Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 93307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93307 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 467(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
The whole family? Jerry Springer on a Sunday afternoon, did I miss a paternity test announcement? Since when is Mack a member of the Daytons?
It’s on the tip of my tongue to question it, but when my gran starts speaking again, Mack moves closer…and I have to admit, it feels good.
“You were my everything for sixty years,” she says through a trembling voice, her love for my granddad so obvious, all of us can feel it.
Mack’s at my side now, and I can’t stop myself from looking up and into his eyes.
“What are you doing here?” I whisper, even though I shouldn’t be busy with anything but my gran right now.
“I didn’t want to be anywhere else, babe, besides right here, with you, on this very important day.” He just smiles down at me and puts his arm around my shoulders, tucking me close to his side and kissing the top of my head.
It’s like yesterday’s fight didn’t even happen, and I don’t know how to comprehend it. Everything about today feels very Freaky Friday, and I look nothing like Lindsay Lohan or Jamie Lee Curtis.
Still, Mack’s presence is a comfort. That part is undeniable.
A rush of unexpected tears forms in my eyes. I have no control over them as they spill down my cheeks, and my gran’s following words don’t do anything but create more.
“Harry, I love you,” she says as she opens the urn. “I’ll always love you. This isn’t goodbye forever, honey. It’s just goodbye for now. I’ll see you on the other side.”
I’m a mess at this point, basically sobbing, as my little gran starts to lift the urn toward the water.
“Ma’am!” a loud voice booms from behind us. “Put the urn down!”
All five of us, including Gran, look away from the water and toward the security guard who’s now jogging toward us.
“Ma’am, you can’t do that yet! We have to be three miles away from the coast!”
Gran isn’t having it, though. “No!” she shouts and turns back toward the water with the urn. “This is the exact spot where I met my Harry! It has to be here!”
“No! Don’t do it! Put the urn down!” the security guard shouts, but Gran is already letting my granddad’s ashes fly into the air. They leave the urn in a brilliant heap as they head off the deck and onto the water below.
“That is illegal!” the security guard shouts as he reaches my gran and tries to remove the urn from her hands.
They’re in a struggle, my dad trying to both help my gran and keep her from committing assault, but eventually, my gran wins and just throws the whole dang urn into the water.
“Ma’am, you really shouldn’t have done that,” the security guard says through a heavy sigh.
“I don’t care!” Gran shouts victoriously and turns around to put her arms behind her back. “Arrest me! Take me to the slammer! I did it all out of love for my Harry, and I don’t regret it!”
“What?” my mom shouts. “You’re going to arrest her?”
“You better not touch my mother!” my father joins in.
I’m still sobbing, mind you, and the fear I now have for my sweet little grandmother feels like too much for my current emotional state.
The rubber band of tension inside me breaks with a snap.
“You can’t arrest her!” I yell at the top of my lungs. “I’m with child! It’d be a crime to take a pregnant woman’s grandmother away from her!”
The security guard looks downright confused, and like a whip, four faces turn to look at me at once, and I realize the words that just came out of my mouth.
Oh shit, what have I done?
Mack
I almost don’t believe my ears, but when I look down at the woman beside me and see big, fat tears falling from her face, all that comes out of my mouth is “Katy?”
“You’re pregnant?” Melissa shouts.
“Katybug?” Kai looks like he just swallowed his tongue.
But Gran, well, even though she continues to stand there with her hands behind her back, the look on her face is outright elation. “Oh, happy day! I’m going to be a great-grandmother!” she cheers like a woman who didn’t just battle over an urn with a security guard.
“I…I…” Katy’s lip trembles through her tears. “I…yes…I’m pregnant.” She looks up at me, and my heart wants to break over the uncertainty I see within her blue eyes. “Mack, I’m pregnant.”
“You’re pregnant?” I ask dumbly.
She nods, tears still falling down her cheeks. “I’m pregnant with your baby. Our baby.”
Holy fucking shit. Katy is pregnant with my baby?
Katy is pregnant with my baby!
Old Mack would be freaking the fuck out, but I’m not the old Mack anymore. I’m the Mack who’s been forever changed since falling in love with Katy, and I can’t do anything but feel happy over this news.