The Falling Kind (18 page)

              “I would go anywhere with you if that’s what it took to be with you,” I said honestly. “But you have to absolutely promise me that’s how this ends. With us together. No alternative.” I couldn’t even say the words ‘jail’ or ‘death’ or anything along those lines. Certainly endings like that couldn’t be possible. Not after all of these nights of loving each other, wrapped up and clinging to each other like we were all that was left under the stars. Surely there could be no other ending for us. The only other fairytale I’d ever lived, the one with Ian – that was already this world’s cruel way of reminding me of its power outside of whatever scenarios were in my head. I knew I didn’t get to
choose
things that were otherwise just not meant to be. But if the choice was taken away from me altogether, I knew that would break me.

              “I promise you there is no other ending to our story, Syd. This is it. You and me together. One way or another. No matter how this plays out, the end is still the same,” he said reassuringly. “Just promise me you’ll be there for me at the end of this. No matter what happens.”

              In some ways it felt like such a melodramatic conversation. I still didn’t have a clue as to what Cole was even planning to do, nor did I know the seriousness of it. But I did understand that if Cole needed to start a new life somewhere, that would involve me, and my promise to him mattered.

              I thought about his words for a moment. The way I fell for Cole – completely, unapologetically, without hesitation – I knew he would be worth any promise. I knew he was a man who would love me despite any circumstance – and I knew that was a man worth loving back. He was the kind of guy who admired who I was, and pushed me to be what I ultimately wanted to become – the kind of guy who could take my breath away with one look from the driver’s side of his truck – the kind of guy who made me want to pour myself into the world to somehow make it better despite learning time and time again that the world wasn’t as forgiving… I knew in that moment he was most certainly that kind of guy - the
falling
kind. The boy you chose because you know he will always love you back. The one who will fix whatever part of you is broken. The boy who would be willing to give it all up before ever leaving you behind. That was a man worth making that kind of promise to.

              “I swear it,” I whispered back. “Just you and me. At the end. Whatever happens.”

CHAPTER 16

              The next night Cole made plans for us to eat dinner at Harvey’s. He actually said it was Harvey’s idea to begin with, but I was skeptical. I didn’t know Harvey at all. Other than a few courteous ‘hellos’ in passing while staying at Cole’s house, I hadn’t spent any time around him. I’d never even met his wife Sonita. I had nervous butterflies in my stomach after my shift at the clinic while I waited for Cole to pick me up.

              I wore some capris and a loose top, trying to keep it casual. I bought a chocolate pie from a bakery by the clinic to offer for dessert. Cole knocked on my condo door right on time.

              “I’m nervous,” I admitted as he escorted me to his motorcycle. Ever since that first ride we took together on the bike, I was hooked. We hadn’t gone on any long rides – it was mostly just from my place to his, and sometimes around the lake, but I loved it. The wind in my hair felt exhilarating and I loved the way his body felt tight underneath my grip.

              He secured my pie into a carrier on the back of the seat and I smirked. It was quite amusing to watch such a big strong tattooed guy handle a delicate pie. We climbed onto his bike and I wrapped my arms around him as tight as I could and we made our way over to Harvey’s.

              We pulled into his driveway and Cole parked the bike. We knocked on the large green door of the cabin and a woman with long dark hair answered. She had silver strands in it towards the top of her head and I guessed she was in her early sixties, probably around Harvey’s age. She had several long scars on her face and I wondered what story they held.

              She smiled and her face softened as soon as she saw us, and she gave us a warm greeting. She hugged Cole and stepped back to take me in.

              “You must be Sydney,” she said politely, reaching out to give me a hug as well. It felt so genuine. “I’ve heard so many wonderful things about you. Cole can’t keep quiet about it.” I saw him blush as she said it. “We are so happy to have you here.”

              I thanked her politely and she led us through the house into the kitchen. Harvey was there at the counter, chopping some vegetables.

