No One But You. Jillian Hart

the squeak of shoes on the floor, the shouts of the kids as they barked instructions, set up an offensive, pressed in to score… Pain crimped his chest as he remembered those days.

      Those lost, golden days.

      “How about something like this?” Lauren nudged her laptop screen in his direction.

      He glanced at the brick accents, portico, private gated entrance, and nodded. He had to start someplace. He had promises to keep, ones that weren’t easy.

      But the best things in life never were.

      * * *

      “All right, lights out.” Mariah poked her head into Jake’s room. “It’s past your bedtime.”

      “Just one more page,” he argued, head bent over his paperback, his dark hair tumbling across his forehead. Their aging dog, Hobart, snored lightly at the foot of the bed as the teenager kept reading, absorbed in his story.

      Just yesterday he’d been was a little guy flipping through picture books and, yes, wanting to read just one more page. How did time pass so quickly?

      “It’s thirty minutes after your bedtime, kiddo.” She padded across the carpet. “There will be time tomorrow to read.”

      “The game was pretty good tonight, right?” His attention remained fixed on the book.

      “Right. Your team did great. The captain, not so much.”

      “Hey, I wasn’t that bad.” Jake laughed absently, reading away. “Tomorrow’s not a school day.”

      “No, but rules are rules. Give it up.” She held out her hand and the closed book landed there, accompanied by a sigh. “Get some sleep, kid.”

      She set the paperback on the nightstand next to a familiar looking volume. Her high school yearbook. That was curious. “Were you going through this again?”