Read For Our Son: A BWWM Parenting Romance For Adults for Free Online

her."
     
    "Oh…what are you going to do with her?"
     
    "Have lunch."
     
    "Well can’t I come? Your mom loves me, and I haven’t seen her in so
long."
     
    "Not this time. She needs to talk to me about something. I think
she’d feel better if it were just me."
     
    "Is something wrong?"
     
    "I don’t think so."
     
    Ryan offered as little information as possible. He knew he was
technically lying by omission, but it would have been impossible to get out of
the house if he’d told Sophia what he was really up to.
     
    Ryan was appreciative of the reprieve his mother’s retirement apartment
offered him from Sophia. To say that she had been suffocating for the last few
days would have been an understatement. He knew the issue of Grace made her
uncomfortable, but that was her own problem.
     
    Grace was a sizable part of Ryan’s past and if Sophia wanted to play a
part in Ryan’s future, then she would just have to accept that. Grace would
always be the mother of his first child…nothing could change that.
     
    A warm feeling crept over Ryan as he had that last thought. He shook it
off as he pulled into a vacant parking space near his mother’s black sedan.
     
    Ryan knocked but didn’t wait for his mother to answer the door before he
walked in. It was just something he did to alert her to his presence so she
wouldn’t be startled when he entered the house.
     
    "Hi, Mom,” Ryan greeted her with a hug and a kiss.
     
    Ms. Stewart looked behind Ryan as if waiting for Sophia to leap out.
"Where’s Sophia?"
     
    "She couldn’t come this time," Ryan fabricated. "It’s
just me. Is that okay?"
     
    "Of course." Ryan’s mom gave him a sly grin. It was no secret
between her and Ryan that she didn’t care much for Sophia. "So what’s this
all about? You said you needed to film me for something? Is this going to be on
television?"
     
    "No, this is for me, Mom. I’m going to interview you, but I don’t
want you to tell me what you think I want to hear. I want you to tell me the
truth…about how you feel…how you felt."
     
    "About what?"
     
    Ryan didn’t answer. Instead he readied the camera and sat down across
from his mother.
     
    "Don’t sit on my coffee table!" she admonished him.
     
    Ryan moved over to a chair and pulled it in front of his mother. He
turned on the camera and pointed the microphone at her.
     
    "Okay, Mom, tell me what you were thinking the day I told you Grace
was pregnant."
     
    Ms. Stewart frowned at the question for a moment. She wasn’t expecting
that this was what Ryan wanted to talk about, especially since she’d had such a
hard time getting him to discuss it in the past.
     
    "Oh…well…I was scared and disappointed…very disappointed. I didn’t
want to see you become a statistic…or Grace…that girl was…she had a lot going
for her. I didn’t want to see a baby ruin her future…or yours."
     
    "That explains the disappointment…what was the fear about?" Ryan
asked.
     
    "Well, it was the same. I wanted you to have a future. And…"
His mother hesitated.
     
    "What?" Ryan prompted her.
     
    "You and Grace…she brought out the best in you. Your grades were
up, I got way fewer calls from the principal, and you were involved in things
at school…I stopped worrying about you so much. I knew the stress of a baby
might be too much for you…and it was."
     
    "Mom, I was seventeen years old, and you said you weren’t going to
help me. What was I supposed to do? Grace said her dad was going to kick her
out."
     
    "I said I didn’t want to help you. I didn’t say I wouldn’t ."
     
    "No. You said you wouldn’t."
     
    "So it was my fault that you began drinking and almost killed
yourself?"
     
    This wasn’t what Ryan had in mind when he’d started this project. He
thought his mother would give him the warm and fuzzies about what it was like
for her and then he’d move on to the present. He didn’t intend to re-open old
wounds.
     
    "Forget it. Maybe this was a mistake."