              “Are you actually cooking tonight?” Cole razzed him, grabbing a carrot off his cutting board.

              “I’m just on salad duty, Sonita made all of the pasta,” Harvey replied, winking at his wife. I could tell how much he cared for her just by the way he looked at her. I wasn’t sure how to feel about Harvey; he obviously made a lot of bad, dangerous choices, probably on a daily basis. But the way he seemed to care for his family, it seemed so admirable. To love the same woman for forty years – that was beautiful to me, no matter how bad of a guy he was. And the way he took Cole in as a child, that was enough to make me want to believe that deep down he had plenty of goodness in him.

              “Can I help you with anything?” I offered politely.

              “Just tell me what you want to drink for dinner,” Sonita replied warmly. “I have wine, lemonade, iced tea?”

              “Lemonade would be wonderful, thank you,” I answered. Cole helped her fill up our cups and she pulled a couple dishes out of the oven, motioning for us to head towards the dining room table.

              “So you work at the vet clinic?” Sonita asked as we sat down and served up our plates.

              “Yes, I’ve been there for a few years now, that’s what I studied in college,” I explained. I wasn’t sure how much Cole told them about me.

              “And your plans are to open up an animal rescue?” she continued.
Okay, so apparently he told them quite a bit.

              “Well, eventually… Hopefully,” I smiled. “It’s a lot of work, and I need space. I’m not quite there yet. There are still some animals I’ve never even worked on yet. I need a lot more experience.”

              “You’re a bright girl,” Harvey chimed in. “I bet you could accomplish all of that, with the right resources.” He said it with an endearing tone, but his choice of words still made it sound more like a business conversation.

              I took a bite of pasta and it was amazing. It had a light cream sauce and sautéed vegetables. There were pieces of chicken, sausage, and shrimp, and it was one of the best homemade meals I’d ever eaten.

              “So how did you two meet?” I asked curiously, making conversation.

              “I won her in a poker game when I was nineteen,” Harvey replied quickly with a huge grin. I did not expect that answer. “She was going steady with a guy I knew, and I hated him. His name was Burton, what kind of a name is that?”

              Sonita playfully rolled her eyes. “It was a fine name,” she scoffed.

              “Well he was no good for her. It made me crazy. I would see him around town, flirting with other women. He didn’t deserve her,” he said nobly.

              “So how did she become a poker bet?” I questioned.

              “I was playing cards with some guys in town and he wanted to join in,” Harvey explained. “He was real cocky like he was something better than us. I told him the buy-in was too high, he couldn’t afford it. He told me he’d put anything up, that’s how confident he was. So I told him he had to throw in the girl. The bastard actually agreed to it.”

              Sonita took a sip of her drink, shaking her head. “These men were mere boys,” she teased.

              “Long story short, I won the poker game,” Harvey continued. “Best pot I ever won.”

              “And that’s it? You became his over a bet?” I smirked. It was quiet an interesting story.

              “Not at all, I turned him down,” Sonita replied loudly with a smile. “I couldn’t believe his audacity, to think I was somehow his property all because of a poker game. I told him to get lost.”

              “So what did you do?” I asked towards Harvey.

              “I didn’t go away,” he smirked.

             
Ah, now I see where Cole got his persistence from.

             
“We were married by the next year,” Sonita continued with a huge grin. “And he still won’t get lost when I tell him to, so I guess this is it for me.” They looked at each other and you could see their love in their expressions.

              “I see you and Cole together, and I recognize that look,” Harvey said with a gentle smile. “I’m realizing that Cole has no plans to disappear from your life. So I guess the real reason you’re here tonight though is to find out what he’s up to, right?” Harvey said directly, completely changing the subject.

              “I get worried about him,” I said truthfully, sipping on my drink as a distraction from him being able to read my face. Honestly I so badly wanted to talk them both out of whatever they had planned.

              “There’s a lot you’re better off not knowing,” Harvey began in a serious tone, “but some back story may be helpful to you… To both of you.”

