“Oh, good. While you’re helping your father, maybe Ryan can help me gather and prep the items for you to take to Madeline’s.”
“Sure, I’d love to,” I offered.She wanted my help. If she hated me, she wouldn’t have asked.
As soon as we finished eating, Russell and Stanley went upstairs to get the table extenders and chairs while I waited for instructions from Lily.
“Okay, let’s get the quilts and some wrapping paper,” Lily said as she motioned for me to follow her. “I’ll have you wrap the quilts while I box the pie and other things for them.”
“Okay.”
I followed her down the hallway and into a room that was slightly smaller than the living room. Bookshelves lined the walls, and two oversized chairs sat in the middle of the room separated by an antique table and a lamp with a stained-glass shade.
While Lily gathered the quilts, boxes, and some wrapping paper, I stepped closer to the bookshelves. Some shelves had hardcover books that appeared to belong to a set, and I thought those were most likely Stanley’s medical books and journals. There were a few shelves that had just a handful of books on them along with some picture frames. I wasn’t interested in the titles or books, but rather the picture frames.
“Are these Russell?” I asked, referring to the pictures.
“Yes, they range from when he was a small boy until he graduated college.”
I smiled at a picture of him in a Frankenstein costume for Halloween. Standing beside a porch full of pumpkins, he smiled brightly for the photo.
“He had a great Halloween costume,” I said.
“Russell loved Halloween. He’d spend hours making his costume. We always took him to a pumpkin patch and the fall carnival and fair.”
There were several photos of him at different ages with both of his parents.This is how a normal family lives.
“Did you ever dress up for Halloween?” she asked.
“Um …” I reached back and rubbed my neck while I went back to the only year that I was allowed to go collect candy. “I went out in elementary school. I dressed up as a baseball player,” I volunteered. It was all I had that could be used as a costume.
The next shelf up was a mini Purdue football helmet. It looked just like the one Russell had at home in his home office, except his was a full-sized one. On either side of the helmet were framed photos. One picture was a team photo, and the other was just Russell in his football uniform. Also on the same shelf was Russell in his graduation cap and gown beside his parents.
Russell literally was from a picture-perfect family, and I was the complete opposite.
While Lily mumbled about wrapping paper, the shelf just to my left caught my eye. There were a few books on it, but that wasn’t what caught my attention. I frowned when I saw a USC Trojans mini baseball cap. Russell never mentioned his parents were USC fans, and clearly their son went to Purdue, played football there, and graduated with two degrees.Why the fuck is there a USC cap?
“Are you or Stanley USC fans?” I posed the question.
“Oh,” Lily said. “Well…”
She either was surprised I had asked or didn’t know what to say. I turned to look at her. She had set the roll of wrapping paper down on one of the chairs and was slowly walking toward me. Lily smiled and reached out to pick up the mini baseball cap. She stared at it as if lost for words. Silence made me nervous.
“I have one of these at home. It’s in my writing room.” Judging by the weight of it in her hands, I could tell that it was much nicer than mine. “Mine is plastic, though, and the school’s logo is a sticker decal. I’ve had mine forever.”
Lily handed it to me, and I marveled at the weight of it.
“Wow. Is this like ceramic … or something?” My voice and stomach dropped when I turned the cap around.Thirteen. On the back of the maroon cap in gold numbers was the number I wore when I played there. Above the letters, also in golden letters it bore the name “Hudson.”Me.
“When Russell told us about you—and Russell loves talking about you—we found out you played baseball in college. We were eager to have something of you. Russell hadn’t sent us any pictures. Stanley had this made with your name and number. Russell told him your number.”
I was at a loss. A complete, mind-blown loss.
“I ordered these as well,” Lily said as her fingertips touched the spines of the paperbacks on the shelves.
Oh my god. My books. They had ordered paperbacks of the novels I had written. I felt hot and didn’t know what to say, and I couldn’t dare ask if she had read them. I counted them. She had everything I had published, sitting on a shelf next to their perfect son.
“Stanley and I wanted to have something of you. You mean so much to Russell. He’s never been so happy, and he’s never wanted to bring anyone home to meet us as much as you. We knew you were special.”
I swallowed hard and handed her back the USC Trojans cap.
