Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“Bye, Kailey,” my mom said, coming to her, worry and fatigue on her face, as the private car turned into the circle driveway. “I’ll see you here on Thanksgiving then we’ll all travel home together. Be good for your dad.” Her tears sounded in her tone. She should be going home with them, I’d tried to get her to go, but she’d insisted on staying until Dash truly began to be better.
He required a lot of work from all of us right now.
“But you get to be with Beau,” Kailey said, her brows knitting together at her mom’s tears. “You miss him all the time. I don’t understand why we haven’t moved closer to him. This is where you grew up, Mom. Dad goes everywhere to work. I could go to school at the one the girls go to.”
“You’re right, baby,” she said, gathering Kailey into an awkward hug, squeezing her body tightly. Her one arm went one way, the other another way, and her upper body arched into mom’s. None of those positions appeared natural. “Talk to your dad about all that, okay?”
“She still hugs me the same way so get used to it.” I winked at Kailey, always aware of the connection she and I shared, the one our mother created and nurtured to remain sure and strong. My arms crossed over my chest, holding in the warm feelings these two always created inside me.
“Mommma, stop! You’re pulling my hair. We’re gonna be back next week.” I didn’t blame my sister, I’d have knocked out of that hold seconds ago. And our mom didn’t care or release Kailey until the back door of the car opened. As a group, we meandered toward Carter.
“Thank you for everything you’ve done,” I said, sticking out my hand to him. He took it, but shook his head no at my appreciation.
“This is what family does, Beau. Dash and I are incredibly close. And you’d be there for me in the same way.” His words interrupted my genuine appreciation, winding us back a few years when Carter hadn’t been my favorite person. My grin beamed my truth. “All right, Dash would take care of me in the same way, and he’d insist you be there with him.”
“That I can agree with,” I said, chuckling lowly. Carter drew me into a hug. “You’ve come in and saved the day several times for us. If not for you, Dash would be a used car salesman. Thank you for his life, mine too.”
Wow. Where had that come from?
No lie that I’d never uttered such an oath aloud before.
Carter liked my joke, grinning. His head tilted, leaning forward to talk quietly. “I just received a call from the Harris County Public Health Department. Contact tracers have found others ill in the same way as Dash, in the family he represented. Two members have died. One’s still in the hospital. Another only had cold-like symptoms. The rest of the family was unaffected. Whatever’s happened, it’s become a bigger deal. I’ve asked them to contact me until you or Dash are ready to take this on.”
“Is it Ebola or somethin’ like that?” I asked.
“I don’t believe so, but I don’t believe they know what it is either.” He stopped speaking and reared back to allow Kailey inside the backseat of the car.
“Dad, tell Mom we’ll see her in seven days, so she stops crying,” Kailey said. “And we need to move here. It’s better than Northern Virginia, and Mom won’t miss Beau, and all the rest of them.”
She dropped it like it was hot while playing her game on her phone.
“Pretend like you love me, Beau,” she said dramatically, giving me a tight side hug. It was something she said and did regularly to lighten the mood, but the tears clogging her voice made it more pathetic than any other time.
“I’ll call you tonight,” Carter said, getting another quick kiss from his wife, before ducking inside the vehicle.
“I think we need to move New Year’s Eve to New York City this year,” my mom said, tugging tissues from her jeans pocket.
“Oh no. Not flyin’ four small children to New York City to celebrate a fireworks show with the four small children previously mentioned. Especially when I can give them sparklers in the backyard and they’re just as happy.” The tease landed like I hoped, everyone chuckled.
“I never looked at it that way,” my mom said, beaming up at me. “I wanted to make memories. You have memories with your grandparents.”
“Huh.” I winked down at her. “We never went anywhere except here. And Mia might have a chance at skippin’ a stone properly, but if a frog hops by, she’s gone, hoppin’ away with it. But the roughly ten acres behind us has come up for sale.” I pointed over my shoulder with my thumb.