Huge Deal - Lauren Layne Page 0,51

eased back and looked up at him with heartbroken eyes. “I’ve got to go.”

He brushed a tear from her cheek. “I know better than to tell you what to do, but respectfully, you don’t seem to be in any condition to go anywhere.”

“I’m not,” she said, wiping away more tears. “But I have to get home.”

“Home? To your parents?”

Her face crumpled again, but she regained enough composure to speak through her tears. “I got a call from my sister. My dad had a heart attack.”

“Kate.” He tried to pull her in, but she resisted.

“He didn’t make it, Kennedy. My dad died this morning.”

PART TWO

19

Friday, May 10

Three-ish weeks later

“Okay, it’s decision time,” Kate said, holding up two DVD cases. “Do we go old-school with your favorite or new-school with my favorite? Because while I’ll grant you that Sleepless in Seattle gets high points for originality, the banter in You’ve Got Mail is pretty top-notch.”

Kate’s mother looked up from her reading chair, studied Kate for a moment, then slowly placed a bookmark in her novel and set it aside. She patted the ottoman. “Sweetie. Sit.”

Uh-oh. She knew that tone. Anytime her mom made Sweetie its own sentence, Kate rarely liked what followed.

Sweetie. I know you wanted a dog for Christmas, but this goldfish needed a home!

Sweetie. You could always just go to the prom with your friends.

Sweetie. Your sister did a load of laundry and accidentally put a red sock in with your favorite white blouse . . .

Maybe this was it. Maybe her mom was finally going to have a breakdown and tell her that she just didn’t know how to go on anymore without her partner. Kate was ready for it. She’d been living with her mom for the past two and a half weeks and had read every book on grief there was.

“What’s up?” Kate asked with a forced smile, setting the DVD cases on the end table next to her mother’s tea before sitting on the ugly mustard-colored ottoman.

Her mom reached out and tucked a strand of Kate’s hair behind her ear, her smile a little small. “I’ve been so grateful for you these past few weeks. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

Kate reached up and squeezed her mom’s hand, her eyes watering a little. The day of her dad’s death, Kate had come up to be with her mom and sister and hadn’t left. Mostly because she hadn’t wanted her mom to be alone in the house she’d shared with Kate’s father for the majority of her life. But the truth was Kate had needed to be here for her own sake as well.

She’d known, of course, that her parents wouldn’t live forever. That eventually she’d have to say goodbye. She just thought she had so much more time. That her dad would be there to walk her down the aisle someday. To meet Kate’s children.

To be there when she needed him.

Kate blinked rapidly to keep the tears from falling. The nights were for crying. The days were for being strong for her mom.

She forced a smile. “I’m here as long as you need me. The guys found someone to cover for me at work, and Lara and Sabrina cleaned out the fridge in my apartment so I don’t go home to spoiled milk and moldy cheese.”

Eileen smiled. “You have good friends.”

Kate nodded in agreement. They hadn’t come to the funeral, because there hadn’t been a funeral. For as long as Kate could remember, Archie Henley had good-naturedly griped about funerals, saying they were depressing as heck. And he didn’t buy into what he called “that celebration-of-life nonsense.”

Celebrate me when I’m alive. Let me have a long-overdue nap when I’m gone.

The Henleys had honored Archie’s wishes. No funeral. And Kate was secretly glad for it. She was aware and appreciative of the love and support she knew was just a text or phone call away, but she needed space and time. From work. From New York.

Even from whatever was happening with her and Kennedy, because Kate wasn’t sure she could survive two emotional roller coasters.

The details of the day her dad died were a blur, but Kate remembered breaking down in Kennedy’s arms. Remembered him packing a bag while she lay curled on her couch. She remembered him hiring a town car to drive her to her parents’—to her mother’s—holding her hand all the way. By the time they’d arrived, her mom and sister were home from the hospital, and friends and extended