The Fragile Fall (37 page)

After the movie was over, Jax stood and stretched, scratching his stomach. “That was hilarious. I’m going to head to bed. See you guys later.”

“He never shut up,” Will said as soon as Jax left the room. “I have no idea what happened because it was impossible to hear over him.” Will stood and pulled me with him. “I have to get home. I promised Aunt Liv I wouldn’t be out too late.” He kissed me. “See you later, sweet girl.”

He left and I felt alone.

The next morning, Jax came into my room with a notebook and a pen. “Can we write this letter now?” he asked as he sat on my bed.

“Sure.”

“Your writing is prettier. Can you write it?”

I smiled gently. “Sure.” He handed me the notebook.

We spent the next several hours making at least a dozen drafts of the letter. We disagreed over how serious to make it—I wanted to keep it light and see how it went, but Jax wanted to be a little more forceful and ask for her to meet up with us. Eventually, we met in the middle..

Dear Leslie,

Thank you for writing us. We would like to talk to you so we
could understand what happened. If you would like to pursue a relationship, please send us your phone number so we can call you.

Sincerely,

Ryanne and Jaxon

It wasn’t long, but we didn’t want to put too much out there. The chance for rejection was too high.

I sealed the envelope and put it in the mailbox.

Now we waited.

Will

D
R
. T
HOMAS
SAT
ACROSS
FROM
ME
, a pad of paper in her lap. “You seem to be doing well,” she said, peering at me over his glasses.

“I am.” I smiled.

“You’re almost done with high school. How do you feel about that?”

“Good. I’m ready to be done.”

She chuckled. “I’m sure you are. What are your plans after you graduate?”

“I’m going to college in the fall. I’ve decided to live in the dorms for at least a year. I want to experience a bit more freedom before I make any rash decisions.”

“That sounds like a smart plan. Take time to figure out you before you jump into anything else.”

“That’s the plan.”

“How does your aunt feel about you moving out for the school year?”

“She’s a little sad to see me go, but she’s supportive. I’m surprised how quickly she got used to having someone else living with her after so many years alone.”

“She loves you.”

“Yeah, I know.” I knew without a doubt that Aunt Liv loved me. She had shown it over and over again, and not by sheltering me and controlling my every move. She showed me that she trusted me enough to let me experience some freedom and she was always there for me when I needed someone. Somehow, I was lucky enough to have her.

“I think now that you are doing so well and you seem to be stable, you don’t need to come in as often as you have been. You can come in once a week now and we’ll see how that goes. We still have some work to do, but your progress has been great. How does that sound?”

“It sounds good.”

“Great.”

We scheduled my appointment for the following week and I left.

Ryanne answered the door, looking unbelievably sexy in sweatpants, a T-shirt, and her hair thrown up into a messy ponytail. Her face lit up in a smile as soon as she saw me.

“Hey, Will. What’s up?”

I didn’t answer her, crushing my lips and body against her, devouring her in a kiss. When I finally pulled away, her eyes were hooded and glassy, her lips swollen from our kiss as she panted.

“Thank you for saving me, Ry. Thank you for loving me even when I was too broken to love you back. Thank you.” I crushed her to me in a hug and held her, not ever wanting to let go.

Ryanne

I
GOT
THE
MAIL
AND
walked into the house. The usual bills and credit card offers were in there, of course, but one envelope caused my heart to jump into my throat. I set it on the counter, deciding to wait for Jax to open it. Luckily, it would only take about twenty minutes for him to get home. I tried to keep myself busy, but it felt as if the letter was calling my name.

The front door opened and I raced to pick up the letter. Jax was taking his shoes off as I almost crashed into him.

“She wrote us back!”

“What?”

“She wrote us back.”

“I heard you the first time, I’m just shocked.”

We both stared at the envelope.

“Have you read it?” Jax whispered.

“I was waiting for you.”

“Then open it.”

“I’m not sure I can.”

“Do you want me to?”

