and started their journey together almost 38 years ago. I hadn’t been alive that long. My parents had loved one another for almost a decade longer than I’d been alive, and I couldn’t wrap my brain around just how devastating a loss like that would be. I was damn near crippled by Deck being missing, and there was still a chance that he might come home to me.
“Do you think he’ll be okay?” I asked after my sister and Joker approached with their family.
My sister just sniffed and shook her head. “How could he be?”
“He laughed today, that has to be a good sign, right?”
“Why did you say that? I still can’t believe you called the priest out for being so darn long-winded.”
I giggled quietly. “Can I tell you a secret and not have you think I’m crazy?”
“Well, I pretty much know you’re crazy, but you can tell me and I’ll pretend as usual.”
“Brat!” I teased my little sister and then I told her about what prompted me to lose my patience with the priest. She glanced over to Toby’s grave and then smiled back at me.
“I believe you,” she whispered and then leaned in to hug me. My little sister and I had become so close since we both went through a pregnancy together. To be honest, it made me realize all that I had been missing by pushing her away when we were younger. Granted, I had my reasons and they revolved around protecting her from any taint she may have gotten from me, but still… I wished we had been closer for longer.
“How about we set something up, a timeshare if you will, about who stays with Daddy?” She asked me.
I narrowed my eyes on my little sister. “If you think dad will allow that, you have been smoking some pretty good shit, and I’m mad at you for not sharing!”
She grinned at me. “Well, we’re not going to tell him the plan.”
“Tell who, what plan?” My father asked, having walked up behind Anna as she was trying to convince me. She gave me a wide-eyed ‘what the heck’ look, since she never cussed. I knew she wouldn’t do it with her gestures or in her head either. I just grinned at her some more as I took Ashton’s hand and left Amber to stay cuddled up to her grandpa’s side.
“Well, your youngest daughter thinks we need to take turns babysitting you,” I told him bluntly.
He failed to hide the shock over me being completely honest with him. My sister didn’t hide hers either. “Ever!” She squealed my name in protest, obviously chiding me for being a little rat. I just shrugged my shoulders.
“You have a right to know that we will be looking out for you. I just don’t see the need to hide what we’ll be doing because you’re too smart,” I told him as I booped his nose with the tip of my finger causing him to offer up a genuine smile at my playfulness.
“Sounds like you two have it all figured out. What if I want to be alone?”
I shrugged once more. “Too bad!”
“Yeah, too bad, Grandpa! We’re going to stay with you until your heart stops hurting,” Amber told him. My heart melted on the spot, and I think everyone else who heard her was having trouble keeping their eyes dry too.
“Is that so, little princess?”
“That’s so!” Her word was princess law.
“If you insist, but be prepared. You might have to move in if you plan on sticking around that long.”
“That’s okay. We don’t mind. Our daddy is gone, so you can do all the things he used to do and then we can take turns making you smile.”
Lucky for me, Jay swooped in and took Ashton from me because I needed to turn away. My whole body vibrated with the effort it took not to completely break down right there in front of my girls, the rest of my family, and our friends. I did not see that kick to my heart coming, and there was nothing I could do to patch the wound up on the spot.
“Come along, lovey, let’s go get you sorted over here for a minute.” Sully, one of my dearest friends, had his arm slung around my shoulders as he dragged me off a ways, hid me behind a tree, and let me wail into his chest to muffle the sound. “That’s it, sweet girl, get it all out. No one is watching.” I had no