Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 94609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
I was already over the conversation she was about to drag me into before her mouth even moved.
“Kaitlin,” I said with a nod, moving toward the driver’s door.
She smiled her warm grin and combed her hand through her strawberry-blond hair. Definitely not the color she was born with, but Kaitlin was good at a few things. Coloring hair was at the top of her list. “Hey you. You haven’t answered my calls.”
“No shit.”
“Want to grab a bite to eat?”
“Nah.” I went to pull my door open, and she stepped in front of it to block it. I did my best not to roll my eyes. “I have a busy afternoon ahead, Kaitlin.”
She pouted. “I miss you, Theo.”
“Yeah, well, you should’ve thought about that before you cheated on me.”
Kaitlin and I didn’t date for long. I should’ve never gone out with her, either. I wasn’t interested in relationships, but my grandparents were convinced I’d die alone if I didn’t put myself out there. Still, I didn’t put myself out there. Dying alone didn’t sound so bad. And if you thought about it, everyone died alone. You didn’t take anyone into the afterlife with you. That was a solo mission.
It was Grandma who gave my number to Kaitlin and told her I’d go out with her.
I didn’t have enough balls to tell her no, so we kept going out for a few months. If I could’ve gone back in time, I would’ve told Kaitlin to lose my number. I’d already lost hers.
Kaitlin’s pout grew more dramatic. “It was only once and hardly counts as cheating, Theo.”
I arched an eyebrow. “You slept with my cousin.”
“It’s not a big deal. Peter sleeps with everyone.”
As if that made it any better.
“Besides, it’s not like you were putting out for me. We’d never even kissed. You know, rumors are going around that you might still be a virgin. I’m just trying to prove the people wrong.”
I stared blankly at her for a second.
Without another word, I opened my truck door, climbed inside, and shut it.
I headed over to my grandparents and found them sitting on their back porch. Grandma was drinking a glass of wine as PaPa sat in his wheelchair. He’d been in that chair for the past year. Lately, his health had been declining, and it was the hardest thing to watch. He couldn’t leave the house most of the time, and they hired a caregiver to look after him.
My grandfather was dying.
That was the hardest truth I’d ever had to face. The hardest part of growing up was watching your heroes grow older, too. It did a number on one’s psyche.
We hadn’t had the outright conversations about PaPa’s declining health, but I figured we all knew what was happening. He was ninety years old and had lived a great life. We all knew he didn’t have many years ahead of him, but still… I prayed for more time.
My grandparents didn’t let the impending future scare them, though. They sat on that porch, giggling with one another like they were two kids falling in love for the first time. That wasn’t shocking; those two always seemed to behave like kids falling in love. Maybe that was why I wasn’t bothered when things ended with Kaitlin. I never laughed with her like that. She just thought we looked good in photos together. It all seemed a bit superficial. Plus, now I had a feeling she and her friends were just trying to “get the thirty-year-old virgin” checked off their bucket list.
After I made it over to my grandparents’ place, I cooked dinner for them. We sat at their dining room table, as we did every night. PaPa talked about the Brewers’ baseball stats while Grandma asked me if I’d be attending church service with her on Sunday. She always asked. I never went. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in God or anything even though he sure did piss me off sometimes, but I never thought I’d find him in a church. I’d always found him on the water when it was just nature surrounding me.
“Don’t forget, Theo. My friend is coming to stay tomorrow. You still have space for her?”
“Yup,” I replied. My grandparents lived in a two-bedroom tiny home—by choice. I’d tried to upgrade their home for years now, but they said they loved the small space. I grew up in their spare room, but now it was a space that PaPa’s caregiver used.
So I offered up the spare room in my place for her friend to stay, and by offered up, I meant Grandma told her friend that she could stay with me before asking me. I hated the idea of it, but I didn’t complain. My grandparents raised me. The least I could do was allow one of their friends to crash at my place for the summer.