Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
He was about to stand when she shocked him by throwing her arms around him and bursting into tears.
She was crying. Tasha didn’t cry. She was stoic, and now she was sobbing and she hadn’t asked him for comfort. She’d simply gone on instinct and hugged him.
He wrapped his arms around her and let her cry.
When he looked up, his wife was crying, too.
Progress was a beautiful thing.
* * * *
Month Ten
Ian woke. He sat straight up in bed, absolutely certain that someone was watching him.
It was an instinct, a cold prickle up his spine, and he lay there for a moment listening, his eyes shut because if someone was in the room he wouldn’t give himself away.
He was still, but all he heard was the hum from the ceiling fan and Charlie sighing in her sleep.
Was he being paranoid? He hadn’t been sleeping well since the doctor had told him he would have to go through testing to figure out what was wrong with his heart.
His heart. Fuck. He couldn’t have a heart attack in the middle of a pandemic.
There was nothing to worry about. He was still sleeping and this was a dream, and wouldn’t it be nice to walk outside? It was a lovely night. He could go out to the back porch and sit for a while and everything would be okay.
He found himself sitting up in bed before he even questioned it. What the hell was he doing? He started to crawl back under the covers, but the urge to go outside overwhelmed him.
Something was wrong, but he still dragged on pajama bottoms and pulled a T-shirt over his head. He still found himself walking down the hallway. The world seemed surreal as he unlocked the security system and let himself out on the patio.
“Hello, Tag,” a deep voice said.
Ah, he was dreaming. He had to be because Sasha was standing in his backyard, dressed all in black and without a bullet hole in sight.
He was sure Kai would tell him this dream was a long time coming. It had only been last month that he’d made his breakthrough with Tasha. Somehow the long days of this seemingly never-ending pandemic had worked to bond them all as a family in a way he wondered might not have been possible without it. They’d been forced to go through this together, forced to focus on their family every single day, and Tasha had become a part of them. She smiled more, laughed often, and she’d started joking around. Just this morning she’d saucily told Charlie that when she went back to school, Charlie would miss her because of all the free labor.
That front was going well. He was worried it was all about to fall apart.
So it wasn’t surprising that he would dream about Tasha’s biological father.
It was a bit surprising that the man’s eyes seemed to glow, but again, his brain was kind of fucked up. “Hey, Sasha. How’s the afterlife?”
Sasha’s lips turned up in a smile Ian had never seen before. Sasha smirked. He never looked happy, but now there was something peaceful about the man. “Well, it is far more active than I would have imagined. Why do I always find myself in the middle of wars? I think it is my fate. How is my little fish?”
Ian sighed and sat down at the big table they had by the pool. Though it was winter, December in Texas could go any of a dozen ways. It was a warm night, the moon full overhead. “She’s good. She’s settled in and seems happy. She’s…man, I have no idea how we functioned without her. She’s the peacekeeper. We’re all tired of being stuck in the house, but it’s made us closer. It’s a weird time, but I think we needed it.”
Sasha looked toward the house as though he could see inside. “She seems very happy. I’ve looked in on her once before. She seems happier now. Healthier. I wanted to see her one last time before I go.”
“Have you been hanging around to watch over her?” It was a sweet thought, that Sasha could be sure his darling girl was all right.
“It’s more complicated than that. So is the world, though you shouldn’t worry about that part.” Sasha sat down across from him. “I must move forward. I hoped to stay a while longer, but we can’t anymore. It’s time to leave this plane.”
And move on to the afterlife. To something like heaven. Ian wasn’t sure he believed in the whole harps and angels thing, but he believed something happened, and he didn’t think it was bad. Punishment was meant for this life. He couldn’t imagine a god on high sentencing souls to eternal damnation.
After all, what was God if not a father?
“I hope you find peace,” Ian said. “You should know your brothers have.”