Page 66 of Forgiving Her First Love

He would have to tell Sophie. And this was going to hurt her worse than anything else he had ever done.

Chapter Fifteen

Sitting at the picnic table that overlooked the marina, Sophie was getting a blow-by-blow of the dinosaur exhibit, complete with Cooper wandering away at one point.

“Did you find him? Is he still lost?” Sophie lowered her cone to tease.

“He was in the gift shop.” Biyen’s lips were orange and black with the tiger stripe he’d ordered.

“Stopped my heart for a minute,” Reid admitted, drawing out his phone and frowning at whatever text he’d just received.

He handed it across to her so she could read that it was from Logan.

Take Biyen. I have to talk to Sophie alone.

Reid looked past her so Sophie glanced over her shoulder to see Logan walking toward them. He had his sunglasses on. His expression was impossible to read, but a preternatural chill swept through her, one that raised goosebumps all over her body.

Reid took his phone back and said to Biyen, “Let’s go see Trys. Logan wants to talk to your mom.”

“Work?” Biyen asked, making a face.

“Probably. I’ll see you in a minute.” She swung her legs out of the bench seat and stood as Logan approached the table. “What’s up?”

“Do you have the keys to the store?”

“Yeah.” She removed them from her pocket and offered them.

He took them and waved her to come with him.

“You’re being weird.” The ice cream started to feel like gravel and acid in her stomach. Her hands were going cold so she dropped the cone into the bin near the door and she followed him inside. “What’s up?”

He waited until the door jangled closed behind them, then locked it, and steered her to the stool behind the cash desk. He waved for her to sit on it.

“What?” She sat and tucked her feet on the rail, hands in her lap.

“I don’t know how to do this, Soph, so I’m just going to say it.” He took off his sunglasses, revealing red, agonized eyes. He swallowed. “Art has passed away.”

“What?” Another of those chilling sensations went through her. A cold wraith. Something that stole a big chunk of her soul on its way by.

“I found him in his chair. I don’t think he suffered. I think he just… stopped living. I’m so sorry, Sophie. I’m so so sorry.”

The pain in her hand was him squeezing it, she realized. She didn’t say anything about it, didn’t try to pull it away.

“But he was fine,” she insisted. He hadn’t been fine, though. He hadn’t been feeling well for weeks. “I was going to take him to the doctor this Thursday.”

“I know.”

“No.” She tried to stand up, but her legs were noodles. When he tried to catch her, to keep her from stumbling, her limbs stiffened in rejection. Not of him, but of this news. “You’re wrong. I’ll go—”

“Listen first,” he said, gentle, but firm, still holding on to her. “I called the hospital in Bella Bella. They said the coroner will come as soon as they can. A couple of hours maybe. You can go and sit in the house with him if you want to, but we can’t move him or anything. Okay? Do you understand?”

“You’re wrong, Logan.”

“I’m sorry, Sophie. I’m so sorry.”

“Stop saying that.” She shoved at his hands, forcing them off her, then she leaned weakly against the cash desk, realizing she was shaking so hard her bones were rattling.

She knew how to do this. She’d been through it before. Get a grip. But it hadn’t been like this. The last time she had had time to prepare herself, even though she hadn’t been prepared. Not really. She had known what to do, though, because she and her mother had talked about it. Gramps had been there to help her…

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