              I glanced between Cole and Harvey, wondering if Cole knew everything he was about to tell us.

              “There are conversations we’ve never had, Cole, and I think we’re at a point where this needs to be said. Sonita and I had a boy once,” he said with some emotion in his voice. He reached his arm over and rested his hand on top of Sonita’s, which was resting on the table. “He was nine years old when he was killed by a drunk driver.”

              The emotion in his voice got me choked up as he said it. “I’m so sorry to hear that,” I replied quietly.

              “He was the greatest boy. He was good in school and he loved to build things. There’s a creek up the way,” he continued, pointing back behind the cabin, “and he made the greatest forts over there. Just a young boy, exploring the woods God gave him, skipping rocks, climbing trees… as innocent as each one of us is born.”

              “How have you not told me this before?” Cole questioned. He almost looked hurt that he didn’t know such personal information about Harvey.

              “Because it breaks her heart every time I bring it up,” Harvey said emotionally. I could see slow tears falling down Sonita’s face as he spoke. “A mother losing her child, there is no greater heartbreak than that. She cried every single day for years. We tried to have another child, but it didn’t happen. She was full of such sorrow and I thought it would break us.” I could see him squeeze her hand as he continued talking. “But then all of that changed. There was mischief out behind the cabins. My tools kept going missing and there were small footprints all about.” Sonita’s mouth curled up into a slight smile despite her slow tears.

              “It was the first time her face didn’t look like heartbreak,” Harvey continued. “You were staying in one of the trailers up the road with your dad and his sister. You were always sneaking around the compound, probably hiding from his fists I imagine. But Sonita would occasionally hear whispers from the trees, and splashes in the water. Her whole face lit up. It put life back in her soul. The giant hole she had in her heart, it slowly began to fill back up. It was real gradual at first, but then she’d hear laughter back in the woodshed and her own happiness grew from that sound. One night, after your daddy was taken away, I heard you creeping around the garage. I started talking about the constellations, aloud to myself on the chance you were listening. Sonita saw you sit down on the back porch out of my view, and you were listening to me, staring up at the night sky.”

              Cole’s eyes looked misty, and I couldn’t believe this was the first time he’d ever heard this story.

              “I came in that night,” Harvey continued, “and Sonita was crying, but she looked so far away from sadness. She had this huge grin on her face and I knew something had changed in her. That hole was gone. It’s not that she stopped missing Samuel, but that boy in the woods – his laughter –
your
laughter – it restored her. God brought her a boy. Not the one she lost years before, but a boy someone else lost.”

              A slow tear slid down my cheek and I wiped it away. I looked over at Cole, trying to gauge how he felt by the look on his face. His eyes still looked moist, but he didn’t seem to know what to say.

              “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Cole questioned.

              “I never wanted you to feel like you were just a replacement to us,” Sonita said towards Cole. “You were never taking his place. If you’d known about Samuel, you would’ve thought that’s what happened, that you were replacing him. But you were so much more. You deserved to believe you were the only one.”

              “I still don’t understand why you didn’t tell me you had a son,” Cole said quietly. “Maybe I wouldn’t have understood it as a child, but later I would have. You should have told me.”

              “There’s a lot you don’t know,” Harvey said empathetically. “I did it to protect you.”

              “Protect me from what?” Cole asked, raising his voice.

              “I know it all needs to come out now,” Harvey replied, nodding his head. “You may still not understand it all. But you should know.”

              “What should I know?” Cole questioned with a hint of anger in his voice. He looked back and forth between Harvey and Sonita, and I could tell his frustration was growing.

              “You’ve always asked me how I knew your father,” Harvey said softly.

              “And you always gave me some bullshit answer that he was some kind of poker acquaintance you couldn’t get rid of,” Cole sneered.

              “I did it to protect you,” Harvey repeated, as if that alone was supposed to make more sense. “He’s not just an old acquaintance, Cole. Your father is the man that killed my son.”