Read Online Song of the Brokenhearted by Sheila Walsh - Free Book Online Page B

the athlete, the God-lover, the baby of the family . . . he’d failed a drug test? Maybe it was a mistake. She’d heard poppy seeds in muffins could make a false positive. There might be other foods as well. Or perhaps he’d been slipped something. What kind of drug had it been? She wished someone could tell her that.
    â€œWhen did you find out?” Dane asked with a stern voice.
    â€œRight before the game,” Jason murmured. Ava couldn’t believe the news had traveled through the parents that fast.
    â€œWhen we get home, go straight to bed and we’ll talk about it tomorrow. You are obviously grounded from everything,” Dane said in a severe tone as if trying to keep the volcano of fury from exploding.
    Ava wanted to address it tonight, not tomorrow. But she decided to wait until they were alone before talking further to Dane about next steps and appropriate punishment.
    As they pulled up to the house, Jason practically leaped from the car and raced for the front door. Sienna followed more hesitantly, pausing to see if her parents were coming, then went inside when neither moved from their front seats.
    â€œI can’t deal with this tonight,” Dane said after the car door shut. He didn’t turn off the key.
    â€œYou can’t deal with this tonight? What does that mean?”
    â€œI’m sorry, but I have to go to the office again. I told you I had to.”
    Ava realized her hands were shaking. “I would remember if you told me you were going to the office in the middle of the night again. Didn’t you say we were drinking wine on the balcony tonight?”
    â€œThat was yesterday. I’m sure I mentioned it this afternoon.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter, though you didn’t tell me. We need to be united about this.”
    â€œI can’t tonight.”
    â€œAnd so what am I supposed to do?”
    â€œLet him go to bed or talk to him if you want. I almost didn’t go to the game with everything that’s going on. You don’t realize what I’m dealing with, Ava.” He enunciated her name in a way that sent her blood pressure skyrocketing.
    â€œI don’t realize because you don’t tell me. You just disappear at all hours.” He didn’t turn from where he stared out the front window. “Just go then.”
    Ava hopped out of the car and shut the door hard as if to shout her anger. But Dane didn’t shut off the engine. He didn’t get out of the car and follow her. He didn’t even roll down the window.
    Instead, her husband pulled out of the driveway before she reached the front door. Ava stood in the cold of the night watching the red of his taillights disappear around the corner and down the street.
    Jason was in bed with the covers pulled over his head and his football cleats sticking out from the bottom of the blankets. She wanted to tell him to change his clothes. Instead, she leaned down and unlaced his shoes one at a time and then covered up his stinky socks with the blanket. The rancid smell dissolved her anger and put her on the sudden verge of crying for him. This boy was what mattered, she chided herself. Her son was in pain, humiliated, and was going through something that she’d been completely unaware of. He didn’t move from beneath the covers.
    â€œI love you,” she whispered, bending down to kiss his thick hair. At the door she added, “We’ll talk tomorrow. Get some sleep.”
    â€œK. Love you,” he whispered back.
    Sienna waited in the kitchen with the kettle already bubbling on the stove.
    â€œWhere’s Daddy?” she asked with a frown.
    â€œOffice,” Ava croaked out, trying to rein in her tempest of emotions.
    â€œWhat?” Her eyes narrowed and she bit the edge of her lip just as Ava always did. It brought a smile, even as Ava tried to reconcile her thoughts. Jason and drugs? Sienna at home for no reason? Dane and work? When had her