Falling Fast (Falling Fast #1) - Tina Wainscott Page 0,29
I was sixteen. He rode a motorcycle, smoked, drank, the embodiment of the rebel without a cause…but with a chip on his shoulder. I fell madly in love with him, and, despite my parents’ restrictions, we managed to find time together. He showed me a side no one else saw. Not the cursing, smoking, mischief-maker but a boy who needed love, needed someone to see that he was worthy of love. And I did love him, oh, I did.
Then I got pregnant, and my parents had him arrested for statutory rape, since he was older than me. I was sent off to have a baby I would never know, and by the time I returned my parents had settled in another state.
I never wrote to James, didn’t try to find out where he was. I left that painful part of my life behind. Or so I thought. But he lingered in my heart, and one day I decided I needed to find him. He had died a long time ago, a bitter drunk. I wondered if I could have made a difference if I’d found him earlier.
We can’t go back, Mia. We can only go forward. But sometimes the past haunts us. Watching you and Raleigh making a sandcastle together, laughing at the childishness of it, I saw myself and James again. The light in your eyes, the smile of a girl who’s not only in love but loves. And I saw James in Raleigh, a boy who needed a girl to look at him as if she saw only good when the world saw bad.
I doubt your parents ever told you that Raleigh drove to Atlanta to see you right after the accident. He checked himself out of the hospital, borrowed a car, and drove for hours. Without taking pain pills, because he didn’t want to be impaired. I was there when he dragged himself into the lobby: desperate, his bandages soaked with seeping blood, looking like an extra in a zombie movie.
What I saw was a man who loved you beyond reason. I tried to talk your father into letting him at least see you through the ICU window, but he refused. Raleigh, overtired, in pain, made quite the scene, and security took him away. I went to the police station and persuaded them to drop the public-nuisance charges. There wasn’t much I could tell him about your condition. It was pretty dicey just then. I promised to keep him apprised, though, and I did. His letters are in this box as well.
You also may not know that Raleigh saved your life that night. He dived into the flames and pulled you out, burned his hands pretty badly.
I’m sure you’ve figured out that I left you and Raleigh the house for more than financial reasons. Maybe you’ve moved on. I do know that Raleigh devours every bit of news about you. Every picture. It’s in his eyes—regret, pain, and those feelings I saw that day at the beach. In a way, I’m sure you’ve both moved on. And, in a way, I bet you haven’t.
So work on my home together, get it ready to sell. Just promise me one thing: Keep an open mind. And an open heart.
Love,
Grandma
Mia let the letter settle on her lap, the words settling much heavier inside. She’d never heard about Grandma’s pregnancy. Maybe her dad didn’t even know that he had a half brother or a half sister somewhere out there. She ached for her grandmother’s losses. Then her mind came around to her closing words.
Mia thought she’d moved on where Raleigh was concerned. Sure, she reminisced about her summer romance. Her first love. He should be only a fond memory, perhaps a mellow ache.
Unable to resist, she sifted through the opened envelopes clearly marked from an inmate. Even read a couple, short letters about benign incidents at the prison and the things he missed most. Pizza. Freedom. Swimming in the Gulf. He thanked her for the updates on Mia’s medical progress.
She shoved everything back into the box and stuck it on the shelf. She didn’t need this when she was about to embark on the next phase of her life. A safe, low-key life.
And there was nothing safe or low-key about being around Raleigh.
Chapter 6
It felt oddly domestic, choosing paint colors at the hardware store with Mia. Raleigh handed her a strip of colors in the yellow family. “How about this one for the living room?”