Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 135522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135522 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 678(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 452(@300wpm)
I made a face at her. “Gross.”
“I found it to be darling. And brave. He encouraged me. I knew that with his support, I’d do better next time. That’s what a good match does for each other, y’know? They make each other better. They hold each other right up. They fight for one another. Oh, my Elmer, he even stood by my side as I made my next batch.”
“How did those come out?”
“Burned them, too,” she said quickly. “Anyway, fast-forward all these years, your darlin’ father has still been my number-one supporter, and that is all I have ever wanted for you. Cole may find a bunch of pretty boys at Cissy’s big gladiator-fightin’ arena …”
“Gladiator-fighting—?”
“… but who are you to decide what Cole wants? He’s made it more than clear what it is he wants. You, Noah Lawrence Reed. It’s you whose burnt batch of cookies he wants to eat. And maybe if you’d take off your glasses and look …”
“Literally can’t see without them.”
“… you’d realize he’s not interested in anyone who shows up at that event tonight. He doesn’t need to see what else is out there. He’s got the perfect man right here at home, and he’s been carin’ for you since you two were children playin’ out in the yard!”
She’d lost me there. “Mom, you can’t possibly know that. We were kids who could barely stand each other.”
“You were kids who played every day in the yard.”
“And I barely remember any of it. In fact, I had to be told what had happened to Cole and why you and his mom had a falling out. Yes,” I then said, answering the stunned look on her face, “I had that fateful talk with Cole’s mom you’ve been wanting me to have. She even fixed me a glass of water with melon and ice cubes she grabbed using her tiny pair of hot pink tongs.”
Despite all the bewilderment on her face, my mother gasped in slow motion. “Oh my gosh, she still has them cute little tongs?”
“And she told me about the bloody incident with Cole getting hurt, something I don’t even remember.” I hugged a pillow to my stomach and buried the bottom half of my face in it. “At least I don’t think I do,” I added in a mumble.
My mother looked away right then, as if the mere mention of Cole’s mom sent her mind astray down a path of woeful memories.
Suddenly, she said, “Well goodness, you just made my point.”
“What point?”
“About Cole carin’ for you since y’all were boys.” She turned to me. Her voice was small. “How else do you think he got hurt?”
I lifted my face from the pillow, staring at her questioningly.
“You two were playin’ around on that old rusty jungle gym in his backyard,” she said. “Your foot got stuck. When he climbed up to free you, he fell and scraped his face, probably on a nail or some jagged edge of somethin’. Then he climbed right back up to free you again, even though he was already hurt and bleedin’. You told me all about it on the way to the hospital.”
My mind fled my skull at her words.
I was grasping with phantom fingertips at a ghost of a hint of a fraction of a recollection of such a memory.
A jungle gym. My foot twisting uncomfortably.
A boy coming to my rescue.
Then falling.
“That …” I could barely say the words as the memory tried to surface, as if through murky waters. “That was … was Cole …?”
“You didn’t usually play on that rusty old thing,” she went on. “And if you did, you certainly never climbed up on it. Somethin’ must’ve been guidin’ you that day to be adventurous. Maybe it was even sweet Cole, tryin’ to pull you outta your shell.” She shook her head and brought a mitted hand to her cheek. “You probably just thought it was somethin’ that happened to you on the playground at school, but no … it was the backyard of a house just down the street. I doubt that jungle gym is even up anymore. New owners probably tore it down.” She peered at me, then pulled off a mitt and placed her hand on my arm. “I don’t wanna tell you what to do, Noah, I really don’t. So I’ll just leave it at this: Cole’s been your guardian angel since I can remember.”
I stared at her, feeling like a balloon floating in a storm.
I felt like I was still trying to bring pieces together to form a puzzle I had not even realized existed.
The boy … in the playground that wasn’t a playground … was Cole …?
“For all we know, he’s been lookin’ out for ya ever since,” she said with half a laugh. “I find it very hard to believe you two didn’t run into each other all the time during your school years. The town’s only so big, Noah. If I knew better, I’d put money down that he was keepin’ an eye on you in school, too.”