Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
He’d cherished it. It followed him from his parent’s house, to his college dorm room, and finally to his home. Each time I saw it hanging in a place of importance, I was struck with just how much I lucked out getting him as a best friend.
Sure, we’d fought like cats and dogs, but that didn’t hurt our friendship. No, it strengthened it. Gave us firm building blocks that withstood the test of time.
Death was an unforgiving bitch though, and every day I would hurt thinking about what I’d lost. I was lucky to have Winter back, because, what would hold me together right now if not for her?
***
“Do you guys remember when he found the baby outside the station?” Paulo asked, wobbling drunkenly towards the bar where we were seated.
“Yeah! Did you see his face? He was so pissed! He saw the mom running down the street, but when the Chief started spouting shit about the Safe Haven law, he got it under control. The kid’s six now.” Donnie said, just as drunkenly.
We were about six shots, multiple beers, and a bottle of Jack Daniels down, and we were definitely feeling it. We needed it though. We all needed that release that talking about Adam would give us. Reminding us of the good times, and the bad, that we all had with him.
“He met him not too long ago. The kid was so excited to meet the firefighter who saved him.” Duncan called from further down the bar.
“Hey! Make some room!” Tai called, as he limped slowly into the huddle that was surrounding us.
Adam’s dad got up from his seat and moved it closer to our group, giving Tai a place to sit down. “Since you’re going to be a dumbass and check out of the hospital against doctor’s orders, you have to at least sit down.”
Tai smiled in thanks, but didn’t reply. Not that he could say much. He was doing it against doctor’s orders, but this was only going to be a once in a lifetime kind of thing, and he didn’t want to miss it. As much as I hate to admit, I would have done the same thing in his shoes.
Kodiak got up from his sprawl against the base of the bar and padded over to Tai, nuzzling his hand. Tai grasped onto Kodiak’s fur and gave him a bear hug. It had to have hurt, but he did it anyway.
It was silent, while everyone watched the interaction between Tai and Kodiak, but soon it picked up again. Everyone told stories. Each and every one of them tried to top the last one with even more embarrassing escapades.
I stopped them at the sex ones though; there was no way I wanted to have his parents listening in on how much of a slut Adam was.
Adam’s mom, Honey, came up to me when Winter excused herself to go to the restroom. My arm automatically circled her shoulders and I pulled her into my side. John, Adam’s dad, gave me a hard look like he always did. He wasn’t a fan of other men touching his wife.
However, I had a wife of my own, so he just gave me the ‘Watch it’ look instead of the full-blown intimidation. The man knew the score though. His wife was a knockout at sixty-two. She was a high school teacher, and the talk of the boy’s locker room, even now.
John always made an appearance three or four times a year though, just so the boys knew whom she belonged to and didn’t get any funny ideas. John was an intimidating man. At over six feet tall, he was built like a fucking freight train. He was also worked for the railroad and earned those muscles the real way, through hard work and back breaking work.
“I can’t believe she’s back.” Honey whispered to me.
I gave her shoulder a squeeze. “Me neither. I’ve woken up every night for the past twenty four days and stared at her for hours at a time.”
When Winter had first shown up, I’d immediately called Adam and told him everything I knew. Adam was absolutely stunned with the news. Although he’d been discreetly looking for why all these years, he never thought that she’d ever be found. That night I’d gotten a call from Adam’s parents and they’d expressed their happiness about having Winter back as well and were equally as devastated when I’d reminded them that Winter didn’t remember them, nor me.
Honey turned and stared into my eyes for a long moment. “You’re a good boy, Jack. You deserve to be happy. Don’t delay in making up for that lost time. You need to date her all over again, show her why she fell in love with you in the first place. Take her back to Kyle and spend some time there. See if that helps her remember.”
I’d thought about taking her back to Kyle while we were here, but something didn’t feel right about it. Everything was still so blurry as to what happened. What if the person who attacked her lived in Kyle? What if her sister had something to do with it? There were too many unanswered questions, not to mention she was sent from Shamrock to Kilgore by Sam’s dad for a reason.
Sam tried to call his father numerous times, but either he didn’t want to talk, or he couldn’t, and until we found out which, she was going to be kept away from Kyle and Shamrock.
When I looked up, it was to find Winter weaving through the throng of firefighters. They parted for her as if she was royalty. Most of them remembered her, but the same couldn’t be said for Winter. It wasn’t every day that a man married a woman for his best friend, and, at the time, it’d been the talk of Kyle, Texas for months following.
It was surreal to see someone you thought was dead. Adam had been devastated and I hadn’t made it any better by demanding he find answers. In fact, I only exacerbated the issue. Now, I could look back at everything logically, but then, I was a man that had just lost his wife and had no way to get home to her. No way to get closure. No way to do anything but rely on his best friend to fix something that he shouldn’t have to fix.