I handed him the letter, and he ripped it open. “Dear Ryanne and Jax, thank you so much for writing me back. After the months and months of silence, I feared I would never hear from you. I have no right, but it broke my heart to think I would never get to talk to you. My number is 571-555-2222. Please give me a call whenever you want. I’d love to hear from you. Love, Mom.”

“Holy shit … let’s call her now.”

“Okay.” Jax pulled his phone out of his pocket and slowly dialed the number. He put it on speaker phone as it rang.

“Hello?” a woman answered.

“Is this Leslie?” Jax asked.

“Yes, who is this?”

Jax cleared his throat. “This is Jax and Ryanne.”

She gasped, then burst into tears and cried for a few moments before pulling herself together. “I’m sorry. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

“We would have written sooner, but our dad hid the letters you had written.”

“Ryanne?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

Hearing my voice prompted another round of tears. “I’m sorry. This is just too good to be true. I should have realized your dad would hide the letters.” She sniffled. “Is there anything you want to ask me?”

“We have a lot of questions,” Jax said. “What happened that my dad kicked you out?”

I closed my eyes and listened to her voice.

“Dan met me when I was pregnant with Ryanne. I wasn’t in a good place before we met., and I think in the beginning he was in love with the idea of saving me. We didn’t date long before we were married and then a few months later, I gave birth. Things were good. I thought it was amazing how well my life had worked out with how messed up I had been. But after I got pregnant with Jax, Dan started working long hours and taking long business trips. Before I knew it, I was left home alone with a newborn and a two-year-old for weeks at a time. I’m not proud of it, but I caved.”

“What do you mean, caved?” I asked.

“I started using again. One day, your dad came home from work and saw me strung out. He didn’t give me a chance to even get clean, just hauled me out to the sidewalk and told me to never come back. I tried to get in touch with you both, but he changed his phone number and the locks on the house.”

A mix of anger and sadness washed through me. Jax’s dad had made it sound like he had given my mom a lot of chances to get better, but really, he hadn’t given her a chance at all.

“I found out that the neighbor was watching you both while your dad worked, so I tried to visit you both there, but she wouldn’t let me. As soon as your dad found out, he switched sitters. I should have gotten clean and gone to court, but I couldn’t give the drugs up, so I stopped trying. I’m so sorry. You will never know how sorry I am that I didn’t fight harder for you both.”

Jax and I stared at each other. There was so much more to the story than Jax’s dad had ever led us to believe. I could tell our mom regretted her actions and decisions. Her voice was full of remorse. It made me hate Jax’s dad even more than I already did.

We talked on the phone for a few more minutes, then set up a time to talk again. Jax and I spent the rest of the evening close to each other, but not really talking. We had too much to process.

Will

J
AX
, R
Y
,
AND
I
WERE
HANGING
out at a pizza place that had just opened. I had just smeared pizza sauce across Ry’s face and Jax was laughing so hard I thought he was going to explode. His face was red and he had tears streaming down his face. Ry laughed and snorted, which caused Jax to erupt into another round of laughter. I looked at them, laughing.

Jax finally stopped laughing. “Ry, that was hilarious. Between your face being the same shade as the pizza sauce and the snorting, it was the greatest thing I have ever seen.”

“Shut up, Jax,” she said.

“You’re beautiful. Don’t let him get to you,” I said. She smiled at me.

“Thanks.” She leaned into me, smiling sweetly at me.

“Cut that shit out now, Will. Seriously.” Jax pointed a slice of pizza at me.

“Cut what shit out, Jax?” I asked. Jax stopped, his eyes bugging out of his head. Ryanne’s head whipped around and she looked at me, eyes wide.

“Oh, my God. You just swore,” Ryanne said, her voice breathy.

Jax shook his head like he was trying to clear his mind. “Stop, Will. Just stop. Never swear again. It was like watching Liv walk in with a beer and a hooker. Just don’t.”

I laughed at Jax’s visual.