Always: Broken Series Book Four by Annie Jocoby Read Free Book Online

other hand, was still struggling to find words. “I don’t know what to say. I’m so sorry, Addy, but I’m just trying to process this.”
    Dad put his hand on mom’s and looked at her the way that he always did. No matter what happened, I always knew that mom and dad loved each other. They fought sometimes in front of us girls, but nothing major. He spoke to her in a low voice. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to be okay.”
    Mom said nothing, but just nodded her head. I could tell that she was trying to not cry.
    Dad shook his head. “Mom has problems dealing with things. When the shit hits the fan, she tends to clam up. But she’s in your corner, as she always has been. And always will be.”
    “Excuse me,” she said, getting up. “I need to use the restroom.”
    Dad watched her leave and then he looked at her ice cream. “It’s melting.” He shrugged and dipped his spoon into the little cardboard bowl. “I don’t think that she’s going to eat this anyway.”
    “Thank you, dad.”
    “For what?”
    “For being normal. As normal as possible. I know that I said that I wanted everyone to act like nothing’s happening, but I’ll settle for normal.”
    “Then normal is what I’m going to try to give you.”
    I put my hand on his shoulder. “Thanks. Now, can you talk to mom about giving me normal too?”
    Dad nodded. “You have to understand, your mom has had a tough life. She’s been great for years, of course, because nothing major has happened. She might have a tough time dealing with this.”
    “You are too. I can see it on your face. I saw your reaction in the doctor’s office. You’re having problems with dealing with this, yet you’re able to still tease me like you always do. Why can’t mom?”
    Dad shrugged. “Guess she’s not as good of an actor as I am.” At that, he looked away. I could see in his eyes that he was struggling, but he was trying so hard to hide it. It made me love him all the more.
    Mom came back to the table. I looked at her, and I saw that she had been crying. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her face didn’t have any makeup on. It looked like she went in the bathroom and not only cried her eyes out, but washed her face afterwards. She sat down, and managed a smile.
    “Hey,” she said in a weak voice. “Where’s my ice cream?”
    Dad laughed. “Well, it looked like you weren’t going to eat, so…”
    “You just helped yourself, didn’t you?” Mom was smiling, so I knew that she wasn’t serious. “You can just get up and get me another cup. Chocolate ice cream, and mix in some M&Ms.”
    Dad put his hand on his head like he was saluting, and then got up.
    Mom smiled at me, but didn’t say anything. Then she opened her mouth and said a single word, then shut it again. That word sounded shaky. It sounded like she was afraid that she was going to cry if she talked to me, so she just decided not to say anything at all.
    “Mom, it’s okay. I’m sorry that I asked you guys to say good words to me. I don’t need that. I just need for you and dad to try to be normal. Dad’s good at it. I’d like you to be too. Can you?”
    She nodded, but I noticed her swallowing hard. She was blinking her eyes rapidly and she continued to swallow hard. I sighed. Mom wasn’t going to be able to do normal. She was apparently incapable of doing normal.
    I wondered if I even knew what normal was anymore.

    I got home , and I asked dad if I could talk to Chloe about what was going on. “I’d like to tell her before you guys do. I hope that’s okay.”
    “Of course it is. What are you going to tell her?” Dad asked. Mom still hadn’t said a single word to me, although she was talking to dad. I didn’t think anything of it, because I could tell that she felt that if she talked to me, she would just start crying. Since I didn’t want her crying, I supposed it was good that she wasn’t talking, either.
    “That I have cancer. And that I hope that I have two legs this