Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 89978 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89978 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 450(@200wpm)___ 360(@250wpm)___ 300(@300wpm)
Our daughter …
This isn’t real.
I take a step away from the building.
Our daughter …
I shake my head.
Our daughter …
Somehow, I manage to return to my car where I sit staring at his place for the next hour. My thoughts die as tiny, muffled echoes before they reach my true consciousness. It’s been twelve years since the pain has been so severe that my whole body surrenders until I feel numb. When I can no longer feel anything, and the well of tears runs dry, I put the car in drive to pick up my mom for lunch.
“Hey! How was your morning?” She hops in and shuts the door. But the second she sees my face, her smile vanishes. “Scottie, have you been crying?”
I narrow my eyes as if I don’t understand her question.
“Scottie?”
“He has a child,” I whisper.
“Who has a child?”
“A daughter.”
“Scottie.” Mom rests her hand on my leg. “Who? What are you talking about?”
Three people know—my mom, dad, and sister.
And I don’t want to see the look on her face when I tell her, but it’s unavoidable now. So many things are unavoidable now. Life is eternal even if living is not. The past can never be erased or forgotten.
“Price.”
Deep lines trench across my mom’s forehead. “Sweetie, you saw Price today?”
I slowly shake my head, feeling eerily calm and resigned. “Price is in Austin. He works part-time at Drummond’s.”
“What?” Her confusion intensifies.
“He showed up, seemingly out of nowhere. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer. And he moved to Austin … for me.”
“Scottie, you’re not making any sense. Price Milloy is in Austin?”
“He left Philly. He left his doctors and their advice. And he searched for me.”
“He has … cancer?”
I nod once.
“And what does he expect you to do for him?”
I meet her gaze, and the pain begins to dissolve the numbness. With a shrug, I murmur, “I don’t know. Be his friend. Love him. Accept him and his decision not to do chemo.”
“His decision to die?”
My brow furrows. “His decision to live.”
“Did he get a second opinion?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you tell him—”
I shake my head. “He’s healing.”
“Is he seeing doctors there?”
“No.”
“Then you know he’s not healing. Tell me you know that.”
I give her a sad smile. “I don’t know that. What if he is? He believes he is.”
She frowns.
“But I … I didn’t know. He has a wife and a daughter.”
“What kind of man leaves his family like that? Do they know about his cancer?”
Again, I slowly shake my head. “Mom, I didn’t know until today that he has a wife and child.”
She squeezes my hand. “Does Koen know about Price?”
With a nod, I gaze into the rearview mirror at the car behind me. “I have to go home.”
“What about dress shopping?”
“I can’t think about the future until I fix the past.”
Several hours later, Koen and my dad return home. While my mom makes dinner, I take a hot bath. After two soft knocks on the bathroom door, Koen cracks it open.
“There’s my beautiful bride. Do you think it’s bad form for me to join you when your parents are just a flight of stairs away?”
My gaze lifts to his.
“Why the sad face?” He sits on the edge of the tub.
“Price has a wife … and a daughter.”
Koen’s eyebrows draw together. “He what?”
I’m back to feeling numb. I’ve been in and out of this state all afternoon.
“Did you call him?”
“No.” Even my voice is numb and lifeless. “What would I say? Hey, did you know you have a wife and child?”
“More like, what the fuck are you doing?”
I grunt a painful laugh. “I’ll let you have that conversation with him.”
“What will your conversation with him be? Don’t pretend you’re not going to say anything.”
Here it comes, that wave of emotion that’s been out to sea for the past few hours. It’s ready to crash onto the shore, and I can do nothing to stop it because I can no longer keep this from Koen.
The tears come fast and hard before I get the first word out of my mouth. “I’m going to tell him about the baby.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
BECAUSE OF YOU, I HAVE HER.
Price
I might get a dog. Or steal this one.
Before I can formulate possible ways to keep another man’s Scrotum, there’s a knock at the door.
Scrot jumps off the sofa when I get up to answer. “They’re taking you back. Don’t tell them how many apples I’ve fed you.”
When I open the door, Scrot runs straight to Koen, standing several feet behind Scottie. She stares at my chest with a somber expression.
I glance at my shirt. Is there something on it?
“Call me when you’re ready,” Koen says, adjusting his baseball hat.
She doesn’t respond.
“Thanks for watching him.” Koen doesn’t make eye contact with me either before leading Scrot to the truck.
As soon as he begins to back out of my driveway, Scottie asks, “Can I come in?”