Page 32 of Every Sunset

“I wanted you to not embarrass me! I start school next week and I’m going to be a total outcast because of you!”

“He called us trash!” I bit back.

“Yeah he did,” Max nodded. “And he wasn’t wrong was he?

You were a kid when you had me and you’re not exactly parent of the year right now are you?

!” Max opened the rear door of Maddox’s car and jumped in, slamming it closed violently behind him, all the while I just stood frozen.

I couldn’t have been more shocked or hurt if Max would have slapped me. It felt like he did.

“Anna…” Maddox tried to wrap his arm around me, but I pushed away from him and moved around the car. I didn’t want comfort. “Can we just get back?” I asked as I reached the other rear door and opened it.

“He didn’t mean it,” Logan told me from where he was now opening the front passenger door at the same side as me.

“How could he not mean something that’s true?

” I asked quietly, then I climbed into the car and slammed the door shut behind me.

Max was in the back seat too, sat as far against the door, away from me, as he could get.

I did the same and stared out of the window blindly the whole way back, my tears silently tracking down my cheeks as my whole world seemed to implode around me.

My son now saw the truth. He too saw me for the trash I had always been, just like the rest of the world.

Maddox had barely parked the car in the driveway back at the house before Max was jumping out, slamming the door behind him. Logan opened his door, jumping out just behind him, calling after him, but Max just started running around the side of the house away from all of us.

“Leave him, Logan!” I called as I stepped out of the car and saw Logan going after him. Logan paused and turned to me.

“Someone needs to talk to him,” he told me, but I just shrugged.

“He’s upset, and maybe he has a right to be. Just let him be for tonight,” I sighed deeply. I was exhausted and my mind was a swirling mess. It had been an insane night, and I had no clue what any of it meant for the next day.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, baby,” Maddox said as he rounded the car and came straight to me.

He opened his arms and I wasn’t strong enough to deny myself the comfort he offered.

I stepped into the hug and clung to Madd as I fought not to fall apart again.

I had done enough of that and it had proven futile in helping to resolve any of my issues, not that I ever thought it would.

“He’s right, Anna. All you did was try to protect max from that fucker’s stuck up opinions.

I’d have punched him out if there weren’t so many kids stood watching,” Logan told me and I felt his hand press into the small of my back as his heat surrounded my right side.

They were cocooning me between them, protecting me within a bubble of only them and I wanted to stay there forever. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option.

I gave myself another few seconds of the peace I felt with them, then took a deep breath and stepped back, forcing both of them to release me.

“I should go,” I sighed reluctantly.

“Why don’t you stay with us tonight? I can go and get Max so he can stay here too? I don’t want you to be alone after everything,” Logan offered, but I was already shaking my head.

“No. I need to go home and handle this myself, but thank you, both of you, for the offer, and for being there for Max and I tonight. I’m not sure I’ve ever had anyone have my back before and it….well, it was nice,” I admitted.

“You can always count on us to have your back now, sweetheart,” Logan promised.

“I know,” I nodded with a shaky smile.

“I want you to call us of you need anything tonight, okay? No matter the time. You and Max aren’t alone anymore,” Maddox said firmly.

I smiled even more shakily as tears filled my eyes. “Where did you guys even come from?” I sniffled. “You’re way too good and kind to be real.”

“We’re real, baby, and we’re all yours if you want us,” Maddox reminded me, and I knew I was blushing as heat filled me at his words. Mine. That did sound like perfection, didn’t it?

“I should…” I floundered and just pointed a thumb behind me in the direction of my cottage, having no idea how to even reply to Maddox’s proclamation.

“Go, sweetheart. We’re close if you need us,” Logan told me.

I managed a nod, then I turned and walked shakily around the house, disappearing almost as fast as my son had, in my haste to get away.

I knew exactly what I wanted, but taking it was not an easy decision, and talking about my feelings felt impossible.

It was easier to run away from that issue, and try to deal with my son instead, for that night at least.

There was just one problem with that theory though, I realized as I walked into my home.

I didn’t want to face Max. The things he had said had ripped through me and I was terrified he’d have more to say.

I knew I had failed him, especially in the last weeks, but to hear him actually say that – to know he knew I was useless as his one and only parent – it was like he was reaching inside of me and squeezing my heart in his hand.

It hurt so much to know absolutely that I had failed in my one and only focus in life for the last sixteen years – to do everything required to always protect my son and give him the carefree childhood I never got to have.

I had fought so hard, for so long to give him that.

I had done everything I could to make sure he always had a safe, comfortable home to feel secure in, and good, healthy food in his stomach.

I had showered him with love and affection so that he would never know the terror of realizing you had no one to love you in your life.

I had given him everything I had to give, always praying that I would be enough for him.

Now I knew the truth. It had all been for nothing because my son saw me for the fraud I was.

When he had needed help that night he’d reached out to a man he had known for mere weeks, over calling me and that was a wakeup call I had never wanted to receive.