desk. “It’s not always red roses, by the way. Do some homework, you guys.”
“Hey, my wife likes red roses,” Joel said.
“I’m just saying,” Cassie said. “You ring the doorbell, and you tell her you can’t be the CEO unless she’s beside you. Beside, Hunter. Not behind. Right at your side. That you need her to do this, and without her, you’ll surely fail.”
He listened to her and even nodded, but he wouldn’t do what she’d advised. Molly didn’t want to be at his side while he worked a hundred hours a week. She wanted him at her side in their home. She wanted him at her side when she brought home their baby and when she got home from work.
If he worked three times as much as a normal person, he really didn’t have time for a wife or family. He could remember the hours his father kept, and Hunter had spent more time in this high-rise building in downtown Denver than he cared to admit. Dad had worked early mornings and late nights. He’d worked weekends and holidays. He’d brought Hunter when he couldn’t take him to the farm or a friend’s house, and Hunter once again envied his half-siblings who’d gotten a completely different version of their father.
Everything became ultra-clear in that moment. Molly was absolutely right. Dad was too. He really couldn’t have everything, and it was time to stop hoping and praying and believing he could.
“Hunter.” Helena came running into the office area. “Your father is on the phone. He’s been trying to call you.”
He stood up at the panic on his boss’s face. “What is it?” he opened his top drawer and pulled out his phone, which he kept on silent. Dad had called six times.
Hunter didn’t need to dial him back to know. A text flashed on the screen confirming the terror gathering into a tight knot in Hunter’s stomach.
Dad: 911 - Hunter - call me. It’s Grandma.
Chapter 24
Wesley Hammond kissed his wife, wishing he’d had more years with her. So many more years. Bree completed him in a way he didn’t understand and hadn’t been able to predict, and he couldn’t imagine life without her.
His dad now had to live without his version of Bree, and Wes had no idea how he was going to do it. The task of making it through even one day felt too hard for him, and his eyes burned.
“Come on, baby,” Bree whispered. “We have to get ready to go out.”
Wes didn’t want to. He didn’t want to leave his mother. He didn’t want his children to grow up without their grandmother. He didn’t want to have to watch his father try to be brave during the next few hours.
He turned away from Bree and faced his dad. He already had the mask cemented in place, and Wes’s heart wept for him. He gripped Bree’s hand and went around the casket to stand next to his father. “Hey, Dad.”
Dad put his hand on Wes’s arm and squeezed. “Will you say the family prayer, Wesley?”
“Of course,” Wes said, though he didn’t know how he was going to do that. Dad should’ve asked Ames, as the man never cried. Even now, standing in the room with the family and their deceased mother, he looked as rock-solid as always. His eyes shone with danger, and he didn’t miss a single move anyone made. Ames would definitely be able to get through a prayer without crying.
Wes would not.
Gray and Hunter approached, and Gray would tap his watch and lift his eyebrows. Ever the taskmaster, Gray kept the family on track in all matters. He organized holiday events and sent birthday cards to every single niece or nephew, without fail. Wes’s children adored their Uncle Gray, because he never forgot about them. Hunter was a massive plus in Gray’s column too, as well as Elise. She always had candy or cookies for Wes’s kids, and she loved them as much as she loved her own.
“Are we going to do the prayer soon?” Gray asked.
“I just asked Wesley.”
Gray and Wes exchanged a look, and Gray turned around. “Everyone gather around, please. Wes is going to say the family prayer, and we’ll need to follow the casket into the chapel.”
The family circle tightened, and Wes reached for Hunter’s hand. The boy meant so much to Wes, and he hated seeing the tears in his nephew’s eyes. Worse was watching them stream down his face.
Elise came to Hunter’s side and pressed into him, and that