but they brush it off, excusing it for something else. Wind. A sudden chill. He turned his head over his shoulder, and I smiled, wondering what he thought it had been.
“Have you lost anyone?”
The question blurted from my lips and I immediately wished I could take it back. I wasn't typically that kind of medium and didn't sensationalize my ability. I also never went out of my way to reconnect people with the spirits of their loved ones, unless the spirits were particularly adamant. But the need to connect with him was too great and conversation wasn't my strong point.
He looked back to me, eyes narrowed and curious. “What do you mean?”
“Have you, um ...” Jesus, what was I doing? “Um, I'm just wondering if you have experience with losing someone.”
He still stared with unconvinced curiosity as he said, “My grandparents died when I was younger.”
The woman wasn't a grandmother, or at least not his. She shook her head, her eyes mournful and clouded with regret.
I nodded, deciding to dig just a bit more. “Were any of them more, um, unexpected?”
“Are you asking if I've ever had it sprung on me before that I have a few months to say goodbye to someone?” He asked the question in a way that made me wince, but still, I nodded. He shook his head. “No. This would be the first. My grandparents were all old as hell. I mean, it sucked, but it wasn't like I hadn't seen it comin’.”
That didn't tell me who this woman was and now, I needed to know. “Um, both your mom and dad's parents?” I asked, grasping at straws.
“Yeah,” he drawled slowly, eyeing me with suspicion.
I nodded. “So, will I be seeing your mom? I haven't seen her come by.”
Vinnie's expression hardened to stone and I knew I had hit on something. “No. My mom is dead.”
The old woman's lips fell open in a silent forlorn sigh I couldn't hear and my eyes met hers with one thought.
Hello, Mrs. Marino.
“I'm sorry to hear that,” I said.
He shrugged without a single display of emotion. “Eh, it’s fine. I didn’t really know her.”
Before I could say anything else, he pushed from the counter and said, “Anyway, I just wanted to say I was sorry. I shouldn’t have taken shit out on you.”
“It’s okay,” I replied, so pathetically meek and small.
“I’ll see you around, Andy,” he said, offering a grin so genuine and beautiful I thought I would float right through the ceiling from my elation.
Andy, I thought as he headed toward his father’s room. He’d called me Andy. Nobody had ever called me Andy before. I liked it, it was casual and cute, and it felt so personal. Maybe even too personal for what our relationship was, but … I liked it.
I liked him.
And I really wanted to know more about the old woman following him down the hall.
CHAPTER SEVEN
VINNIE
“Pops, can I help you with that?”
I hurried to my father’s side as he struggled to put his shirt on without snagging the tubing that hung around his neck and connected to the oxygen tank at his side. I reached out to help him with the buttons, but he quickly swatted me away. I pulled back with the shame of a puppy who’d just been scolded.
“I think I can manage to button my own goddamn shirt,” he snapped, just before twisting the tube around a button and snagging it inside the shirt. He huffed with agitation, tugging at the cannula, and pulling it from around his ears. He threw it to the side and finished with the buttons. After tucking the shirt into his pants, he shot a triumphant look in my direction. “See?”
I could’ve fired back obnoxiously and reminded him of how I had needed to help him use the bathroom just a day ago. But I was too focused on the weighted sound of his breath, the wheezing and struggling with every rise and fall of his chest. Had it always sounded that way? And if so, how had I not noticed it?
“You need to wear this,” I said, snatching up the cannula and fitting it back into his nostrils, up around his ears, and under his chin, all while ignoring his scowl.
“You need to stop treatin’ me like a little kid.”
“You need—”
“Hey!”
I turned at the sound of Andy’s voice and lifted my mouth in a feeble smile. Pops had only been in the hospital for a few days, but I had found myself looking forward to