Page 33 of Cowboy Falling Hard

She had her hand on the refrigerator door when a thought struck her. Maybe she was challenging him, or maybe she was just curious. She didn’t stop to think about it.

“And you have a good relationship with your dad?”

“I don’t even know who my dad is.”

She stopped, looking over at him, noting the studious lack of emotion in his voice and his focus on the skillet, like it took great concentration to flip bacon.

“That’s sad. I’m sorry, but it is.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. And I really don’t know anything different. I was a teenager when my mom married again. I had a stepdad who really wasn’t interested in me. He had kids of his own, and he and Mom had two kids together. I was extraneous.”

“I see.” Her heart twisted. The idea that someone thought they were extraneous. A child. A teenager. Anyone. “And your mom never told you who your dad was?”

“We never really talked about it. I always got the feeling she hated him.”

“No child support?”

“Not that I know of. No contact at all. I honestly don’t know if he knows about me. I like to think he doesn’t, since I’ve never had any contact with him at all. If he knows about me, he doesn’t give a flip.”

She gritted her jaw and swallowed through her tight throat. How hard. And sad. And no wonder he wanted attention. No wonder he felt like he needed to brag or show off.

She felt even worse for hurting him. She hadn’t realized what his story was. Feeling like he wasn’t wanted, feeling like no one loved him, feeling like no one cared would have made a huge impact on him.

It didn’t excuse wrong behavior, but it certainly did explain it.

“Seems like around here, there’s a lot of two-parent homes. You probably think I’m a weirdo now.”

“No. I... I was just thinking that you probably had to excel in order to get attention. Maybe that’s what drove you to be a great baseball player.”

“I don’t know if I’d say great. I’m okay.”

“Really?”

Chapter 11

I'll have to paraphrase what my mom and aunties told me before my wedding... Even though a marriage is said to be 50/50, some days it may be 60/40 even 70/30, and marrying a military man it could be 90/10 quite often. Just remember at the end of the day, with the right person, it always evens out to 50/50. - Tonya Cutaran-Mathis Pensacola, Fl.