It's A Wonderful Midlife Crisis (Good To The Last Death #1) - Robyn Peterman Page 0,81
ghosts stopped coming to her, she lost the ability to see them?
“Daisy girl, you fill a tire with air,” she said, noticing my confusion and pointing at the television. “You got something better?”
“You don’t see him?” I asked.
“See who?” she questioned, looking around the room. “Is the Grim Reaper here?”
“Umm… no.”
Steve looked crestfallen. I realized that Gram couldn’t see the dead anymore. Once the torch had been passed, the gift apparently moved on.
“Who’s here?” Gram asked, alarmed.
Looking over at Steve, he nodded his head.
“It’s Steve,” I told her. “He’s come home for a little while.”
Gram paled and her eyes grew wide. She grabbed my arm with far more strength than I was aware she still had.
“No, Daisy,” she choked out. “No, no, no.”
She grew agitated and tried to get out of her bed. Her grip didn’t lessen and she pulled me closer to her frail body.
“Gram,” I said, wrapping my free arm around her and hugging her tight. “What’s wrong?”
“Don’t you dare do what your mamma did,” she said, glancing wildly around the room as her body trembled. “Don’t you dare follow him. You hear me? Steve, you are not taking my baby with you!”
“Oh my God,” I muttered. I stroked her hair and tried to calm her. “I’m not going with Steve. I promise.”
“What is she talking about?” Steve asked, reaching out to touch my arm.
“He wants to know what happened,” I told Gram, who was still shaking like a leaf and holding on to me like her life—or my life—depended on it.
“Your call,” Gram said, still scanning the room.
I gently put Gram’s legs back on her bed and covered her with the quilt. Sitting down next to her so she didn’t try to get out of bed again, I turned my focus to Steve and took a deep breath.
“My mom fell in love with one of the dead,” I explained, feeling disconnected from my body. My voice sounded flat to my own ears. I hadn’t gotten past the fact that she’d chosen a dead man over me. “When he was sent into the darkness, she took her own life to follow him.”
Steve said nothing. He took the information in as he crossed the room and sat back down in the chair.
“I’m sorry, Daisy,” he said quietly. “I’m so sorry.”
“She’s not going with you,” Gram hissed, looking the wrong way from where Steve was seated. “Do you hear me? Daisy is not going with you.”
“Gram, he doesn’t want me to go with him,” I told her. “We have some unfinished business.”
“Like what?” Gram demanded, still searching the room.
“It’s private,” I said. “It’s between Steve and me.”
Gram began to cry. She rocked back and forth and began to mumble incoherently to herself as she took my hand in hers and held it to her heart. Her pale, wrinkled skin seemed to turn gray as she begged me not to leave her.
“Tell her,” Steve said, his expression full of embarrassment and anguish. “Tell her the truth, Daisy. Please tell her.”
“Are you sure?” I asked as I crawled into the bed with Gram and got under the blanket.
“As sure as I love you and your grandmother. Yes,” he said.
“What did he say?” Gram asked, still looking terrified.
“Gram,” I said, taking her chin in my hand and making her face me so she could see I was telling the truth. I was a crappy liar and she was well aware of the fact. “Steve came back to apologize to me.”
“For what?”
“Gram, Steve’s gay.”
Gram squinted at me and looked terribly confused. “No, he’s not. He was your husband.”
“Yep,” I said, sighing and hating that the intimate details of our life were about to be spilled to the woman who had raised me and given me away at my wedding. “Steve couldn’t accept it.”
“He was bisexual?” she asked, still not getting it.
“Umm… no,” I admitted. This was harder than the talk with Steve in a way. “He was always gay. We didn’t have a normal man and woman relationship. I’d always thought there was something wrong with me.”
“Why that little shit,” Gram hissed.
“She’s right,” Steve said, joining me at the bed. “Tell her where I am so she can say whatever she wants to say to me.”
I did. Gram focused on where Steve was standing but her eyes want right past him. “If you were alive, I’d skin your hide, buster,” she snapped. “I loved you like a son.”
“Tell her I loved her too. I still do.”
I relayed the message. Gram just snorted in disgust.