to do me a solid. If you don’t want to talk to him, fine. He can’t talk that much anyway. Just read a book, watch TV, and kick up your feet. Relax.”
“Sure.” I narrowed my eyes. “Because watching your father die at a hospice is just like a weekend at the spa.”
Vic twitched his lips. “Sarcasm doesn’t become you.”
“Nor you.” I rolled my eyes.
Daddy wheezed from behind me. Looking up to the ceiling, I sighed and then looked back at my brother. “Fine. I’ll handle it. Go to work. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I knew you wouldn’t let me down. And Cam said you’d give in.”
Of course. He and Cam were still bosom buddies or whatever. Despite the mention of my ex, my heart lifted. Someone depended on me. It felt nice. I punched his shoulder. “Yeah, yeah. Get out of here.”
* * *
For the past few hours, Daddy had slipped in and out of sleep. When he was awake, he stared at me, as if committing me to memory. Tears would gather and I’d look away. I hadn’t said anything to him yet. What was there to say?
Daddy wheezed again, grabbing my attention away from the rain pelting on the window.
“Come.” He waved at me and then patted the bed.
“Um, I don’t know about that, old man.”
“Need to tell you something. Not over there.” His breathing was labored.
“All right. All right.” I settled in bed next to him. From the other side, he grabbed a small whiteboard.
Writer? He wrote in a shaky script.
I nodded.
Read to me.
“You want me to read what I’ve written?”
He nodded, smiling.
I sighed, shaking my head. “Um, I don’t know. I’m still making edits, so it’s a little rough.”
He pointed to the board again, silently demanding that I read to him.
“Okay.” I wasn’t sure why he wanted to hear my ramblings, but for some reason, I couldn’t deny his request. Oddly, I was proud. Proud that he would know that I had grown up to be a writer, despite his neglect.
I pulled the tablet from my backpack and powered it up. “Okay, I guess I’ll start from the beginning.”
For the next hour, I read my book out loud. Daddy smiled huge and even laughed a few times, losing his breath. I would stop when he did.
He grabbed his whiteboard. Keep going.
“I had a whiteboard, too, at my old job at the radio station. I used to be a radio personality, and I would play hangman when I had crazy callers.”
Listened to every show.
I snorted. “Sure you did.”
He nodded earnestly and erased the whiteboard. Jeffrey the Cat. He pointed to the board and smiled, then erased again.
“Oh, the song dedication to the cat. Good times. Okay, so you listened to my recent work.”
Girl. Suicide.
“H-how? How did you hear about her? That was back in college.” Nadia had sent me an email a few months ago. She and her husband had just found out she was preggers with baby #3. She’d also sent a family picture. I was so happy for her. She had healed and started a new life with a good man, despite losing her mom, father, and sister in a car accident when they were on their way back home from a visit with her in college.
I listened to EVERY show.
I smiled, believing him this time. I kept on reading.
* * *
Two days had passed. Somehow, we got into an easy flow. I read for an hour. Daddy even gave me feedback on occasion, as much as he could—changing a word here or there.
A knock on the door interrupted my reading.
“Hey, Vickie!” I greeted my brother when he popped his head into the door. An athletic bag was slung over his shoulder.
He gave me a two-finger salute. “Rae-Rae.” His eyes drifted to Daddy. “What are you guys up to?”
I lifted my reader in my hand. “Reading my soon-to-be New York Times best seller.”
“What?” Vic walked into the room and sat. “I’ve been begging you to let me read your book.”
“I wasn’t ready.”
He lifted an eyebrow and waved toward Daddy. “Obviously you are.”
“Fine. I’ll send it to you tonight.”
Vic sighed, leaned back in his seat, and closed his eyes. “I’m beat. I’ll just listen for now, like Pop.”
“Fine.” I turned my attention back to my dad. Tears shone in his eyes.
“Chapter Eighteen: The Girls with No Booties are always the main ones trying to twerk.”
Vic’s eyes flew open. “Really?”
“Really. Sit back and learn something, young one.”
I read the chapter to lots of laughter—from Victor—and wheezing—from Daddy. A