Always and forever and in between

Chapter 10

Deborah Helen Scott nee Lee passed nothing on to her son Nathan, from her Marilyn blonde hair, to the serenity in her face. He actually favored his father physically, as a matter of fact, his uncle Cooper had played a joke on him when he was little to mock the lack of similarities, told him that he wasn't actually Deb's son, and that they took him from the hospital by accident, four year old Nathan cried the entire night, even after Cooper apologized a hundred times and swore that he was only joking, Nathan stayed in his mother's arms all night weeping, Deb had scolded her brother that day and even stood up to Dan when he told Nathan to go to his own bed, stating that if her son needed her, then she would be there to hold him.

Henceforth his incredible attachment to his mother, when Nathan was younger, up until age nine, he would stand for long periods of time, holding onto her legs around the house, Somehow, though, as he grew older things have changed drastically, his mother had stayed the same caring woman she always has been, but her role in his life had greatly lessened. For months at a time, she would go on business meetings to the point where he would actually be surprised when seeing her at home, which left him with Dan Scott and all they ever talked about, was his basketball future.

So Nathan absolutely loved the times where his mother would just come and sit with him, even if she didn't know the first thing about his life.

"How's my boy?" asked Deb, approaching Nathan who was lifting weights.

"Why?" He joked, putting the barbell "dad sent you to spy on me? Poison my drink?"

She handed him the icy lemonade and he laughed, smelling the glass for good measure before taking a sip; he loved teasing his mother, well, when he could.

"You know you would think he organized this whole thing himself, so he can get back in the court"

He was referring to the father-son game which was approaching at an alarming speed.

"I know he has been tough on you lately, Nate, but I want you to know, things are gonna change around here."

Nathan gave a short bittersweet smile, his mother had promised him change too many times to keep track "I just wish he would lay-off, you know? I wanna be good for him; he just gets so worked up about this stuff"

"Well, if you don't wanna play, don't play. He will get over it"

He shook his head, handing her back the drink, as he said: "you know that's a lie mom", then he walked away.

Deb's heart ached for her son, she couldn't simply let him walk away looking so frail, casting the lemonade aside, she got up; hoping a change of subject would do the trick.

"Hey, Nate, I was thinking about the cookies I used to make, you want some?"

"Nah" he smiled sadly "I can't eat anything with sugar content a week before the big games"

"Who told you that?" she stood up straighter, he shrugged and Deb felt blood pounding in her head, sometimes she wanted to strangle Dan, the boy was sixteen and every part of his life focused on getting a ball into a hoop "come with me, now, we are making our gummy bear- dippin dots- M&m's – cookies. Then we will go to the dentist"

She pulled her son out of his room as he tittered.

"How are you Nathan?" she asked softly, putting the cookies into the oven, as Nathan licked some remaining dough off the spoon.

He shrugged "I can bench press..."

"No" she interrupted "how are you? Is there anything new? Let's say, short, brunette and sleeping on our couch?"

Nathan took a few minutes to grasp what she was referring to, before he groaned in embarrassment 'You saw that?" he moaned.

"Uh-huh" she laughed mischievously.

"No, that's just Haley, she is my tutor"

"And does just Haley put all of her student to sleep, or is that just you?" she teased.

"Mom, come on now, we were watching that ridiculous movie, and, can we just let it go..."

His face turned a bright shade of red and Deb laughed.

"I remember when you were young, your bed time was 8:30, up until you were seven, and we hadn't even set the bed time for you, when it was 8:30; you would just fall asleep. One time, we were at Grandfather and Grandmother's place, Royal was talking to you and all of a sudden, you just fell forward. We were scared to death, until you snored, I don't think your grandfather has ever felt so offended." Then she moved closer to his ears and whispered "that was when I bought you that water gun you wanted, for getting me out of there"

Nathan laughed uproariously with a mouth full of cookie dough, and his mother put her arms around his shoulders, Nathan has gotten so big, yet, he was still her baby boy who carried too much on his shoulders.