Page 37 of Forever Enough
Chapter Eight
BRADLY
I managed to avoid everyone once I got home from dropping off Mackenzie. Avery and my father must have still been at Uncle Ty’s place, and my mother had mentioned something about going to Stella and Ty Senior’s.
After rushing up to my bedroom, stripping out of my clothes and taking a shower, I spent way too much time staring into my closet. The light knock on the door had me glancing over my shoulder to see my mother.
“Why are you standing in front of your closet in nothing but a pair of sweatpants? Aren’t you cold?” she asked as she walked in and set something down on my bed.
“Nah, I’m not cold. What’s that?” I asked as I made my way over to the box.
“It’s my old journal.”
I picked up the box and opened it to see a red leather-bound book. Carefully taking it out, I set the box on the bed and lifted my gaze to Mom. “Why are you giving it to me?”
“Oh,” she said with a humorless laugh. “I’m not giving it to you. I’m letting you borrow it.”
Confused, I sat down next to her. “Okay, but why?”
Mom drew in a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “I want to share the words I wrote down when I fell in love with your father.”
I looked at the journal then back to my mother. “You know Avery’s going to want to read this, don’t you?”
She grinned. “You were always the quiet one. So many people would say you were shy, and I remember thinking you weren’t shy; you were simply noticing everything.”
I chuckled. “I think a bit shy as well.”
She gave a one-shoulder shrug. “You remind me so much of myself when I was younger. Of course, you also remind me of your father in other ways, but with your heart, I think you take after me.” Taking my hand in hers, she met my gaze. “Bradly, I want to tell you something, and I’m not entirely sure it’s my place to say anything, but I love you, and I have truly come to love Mackenzie.”
My heart felt like someone was slowly squeezing it in their fist. If she was about to tell me to stay away from Mackenzie, I wasn’t sure what I would do.
“Mom, if you’re about to—”
“Wait,” she said as she held up her hand. “Let me keep talking before you say anything. You’re my son, and a mother knows things. I don’t know how we have this magic, but I’m sure God gave it to us for a reason. I’ve never known you to look at someone like you look at Mackenzie. Then your father called me after you both left Ty’s place, and he told me about your little chat.”
“Okay. But I’m not saying I’m in love. I just…feel something I’ve never felt before. It’s intense, the way I feel for her.”
“Does it scare you?”
I laughed. “No. The opposite. I want to know everything I can about her. She intrigues me in so many ways. I feel like I’m caught in a spell of some kind. The thought of leaving her to go to New York, even just for a couple of days…I don’t want to go. And I haven’t even known her for twenty-four hours.”
Placing her hand to her mouth, she let out what I thought was a laugh. “Oh, sweetheart, sometimes feelings like these take months, even years to grow. Then there are those rare occasions when you stand in a room with someone and you’re just…”
“Enchanted.”
“Yes. Exactly.”
I briefly closed my eyes as I said, “When I saw her in the barn last night, even from across that span of space, it was like there she is. I thought to myself…finally, the person I’d been waiting for since I took my first breath.”
My mother blinked rapidly as I heard a soft sigh behind me. Turning, I saw Avery standing there with a hand over her heart.
“My God, if that isn’t the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. If a man doesn’t say that to me, I don’t want him.”
I laughed and shook my head as I looked back at our mother. “Why are you blinking like that? Is something in your eyes?”
“Tears, you jackass,” Avery said as she walked around me and made her way over to our mother. “He got that romantic side from you, Mom. I cannot imagine Daddy being like that.”
Mom laughed and wiped a tear from her own cheek.