Shattered (Anderson Special Ops #4) - Melody Anne Page 0,32
needed.
“What’s on the agenda today?” his mother asked as she sat at his island and watched him cook. Smoke loved his mother’s cooking, but he also loved taking care of her. Normally, he would sit there while she worked her magic in the kitchen. He loved doing this for her once in a while.
“The kids at the ICO have an event today. Do you want to join us?” he asked.
Her eyes lit up as she sat a bit straighter. “Oh, yes, for sure. I love hearing about your adventures with that group. I can’t wait to meet some of the kids. I’m sure they’re going to remind me of you,” she said.
“Yeah, there’s this kid, Aaron, who has a world of anger inside of him, but I’ve seen a real difference in how he’s been acting the last couple of times I’ve seen him. I love this program.”
“Having stable, responsible adults in these children’s lives is essential to who they’re going to be as adults. Have I told you lately how proud I am of you, Tyrell? You’ve grown into such a fine young man.” She stopped for a moment and he saw the sparkle in her eyes that shocked him. She blinked the tears away and continued. “All mothers want their children to grow up and be great, but they never imagine their children will grow up to be superheroes, and that’s exactly what you are to so many kids.”
“I’m no superhero, Mom. I just like kids,” Smoke said, turning back to the stove to continue cooking as he tried to brush the emotion away.
“You’ve always been so humble in some ways, and so dang arrogant in others,” his mother said with a laugh that had him smiling as well. “But that’s what makes you such a fine young man.” He plated her food and set it in front of her, then grew a bit nervous at the look in her eyes.
“I don’t understand how a catch like you doesn’t have a wife yet. I truly don’t understand why I don’t have a grandchild to spoil. You aren’t getting any younger,” she reminded him before adding butter and syrup to her waffles and taking a bite.
“Mom, you know how I feel about marriage. And even though you raised me just fine on your own, most single parents struggle. Most marriages end up failing big time. And I have no desire to have a kid I only see every other weekend or not at all. I don’t think kids are in my future.”
“You’ll see, Ty, that when the right woman comes along all of your carefully laid out plans will blow up in your face. You’re one of those people who needs to be a father,” she told him. “You’re wonderful, and it would be tragic for you not to pass that along to a new generation.”
“Maybe I’m so patient and tolerant because I don’t have kids. I’ve seen how stressed the little monsters make some parents. I get to play with these kids, help them out, give them my time, and then walk away. I don’t have them twenty-four/seven,” he pointed out.
“I have no doubt that if you did, you’d be exactly who you are with kids who aren’t your own. But I guess for now, I won’t harp on you. I think I’ll get what I want in the end, and there’s no need for me to push it right now.”
Smoke laughed as he leaned across the counter and kissed his mother’s cheek again. “There’s almost nothing I’m not willing to give you,” he assured her. “If you want diamonds, gold, a new house, a new vehicle, or anything else your heart desires, it’s yours. Kids, on the other hand, is asking a bit too much.”
“We’ll see,” Laysha said with a secret smile that sent a shudder down Smoke’s spine.
He remembered well when he was a kid and emphatic about something he disagreed with his mother on. She’d just pat his arm and tell him he’d know in time that she was right. What terrified him was that she’d always been correct. That look in her eyes at that exact moment was the same one she’d worn every time she’d been right, from as long ago as he could remember.
He shook it off. She couldn’t make him have kids, that was for sure. He was smart and he knew where he was going in life, and none of it included marriage, kids, and a white picket fence.