Page 25 of From Rivals to I Do

stuff, and my taxes.”

“But you’ve got a smartphone, right?” Mitch asks.

“Well sure, of course I do,” I reply with a nod. “I’m getting old, but I’m no fossil,” I say with a chuckle.

“Then you should put yourself out there on that app,” Mitch replies. “I’m telling ya, it’s real easy to use.”

“So, you’ve tried it?” I ask, raising an eyebrow, finding it a bit weird that he’d already checked it out, but trying desperately not to

judge.

“Not exactly,” Mitch replies. “I made a profile and such but nothing major. I mean, it’s only been a year since I lost Darlene. . . but I

know someday I will. Because I know that, like Mel, Darlene would want me to be happy. Darlene told me so herself.”

“Hmm,” I say with a little nod as Mitch gets up, stretches, and begins to yawn. “Sorry to gab and run, but I’m beat.”

“It’s alright, I should get to bed soon myself,” I say.

“Just consider what I said, alright?” Mitch replies.

“Yeah, sure,” I say with a nod as Mitch walks out of the hallway, his footfalls echoing in the quiet house, followed by his door clicking

closed.

Maybe he’s got something there, I think as I sit in my chair, hands gripped into the arms of it. It has been a decade, the boys are growing up, soon it’ll be an empty nest here I reckon. Well, unless I hire and board more workers. . .

I pull my phone out of my breast pocket, look up the app on the store, and wait for it to download. The whole while that I watch the

little downloading line tick closer and closer, I can feel myself getting anxious.

What am I doing? I ask myself. Isn’t doing this like spitting on Mel’s grave? She was my everything. . . Am I really ready to do this?

As I wrestle with myself, I remember a conversation we’d had one night. The stars in the sky had twinkled big and bright as we talked

about the future while Zack and Noah were cooking in her belly—though we didn’t know quite yet that we were having twins.

She’d said to me that if anything ever happened to her, she’d want me to live. She would want me to take care of the boys and be

happy, and if that meant finding someone new, then it did.

At the time, I’d laughed it off, kissed her, and told her that’s never going to happen. But never came, and now, I’m thinking Mitch might be right. It’s unhealthy for a man to grieve as long as I have.

I make a profile, answer a gaggle of silly questions that they say will help match you to your perfect mate, and I take a selfie to upload.

But when I go to put the picture up, it refuses to load.

Guess I’ll have to do that later, I think to myself, heading off to bed. I’m not sure that I’ll even find anyone on there interesting enough to

catch my eye, I think to myself as I look out the window. But I suppose it might be nice to have a woman’s touch around here again.

Chapter seven

Chapter Seven

Another sleepless, frustrating night, I think to myself as I watch TV, trying to find something to hopefully bore myself asleep.

Tomorrow’s my first day at the new hospital, Thistleberry General, and though I’m nervous about the new gig, that’s not the only thing

---