Page 66 of Another Postcard

David Hawk

Beloved husband and father.

That time, I actually snorted out loud.Beloved is a bit of a stretch.

“Do you assholes know what you did to her?” I snapped. “What you did to me?” I yelled this time.

Remember how we talked about movie moments? They aren’t always sappy and lovey-dovey. Sometimes, they are full of hurt and rage. Well, I had one right then. At the very moment every emotion I’d been hiding from came crashing down on me, thunder boomed so loud it shook the ground. Then the sky opened up and rain drenched me from head to toe in seconds. The rain stung my skin as it pelted me, hard and cold, but I barely felt it beyond the agony that had been unleashed inside me.

“Dying young was too good for you,” I spit. “You should’ve had to live the rest of your motherfucking lives in the same way you lived the beginning of it. Minus the poor defenseless children unfortunate enough to have your fucking genes. The ones whose lives you continued to shit on from the fucking grave!” I was screaming now. And, I didn’t give one fuck about it.

“I hurt her, do you understand? Because of you, I hurt her. Now she mixes me up with you fuckers in her head! Can’t you leave me the fuck alone?”

38

Levi

Ipulledthe car over a few feet from the dark sedan hidden by a crop of trees. Grabbing my umbrella, I braved the torrential rains and quickly jogged to the darkened windows. Using the umbrella to shield myself and the person inside the window, I knocked and it slid down.

“What the fuck is she doing out there?” I yelled to be heard over the rain. “You’re supposed to protect her. If she gets pneumonia and dies, you won’t have done your jobs very well, fellas.”

Luca glanced in Brooklynn’s direction and then back. “This just didn’t seem like the right time to step in.”

I peered over the car and saw her staring at a grave or graves. She was making jerky movements and as everything tuned out but the rain, I could faintly hear her voice. Shit, she had to be fucking screaming for me to hear her from that far away in the roaring rain. “Is she where I think she is?”

Luca nodded.

“Fuck,” I sighed.

I’d waited long enough, I was done with this shit, being away from her was slowly killing me. I’d stayed away for the rest of our tour in Europe and we’d finally gotten stateside a couple of days ago. Sasha had some crazy ideas throughout this whole ordeal and I’d shot down most of them, but when she blew into my hotel room the other day, she brought gold.

I ran back to my car and quickly grabbed the papers I’d brought, sticking them in the inside pocket of my coat. Then I made my way toward my woman. As I got closer, it confirmed I’d been right. She was screaming at their graves. I couldn’t say I blamed her after the kind of life they’d given their daughters.

She appeared to have screamed herself out because by the time I was only a few steps away, she was silently staring at them, her shoulders slumped. I still heard her tears though, her small sniffles and the occasional sob. Every natural instinct I had begged to go and comfort her. But, she wasn’t ready for that. She was still grieving everything that had happened and coming to grips with her upbringing, finally letting go of it.

I was positive that she needed to rediscover the Brooklynn I fell in love with, not that I didn’t love this one too. I loved every fucking part of her, but she’d lost the confident, sassy woman somewhere in the clusterfuck that was our lives. So, I was doing the only thing I could think of to help her find herself again.

“Brooklynn.” I had to call her name loudly so she would hear me. She gasped and whirled around, slipping in the mud and landing on her ass on the wet ground.

“Fuck, baby. I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” I said as I tossed my umbrella down and reached out a hand to help her up. “Are you all right?” We were both soaked through, so I didn’t bother picking up my umbrella again.

“Couldn’t get any worse,” she shrugged. “So, yeah, I guess I’m okay.”

Luca and Cameron had been thorough in their reports over the last two months and the lifelessness in Brooklynn’s eyes in every picture they sent broke my fucking heart all over again. I was filled with relief when I wasn’t met with that same empty look. I hated to see her in pain, but it was better than knowing she wasn’t feeling anything at all. I needed her to open herself up again, to lay her heart vulnerable like I was willing to do. To give it to one other person wholly and completely to care for.

“Um, thank you for everything you—”

“Stop,” I cut her off. “I don’t want your gratitude.”

“Okay.” She turned to glance at the graves once more then plodded away toward the little road where our cars were parked.

I quickly caught up and grabbed her arm, spinning her around to face me. “That’s not why I’m here.”

“Then why are you here, Levi?” she asked coldly, her head down, refusing to meet my eyes.

Taking her chin between my thumb and forefinger, I forced it up so she was looking at me. “Your time is up.”

She shook her head like she hadn’t heard me right. “Pardon?”

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