Page 24 of Edge

“When I told my mother that I was moving in with Grandma, she wasn’t happy about it and refused to help me pay for college.It wasn’t a huge deal to me since I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do anyway. So, for the first two years I was in Florida, I worked as a housecleaner for a company that cleaned vacation rentals. Once I had enough money saved, I paid for my classes and became a certified phlebotomist.”

“You’re a phlebotomist?” he asked in surprise.

“Yes,” I said and reached out to run my finger over one of the many prominent veins in his forearm. “Sorry, I’ve been dying to do that. You have juicy veins.”

He chuckled. “Was that supposed to sound dirty? Because it did.”

“It did, didn’t it?” I laughed.

“You can poke my juicy veins later,” he teased. “How’d you end up back in Fairbanks?”

“This is where the story goes downhill. I’d been working at the hospital drawing blood for about six months when I met Austin. We started dating and things became serious. A year later, we got an apartment together. We’d been living together for almost two years when my grandmother started showing signs of dementia. As things progressed, I started spending more and more time at her house, sometimes staying the night two or three times a week. One night, I told Austin I was staying with Grandma and wouldn’t be home. Later, I realized I didn’t have any clean clothes with me and needed to run home to get something to wear to work the next day.”

“Oh, no,” Edge said knowingly.

“Oh,yes. I walked in on Austin screwing some girl on our couch.”

“What did you do?”

“Honestly, nothing. I got what I needed and left. He tried to talk to me, but I refused to speak to him. I didn’t want to have that conversation in front of the stranger he was cheating on me with, and I didn’t want to leave my grandmother alonefor the time a conversation of that nature would take. So, the next day at work, I told my boss what happened, and she gave me the following day off to move out. Austin came home from work while I was loading the last of my stuff into my car and asked if we could talk. I agreed, even though there was nothing he could say to change my mind. Basically, he said he was lonely and blamed me for spending so much time taking care of my grandma.” I started to laugh and paused for a moment to get myself under control. “I’m sorry, but I can laugh about this part now. He actually thought his actions were justified,and I was the one being unreasonable.”

“You’re not serious.”

“Yes, I am. He was right, and I was wrong. When I told him how ridiculous he was, he doubled down. I told him we’d have to agree to disagree and left.”

“What an asshole.”

“I completely agree.”

“Then what happened?”

“I spent the next few years working and taking care of my grandma. Her condition progressed, and she eventually needed more care than I could provide. The handful of facilities my grandmother could afford were awful. My mom claimed she couldn’t afford to help pay for her care, so I used what savings I had and got a second job so she could go to one of the nicer places. For two years, I lived at her house, worked my ass off, and spent whatever free time I had with her.”

“So, you decided to move back after she passed?” he asked.

“Not exactly. I probably would have stayed in Florida if things happened differently, but they didn’t.”

“You don’t have to tell me the rest if you don’t want to,” he said sincerely.

“It’s okay. I’ll just give you the highlights.”

“Sounds good.”

“The town we lived in got hit by a hurricane. The nursing home moved the residents to another facility that was in a safer location. Or so they thought. That town flooded, and the building my grandmother was in collapsed. She was one of the residents who didn’t make it.”

“Oh, Evie, I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, me, too. I wasn’t ready to let her go, but I’m glad she’s at peace now.”

“You said your town got hit by the hurricane. Was your house okay?”

“Nope. The house was completely destroyed. Since my grandmother was dead, the insurance payout went to the next of kin—my mother. She kept the money instead of rebuilding, leaving me without a place to live. I’d spent everything I had paying for the nursing home, so there wasn’t much I could do. My mother was gracious enough to allow me to move back in with her until I could get on my feet again. Her words, not mine. So, that’s how I ended up back in Fairbanks.”

“And you moved in with Randall to get out of your mother’s house as fast as possible,” he finished for me.

“Pretty much. And you know what happened after that. It feels like I keep having to start over every couple of years, and it’s exhausting,” I admitted.

“Maybe this time will be the last time.”

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