Page 69 of Heartbreak & Cupcakes
“Rachel.” I hadn’t said her name out loud in so long, it felt strange to say it now.
My dad never wanted to talk about her.
“Do you want to see my mom?” Lexi asked as she climbed down off the barstool.
“Yes.” I nodded and my pulse sped. I knew that I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but it felt like I was snooping.
“Her real name was Ashley but my daddy called her Ash,” Lexi explained as she took my hand and led me into the office. She walked to a bookshelf and pulled a photo album off of it that was almost as big as she was.
We sat down on the tan leather oversized chair in the corner and she opened it. When she did, I saw a twelve, maybe thirteen-year-old Alex with an auburn-haired girl with huge blue eyes. The two teens were sitting on a cable car. Alex wore a wide smile on his face and his arm was draped over Ashley’s shoulders as she rested her head on his chest. The next picture her head was thrown back and her mouth was open as she laughed. His smile was even wider and the glint in his eye looked mischievous.
He looked so young. So happy. So carefree. So, in love.
“That’s my mom and daddy.”
I nodded silently as she turned the page. The next series of photos were them as teenagers taken all over the city. There were also pictures of Alex’s friends Maddox and Nick. Apparently, the three of them had all grown up together.
When Lexi turned the next page, I saw a picture of Ashley looking down cradling her stomach that had a tiny baby bump. She looked young. She had to have still been in her teens.
My heart broke wide open for Alex as Lexi flipped through the photos of them moving into their first apartment. I knew it was their first apartment because Ashley had written those words on a piece of cardboard and held it up as the two of them stood in the empty space.
With each page Lexi turned Ashley’s belly grew until there was a series of her lying in a hospital bed holding a newborn with Alex standing beside her kissing the top of her head. Then she was in a wheelchair coming out of the hospital cradling the newborn in her arms as Alex pushed them from behind.
“That’s my brother AJ.” Lexi pointed to the baby in her mom’s arms. “He died when my mommy did. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“No.” I shook my head and did my best to hold back the tears.
Charli had told me about Alex losing his family tragically and I’d read about it in the article. Butseeingphotos of Alex and his late wife and son gave me an entirely different perspective. It didn’t just break my heart, it obliterated it. Seeing the life they’d shared. The memories. The love. The years they’d spent together.
And it wasn’t just that Alex lost Ashley, he’d lost his son, too. As I flipped through the pages of birthday parties, and Alex teaching his son to ride a bike and swim, the three of them hiking, at the beach, AJ in diapers wearing Alex’s hard hat and holding his hammer, AJ playing baseball, football, and basketball a sadness ached deep in my bones. The last photos in the album were of AJ’s middle school graduation where Ashley was visibly pregnant once again.
My heart wrenched in my chest and I felt like I wanted to throw up. How could someone survive that much loss? The weight of it pressed down on me, pinning me to my chair.
Lexi hopped up, totally unaware of my internal meltdown. “Let’s go make muffins!”
“Let’s do it!” I enthused, sniffing away the tears that had formed in my lids.
If I hadn’t already been convinced that Alex was a superhero before, I would be now. Anyone who survived the loss he’d faced and raised a little girl as amazing as Lexi, had to be.
