Here I Am by Rochelle Alers Read Free Book Online Page B

affect him more than someone who sits behind a desk for seven or eight hours a day. I don’t think Brandt is as depressed as he is frustrated that he needs help with his most basic needs.”
    â€œI pray you’re right, Ciara. Seeing Brandt in physical and emotional pain is more than I can bear right now.” Leona’s eyes filled with tears.
    Ciara’s hands tightened around her cup to prevent her from reaching out to comfort Brandt’s mother. She wanted to remind her that her son had survived a horrific accident that could’ve ended his life. And the fact that he did survive meant he would recover. Whether he’d ever be able play football again was another matter.
    â€œBrandt’s going to be all right, Leona. It’s just that he’s going through a rough time now. Give him another few weeks.”
    â€œI’m trying to be patient, but every time he lashes out I don’t recognize him. Of all of my four children he is the free spirit, the most fun-loving. When he told me he wanted to be a professional football player, it was the darkest day in my life. I had visions of him being carried off the field or spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair paralyzed from some freak accident. Little did I know that he would still end up in a wheelchair.” Leona sniffled, then dabbed at her nose with a napkin. “I’m sorry about becoming weepy. I’m usually not so emotional.”
    Ciara gave Leona a warm smile. “You’re entitled, because that’s what mothers do when there’s something wrong with their children.”
    Blinking back tears, the older woman managed a weak smile. “Even when that child is thirty-three?”
    â€œYes. Even if that child is fifty or sixty-three.”
    Leona stared at the young woman sitting opposite her. “Do you have any children, Ciara?”
    She shook her head. “No.”
    â€œWould you like to have children one day?”
    â€œPerhaps one day,” Ciara confirmed, staring into her cup of tea.
    She’d thought about having a child, but only if she met the right man. Unlike some women, she didn’t want to be a single mother and raise a child by herself. Her parents had divorced the year she’d celebrated her tenth birthday, and not having her father in her life had had a negative affect on her relationships with men. Sometimes she hadn’t chosen wisely, and when she did choose to commit to a long-term relationship it was for the wrong reason. At the time, Ciara had wanted to prove to her mother that not only could she get a man, but she could also keep him.
    William Dennison was in and out of her mother’s life so often that Ciara thought he’d worked for the CIA and that he’d had to go undercover for long periods of time. What she didn’t learn until she was in her early teens was that her father was living a double life. Although married to Phyllis, he’d also married another woman. His job as regional manager for a major beverage company kept him on the road, so he was able to divide his time between two households with relative ease. Although a bigamist, William never fathered a child with his second wife.
    â€œYou’re young, so you have time before you have to decide whether you want to have children.”
    Leona’s soft voice broke into her musings. Thirty-three wasn’t that young, Ciara thought.
    After wiping the corners of her mouth with a napkin, Leona placed it on the countertop. “I think it’s time I show you where everything is.”
    They walked out of the kitchen, passed a laundry room and entered an area off the pantry. The elevator, large enough to accommodate four, was next to a wine cellar filled with bottles of wine too numerous to count. Ciara smothered a gasp when the elevator door opened to a wall of glass, running the length of the hallway and spanning the width of the penthouse.
    Leona turned to her left. “This