Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 55395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 277(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
True to their word, the first time I called them two months into my new employment, needing a day off, they understood and said my job would be there the next day. I finally turned in my notice when I wouldn’t be there for days on end when things got worse. I could have put Dad in an assisted living facility. Naomi even encouraged it, and it wasn’t until I spilled the beans about Mom’s last request that she finally understood why I wouldn’t.
“Stop, there would have been nothing for you to do,” I tell her. Much like what we went through with Mom, similar happened with Dad. They both passed peacefully with hospice sitting outside the room at home.
“Still, I am sorry.” I swallow the clogging of emotion trying to pull me under. A couple more hours, then I can be done holding it all in.
“Don’t be, please. Tell me something good?” I ask her, playing the game we’ve been playing for years now. Whenever one of us is having a rough day, the other will ask this question.
“Well, there’s a hot man coming your way, ma chérie,” Naomi says, stepping away and moving toward my mother’s headstone. I watch from my peripheral vision as she squats down, being careful with her heels and skirt. She places a kiss from the tips of her fingers to my mother’s name before doing similar to my father’s. Then Naomi stands up, nods my way, and moves to a seat near the back of the tent the cemetery has set up.
“Hello, Miss Skye.” He extends his hand to take mine. I’m unsure who he is, but then again, I didn’t know most of the others.
“Hi, I’m sorry. I don’t know your name.” He’s an older gentleman, judging by his salt-and-pepper hair, the crinkles around his eyes, and the way he carries himself. I’d peg him somewhere around his late fifties or early sixties.
“That’s because we’ve never met. I’m your parents’ estate attorney, Scott Bennet. I would usually wait until a day or two later, except your mom made me keep a promise.” I let out a light laugh. That is so classically Melody Skye.
“I’d like to say I’m surprised, but I’m not.” I look around and notice mostly everyone is gone, minus the Marines, and now I’m feeling guilty for keeping them here as long as I have.
“Then it’ll come as no surprise to you that she wants you to restart your life. She’s asked that you donate the contents you don’t want, keep what you’d like, and I believe her words were, ‘be at peace and live as much of your life as you can.’” That sounds exactly like something she’d say. I’m sure Mom wouldn’t know the timing of how things would go. I start to tune the attorney out until he says, “There’s a home in Whispering Oaks. They’ve rented it to a long-term tenant for a while, but it’s currently sitting empty. Mrs. Skye mentioned you loved that place more than anything, and your father wouldn’t sell it when you moved away because of her.” I close my eyes, remembering the years we spent in the small town, living next door to my then best friend and boyfriend and love of my life, and making that pact of ours.
Jagger Steele assaults my memories one after the other again.
God, back then, life was so much simpler.
“Ma chérie, we must leave. Mr. Bennet said he’d follow up with you in a few days, but we really must let these fine men go.” It isn’t until I feel Naomi’s hand on the back of my elbow that I realize I’ve completely zoned out.
“Oh, right. Thank you.” I offer my hand to him again. He shakes it and then takes off.
The home we stayed in the longest growing up, one where I made friends, where life seemed to be going amazing. Then Dad came home with a look on his face I knew all too well. He shook his head, telling me everything without any words, and I did the one thing I probably shouldn’t have. I ran to Jagger, telling him the news and crying in his arms. I sometimes wonder where he is now, especially because we lost communication all those years ago.
Maybe he thought I was some silly girl, and when I brought it up to my mom, she mentioned boys get busy. Now, looking back, I’m pretty sure she’d been trying to make me feel better. Back then, I felt like my teenage heart was being torn in two. Jagger was my first real heartbreak, and those are the ones you never forget.
1
JAGGER
Present Day
Work, sleep, repeat, and in between those three things, I’ve been doing what I do best: looking for the only high that calms my nervous system, the next adrenaline-thumping, death-defying activity you can find. I’ve done a lot and seen a lot—swimming with sharks, bungee jumping, mountain climbing, and sky diving to name a few. All of those were tame compared to what I did last weekend, going silent, telling the guys I needed a weekend away and making sure no one knew what I was doing. It’s my usual way of operating, only this time, I was running from my past and a certain person: Lyric.