I hear the car roll up the gravel drive and comes to a stop in front of the house. The room is instantly void of oxygen.
Eight years.
Eight years since the horrible event that ruined my life. More importantly, eight years since I saw the most important people in my life.
Tommy and Jen were my family. After my own parents couldn't do their job and my step-brother went off to start his own life, Tommy became my brother by choice. His wife Jen never took shit from me yet never once let me feel unwelcome. They let me crash at their place between jobs, helped me understand the importance of financial awareness, and had my back when I graduated and went into the academy.
They were there for me through everything from my first job to becoming the godfather of their son. The son that I am about to see after eight years. A boy who is now a man. A man who I wasn't around to see grow and mature.
A stranger...
The creak of the screen door as I open it reminds me to oil it. As the man stepping out of the car looks up and makes eye contact there is no mistaking that he is my godson. He has his dad's square jaw and button nose. His eyes have a flare of his mom's bright olive green eyes.
Momentarily, the scene in my driveway disappears and I am staring into the face of a newborn.
"What do you say, Jack. Will you be his godfather?" I look up to see Tommy's face full of new father joy.
"Of course," I respond.
It was all I could say before my eyes were overtaken with tears and my mouth marked with the inability to make logic words. I promised the baby boy in that instant that I would be a better person, that I would be available for his every important life moment, that I would not let the world make him feel he small or unimportant. My word to him encompassed a lifetime of love and protection no matter how life unfolds.
Before my eyes, the infant grows into a five-year-old boy. Same button nose and big green eyes—now staring up at me. One large tear streams down his left eye. The white of snow is all around us.
"I'm okay, Grizzly. Really." He holds his left arm close to his torso and presses his right hand against my forehead. It lowers into view, covered in red.
"Your bleeding...a lot," he says as the tears really start coming. "Your hurt..."
I pull him into me and turn to hike up the hill. When I look back down, the kindergartner has been replaced by a chunky ten-year-old. I step back as he raises his arms above his head with a yellow cloth belt spanning from one hand to the other.
"Grizzly, I got my next belt! Goodbye, blue belt! I couldn't have done it without you."
A sparkle glints in his eyes.
I pull him in and say, "No. This was all you. You did this. You are amazing!"
With a snap, I am brought back to the cabin porch when I hear a voice say, "I changed my mind. Take me to prison."
YOU ARE READING
His Woods (MxM)
Romance(Previously known as Breaking the Beast) Tyson knows he isn't perfect, but he doesn't think he deserves a summer stuck at the old holiday cabin with his dad's friend, Jack. After he gets kicked out of college and assigned probation, Tyson has to lea...
