a
bath.”

“Mom, let him sleep. A bath can wait until
tomorrow,” Ruby said and unlocked the door. She guided Noah in, and
I glanced back at Henry. His hair was a matted mess, but the day
had been long and traumatic, so I would go against my grain and let
him sleep, mats and all.

After, I had tucked Henry into my bed and
checked behind Noah’s ears after his bath, I settled down on the
sofa with a glass of wine to watch an episode of The Real
Housewives. Nothing could make a person forget their troubles like
someone else’s.

“Mom,” Ruby said and collapsed down on the
couch beside me. “I’m not really sure what all is going on but I do
know that Drake is crazy about you.”

I sipped on the wine. Ruby had formed some
bond with Drake, but she had no idea his intent was a mirage.

She popped a potato chip in her mouth and
said between crunches, “Mom, I’ve seen the way he looks at
you.”

“He’s an experienced con-artist.” If I
could’ve managed the will to fake a smile, I would have.

“No, Momma, I’ve watched the way he looks at
you when you’re not paying attention. No man is capable of faking
that kind of devotion.”

I wanted to believe her. I wanted to hope
maybe he did grow to care, but it still didn’t change the way we
came to meet.

I grabbed a handful of potato chips and
leaned back on the sofa, enjoying the quiet, Ruby and I so easily
could settle into. My daughter was growing into a young woman I
could see being a great friend. Also, she had proven to be pretty
insightful.

“Mom, do we really have to watch these old
hags arguing?”

The sigh of relief I had hoped for the next
morning didn’t come. The words that had spewed out of James’s mouth
about Drake and I, had replayed over and over in my head until my
body had become numb to everything around me.

I snuggled closer to Henry, surprised he was
still asleep. I didn’t know what questions were to come about
Drake, me, and their dad but I was ready and embraced for anything
as long as I had my kids happy and secured.

I kissed Henry on the top of the head, and
prayed my kids would never fear me not being there for them because
as long as I had breath in my lungs they would be my number one
concern. People would come and go in their life but I never
would.

If I didn’t need to pee so badly I would have
laid in bed and cuddled Henry a little while longer. But nature was
screaming and I had to go.

I crawled out of bed and without thinking
wrapped the robe I had walked out of Drake’s house with around my
body.

I moved down the hallway, appeased that the
kid’s bedroom doors were still closed.

Once I had showered and dressed I headed to
the kitchen. The bright sun was streaming in through the oversized
patio doors. I poured a cup of coffee, thankful for a coffee maker
with a timer once again. Peeking out the window over the sink, I
noticed that Drake’s motorcycle was gone. I swallowed the lump that
had risen in my throat. He must have retrieved it sometime in the
night. Seeing it gone stung and only proved how artificial our
relationship was.
Stop it, he's gone and that's final.

I stepped out onto the patio and looked out
over my gardens. I had been negligent with them the past few weeks,
and they were starting to show signs of my absence.

I’d heard the patio door click closed behind
me, and knew without turning around who it was. “I was hoping to
find you alone,” Ruby said.

I didn’t turn around. I wasn’t ready to
answer any questions just yet, knowing if anyone could see through
me it was Ruby.

“Yeah, the boys are still asleep.”

“Mom, I won't mention him again but at least
reach out to him and give him a chance to explain.”

I couldn’t. The sound of his voice made me
feel things I would never allow myself to feel again.

“It’s getting late. How about we go in and
cook a late breakfast early lunch before the boys stormed the
house,” I said, changing the subject.

Taking a deep breath, I finally turned around
to look back into the deep auburn-brown eyes of my daughter. Her
hair was a deep, dark brown which contrasted perfectly with her
clear, milky-white skin. She was a beauty. So much prettier than
her dad or I ever was. A grin tugged at her lips. I smiled back.
The loss of a marriage or even a brief affair with who I viewed as
the perfect man was not the end of my life. My life was just
beginning. The only part of my life that mattered was the kids I
was so blessed with.

I simply stood back and watched Ruby singing
in the kitchen while preparing the potato salad. I loved seeing her
like this, actually happy and not brooding. She kept trying to get
me to join in, but my singing was even worse than Drake’s. I shook
my head. I had to quit referencing him in my life.

There was a brief knock at the door followed
closely after by the loud-ass doorbell.
Great, the boys will be
up now.

I hurried down the hallway then into the
living room and slung opened the door right as the doorbell rang
out again.

“I have a pizza for a Henry Webb.” A man with
a Mellow Mushroom uniform stood on my door step, holding three
large boxes of pizza.

“We didn’t order a pizza,” I started to
argue.

He glanced down at the receipt on top of the
boxes. “It says here that it was paid for by a Drake Hart,” he said
and ripped the receipt off the box. “Oh, yeah, it says to tell
Henry to feel better soon and enjoy the pizza he promised."

Those pesky tears started to fill my eyes.
“
Squeeze my hand, and if you make me scream I’ll take you for
pizza.”
Those words came crashing back to me. At least, he kept
one promise to this family.