Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68500 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 343(@200wpm)___ 274(@250wpm)___ 228(@300wpm)
I snorted as I got out of my recliner and headed toward him. “How do you really know, Pops?”
He sounded weaker.
As if his voice wasn’t as strong.
“Because I feel your grandmother,” he smiled as his eyes closed. “It feels like her hand is right here on my heart. Like she’s telling me to hurry up and come to bed because she wants a snuggle.”
I swallowed hard and placed my hand over his heart.
His heartbeats were slow.
“She misses you,” I said. “You’ve been making her wait a long time.”
Pops’s eyes opened.
The watery blue orbs were intense as he said, “I’m not one to make a dying wish, but I’m going to do it.”
I waited, knowing I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear.
“Find out what your uncle knows when it comes to your mom’s death,” he ordered. “I want to die knowing that she’s going to have peace.”
“Do you know something, Pops?” I asked.
He nodded. “I know something happened to her. I know that you’re not going to like what you find out. And I know that your life is about to never be the same.”
“It won’t,” I replied.
He lifted his face, and I could swear he was smiling bigger than I’d ever seen him smile.
“Your mom’s here.”
I swallowed hard.
“She was the light of my life, you know. Your grandmother and I, she was the best thing that ever happened to us,” he said.
I sat on the edge of his bed and took his hand in mine. “Will you tell her that I miss her?”
He opened his eyes again and said, “She says that you need to stop being so stubborn and get the girl back.”
I laughed then, my voice choking on a sob. “She says, or you say?”
He closed his eyes as he said, “Same thing, right?”
No. No, it wasn’t.
But I’d give him that leeway.
“I love you, Pops. If you’re ready, I’m ready,” I lied.
He snorted.
It was such a soft snort that it could almost be considered a short breath of air, barely there.
“Remember what I said,” he ordered, albeit quietly. “And remember that love is there waiting for you, if you only reach out and take it.”
I looked down at our joined hands.
When I next looked up, it was to see his chest rise and then fall one last time. He didn’t take another one.
I wouldn’t admit it, but I cried.
I cried like a goddamn baby.
CHAPTER 12
Sorry for having great tits and correct opinions.
-Text from Val to Felix
VAL
Something told me that I should go check on him.
I was absolutely exhausted, had about seventeen almonds throughout the day, and the very last thing I wanted to do was see Felix and have him remind me that he didn’t want me.
Yet, something nagged at me. Something told me that, despite my feelings on the matter, I needed to go check on him.
He’d been gone all week, and I’d sat there and worst-case scenarioed it for the better part of six and a half days. Was he out with Tammy—who was also suspiciously absent? Was he sick? Was his grandfather sick?
My mind reeled, and eventually I admitted defeat.
So that was what I did after grabbing us our Taco Bell order—an order that I still knew by heart all these years later.
I drove up to his house. I’d gotten the information from Folsom—who strangely had it a heck of a lot faster than I thought she probably should have.
The place was dark, not a single light was on inside or outside the house.
I did see Felix’s BMW and his grandfather’s truck, though, meaning they were home.
I also didn’t see a third vehicle that would indicate anyone else’s presence.
Pulling up to the curb outside of his house—a beautiful historical home on Swiss Avenue—I couldn’t help but stare.
Felix’s place wasn’t the biggest on the block by any means, but it wasn’t the smallest, either.
It was on a corner lot with a very spacious yard, lush green grass, lots of shade trees, and the most gorgeous white house right in the middle of it.
It was my dream home, and I knew without a doubt that the reason behind his purchase of this one in particular was my love for all things old. He’d always been a new build kind of person, and I’d always been a ‘old homes have character’ kind of gal.
It’d been one of the things we continuously fought about because he liked to point out that for busy people like us, an old home would get time consuming and tedious. Meanwhile, my opinion was solidly on the ‘all new homes are cookie cutter and have no character.’
We’d been solidly undecided when I’d gotten the call about my father—the life ruiner—and we’d stay divided on the matter forever.
Swallowing hard at the emotions that started to well up inside me at seeing his acquiescence, giving me what he knew I wanted whether he intended for me to know about it or not, I got out of my car and started up the front walk.