Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127715 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 639(@200wpm)___ 511(@250wpm)___ 426(@300wpm)
He smiled at her. “I’m in the mood for comfort food.”
She tipped her head to the side. “Bad day?”
He took in a deep breath, moved so he was twisted, resting both his forearms on the bed so his face was close to hers, and he told her about the journals and Dern.
He ended it with, “There’s a letter for you too, baby, from your mom. She explained things. She just didn’t get around to posting it. I’ll have it all tomorrow and we’ll find a time you can look at it.”
It was shaky, and her eyes were bright, but she said, “Okay, Harry.”
“They died May eighteenth, honey,” he said gently.
She closed her eyes and dropped her head.
Harry inched closer and put his lips to her hair.
“Why does it feel good, knowing that?” she asked the comforter.
“Don’t know,” he said to her hair. “But if it does, just feel it.”
Harry pulled back when she lifted her head. “That’s the day they left.”
She remembered.
Of course she would.
He nodded.
“They didn’t mess around, whoever killed them,” she remarked.
Linus, with bad timing, jumped up on the bed, and Harry ordered, “Off.”
“No,” Lillian protested. “They’ve been hanging with me. Mom and Dad loved animals. We had dogs all while I was growing up. The last one died about a year before they left. He was Dad’s buddy. There were times the only good thing about all of that was that Bentley was gone before Dad was. Bentley wouldn’t have been able to handle it.”
“However you want it, Lilly,” Harry replied.
“I got stuff to make a stir fry, but there’s a chicken tetrazzini casserole that’s been calling my name since I peeled back the foil.”
“I’ll go turn on the oven.”
He made to stand, but she caught his wrist, so he stilled.
“I’m okay,” she stated.
“You don’t have to be,” he returned.
“I know, but I want you to understand, I’m okay. Don’t think anything about me being in here. I’ve been missing them forever, I’ll keep missing them. I’m kind of…coming to terms, I guess. Maybe I’m searching for things to help me. Like the fact they died together, and I know that would bring them peace. Not a lot, but it’d be there. Like people are going to know now, not that they didn’t before, but they’ll for sure know Mom and Dad didn’t have anything to do with that robbery. I hate that they’re dead. I hate how they died. But I’m coping.”
“Do we have to have the conversation again about how I don’t think you’re an emotional leech?” he teased.
Her lips tipped up. “No.” Then her fingers tightened around his wrist. “I just like you, and I know you’re going balls to the wall for me, so while you’re doing that, I don’t want you to worry about me at the same time.”
“That’s gonna happen anyway.”
She let out a sad sigh.
“Put yourself in my shoes, where would you be at?” he asked.
It took a beat, but her eyes lit, and she replied, “I get you.”
“So can I do my job, which I’d do anyway, and worry about my girl, something else I’d do anyway, and eat so many carbs I might throw up?”
“You can do the first two and half of the last one. Throwing up sucks.”
He smiled, moved in to give her a quick kiss, then he left her where she was to turn on the oven.
Since he was in the kitchen, all three dogs came with him.
When he got out stuff to make a salad, Lucy and Linus remained.
But Smokey headed back to his girl.
The next morning, they were walking to Aromacobana when Lillian asked, “Did your dad ever remarry?”
Fuck.
He’d been so busy, he hadn’t gotten in touch with his father or brother yet.
He knew both worried about him, he knew both would be thrilled he was finally getting back to life after losing Winnie.
And he knew they’d be pissed as shit that Lillian was who Lillian was going to be to him, and her parents’ memorial happened, and he hadn’t let them know.
And the memorial was tomorrow.
Shit.
“Is that too personal of a question?” she asked, pulling his attention back to her.
“Not at all,” he assured. “I just realized I haven’t called to tell them I met this great woman, and I need to get on that.”
She smiled up at him.
He returned it and said, “And yes, Dad remarried. A couple of years after Mom died. It didn’t work, mostly because she was a bitch. I wasn’t a big fan. Josh wasn’t either. They were married three years, then divorced. I think it spooked Dad. He did so well the first time, and the second was such a fail, he wasn’t going to go there again. He’s got a lady friend in Arizona. She’d been burned, he’d been burned, so they each have their own places. But they spend a lot of time together, go on cruises, shit like that. I’ve met her. Her name is Caroline. She’s a good one.”