Sawyer (Torey Hope: The Later Years #2) by A. D. Ellis

Kendrick to play with. We’ve got the best families in Torey Hope, and we had The Center+ from before we could even walk. Granted, it wasn’t as elaborate back then, but it still offered us awesome activities. But, hands down, I think my favorite memory is when the captain would take us fishing. He’s always been strict, but he was fair and patient too. He’d take the four of us boys out to the lake, and we’d spend hours with our lines in the water. He used to pretend like he was asleep under that darn fishing hat he wore, but he’d always pipe up with advice or questions or a joke at just the right time as the day wore on.” Sawyer paused, jaw clenched against tears threatening to fall. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get that back with him, that easy closeness. I miss it already.”
    Blinking rapidly to clear his eyes, he glanced at the clock. Not wanting his time with Luke to end, but feeling the need to get out of the coffee shop, he made a suggestion that was purely spur of the moment. “Ever gone night fishing?”
     
    ***********
     
    An hour later, as a breeze rippled the water, they sat near the lake’s edge and watched their lines in the shadowy darkness. The full moon and kerosene lanterns provided just enough light, but the darkness surrounding them offered solitude and the feeling of closeness that allowed for conversations that maybe would have never taken place in the bright light of day.
    “So, since we’re actually participating in one of my favorite childhood memories, want to share one of yours?” Sawyer’s voice was low so as not to spook the fish or his new friend who seemed as jittery as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
    As silence filled the air, Sawyer turned his head slightly. Gazing at the strong profile, Sawyer took note of Luke’s closed eyes and gritted teeth.
    “Hey, man, it’s okay, you don’t have to talk about it.” It hurt Sawyer to know that memories of his childhood brought Luke pain.
    “No, I want to talk about it, it’s just that I don’t have a lot of happy childhood memories, and the ones I have make me miss my mom. She died of cancer when I was 15.” Luke spoke softly, and haltingly, as if he’d not shared much about his life with other people. “I’ve never really talked about her to anyone else. I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up.”
    His heart hurt to hear Luke say the words. Sawyer knew nothing of a childhood without friends, and thinking of Luke as a lonely little boy made him sad. And then he felt anger; why would no one want to be friends with Luke?
    “Why didn’t you have friends?”
    “I kept to myself a lot. I didn’t want people to be around my dad and brothers; they aren’t very nice people, and I didn’t want them to spread their ugly words to any of the kids in town.” Luke’s words were almost whispered as he recalled the memories.
    “What about friends at school?” Sawyer was still trying to picture a childhood with no friends.
    “My mom homeschooled me. It was easier to be home with her than to be at school and try to avoid my brothers. By the time she died, I was doing school on the computer, so I finished in a self-study program and graduated early. Her will came as a surprise to my father; he had no clue that she had a separate life insurance policy and that the entire amount would come to me. That money allowed me to travel and learn the various martial arts I wanted to study. I also took several yoga, Pilates, and meditation classes over the years. I’ve always had the same free-spirit as my mother, so traveling brought me peace. The years I had to endure at home after she died almost brought me to my end, so being allowed to take that money and leave as soon as I graduated was a blessing that my mother left me.” Luke’s story spilled out. Sawyer felt he was getting more information than Luke had ever shared with anyone else, but he sensed there was much more to the story that Luke wasn’t