Page 10 of Turkey Trouble

He’s handcuffed to a man I’ve never seen before in my life.

“What the hell is going on?”

ARCHER

“The street is filling.” I see my beautiful wife. The terror in her eyes, and the fury beating right behind it. But then I look to Phil, the dude who no longer wants to live, and stay right here. “We knew it would, right?”

“I could have jumped already.” His voice trembles with fear. Not necessarily the cold, though snow slowly drifts down and settles in our laps. “It didn’t have to become this huge thing where everyone came out to watch.”

“They’re not here towatchyou. They’re here to help you.” I gift him my kindest smile and watch, from the corner of my eyes, as Micah and Felix lean into each other to talk. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised they’re right here in Copeland. Felix asked for Thanksgiving, and so, he’s taking Thanksgiving. “These people want you to live.” I give him my attention. My eyes. My trust that he won’t jump and pull me over with him. “These feelings you’re experiencing are temporary. Jumping…” I sigh. “Isn’t.”

“But I’m already dying,” he cries. It’s soft and sad and so fucking pathetic, it tugs at my soul. “They’ve given me three months.”

“So live your three months.” I wrap my hand around the lip of the hospital roof and lean to my left, gently knocking his shoulder with mine. “They could be your worst three months. Or your best,” I offer. “They’re whatever you make of them. But jumping means there’s just nothing. It’s lights out.”

“They won’t be three good months,” he sniffles. “They’ll be painful and expensive. They’ll end with me unable to walk or talk or go to the toilet.” He noisily swallows the lump in his throat. “They’ll end with a massive debt for my daughter to take care of.”

“They won’t. You deserve?—”

“My daughter deserves! We don’t have insurance, Malone. It’s gone. My job is gone. My savings are gone. Bella’s mother took the house and the dog and my car and everything else she could get her hands on. She took my daughter. I’m dying, and if I do it the way you’re saying I should, then the hospital bills will roll in and her last memories will be of me… rotting in my own skin and dying in a shitty bed. My legacy will be debt collectors digging away at whatever scrap of value I still have. My baby deserves better.”

“She deserves these three months with you. She chose her mom. For whatever reason, she made that choice. But it’s one she’ll regret once you’re gone.”

“But—”

“You have the chance of being in her life before it’s too late. Besides, science isn’t perfect. You might have six months, or a year, or forever. You can’t know, and if you jump, it’ll always be a question unanswered.”

“If I stay, I condemn my daughter to poverty for the rest of her life.”

“We’re not that high up!” Frustrated, I gesture to the street. “If you jump, you’ll probably just break your legs and need surgery. You won’t be dead enough for them not to resuscitate you, so they’ll bring you back, you’ll still get your three months,but now you’ll have additional debt piling on top because of the leg thing. You’ll drag me down, too.” I lift our joined hands and jiggle the steel holding us together. “Then you’ll be responsible for my debt, too. I have a beautiful wife. I have a really great family.” I look down at a fuming Minka and wink. “She’s not as mean as she looks.”

He follows my gaze and studies Minka’s mean-mugging expression. Her folded arms and the tap-tap-tap of her bare foot as she works through her anxiety.

“She’s yours? The one in the hoodie?”

I drag my lip between my teeth and nod. “She’s my everything.”

“She’s not wearing shoes. She must be freezing.”

I chuckle and bring my eyes back to him. “Yeah. I’ll tear her up for that later. Then I’ll wrap her in blankets and remind her why she said yes to me at our weddings.”

Curious, his brows pinch together. “Weddings?”

“Two of them. She married me twice. Which either makes her incredibly devoted, or ridiculously stupid. She’s chief medical examiner down at the George Stanley, which implies she’s not stupid at all, so…”

“Lucky you,” he grumbles. “Makes you a very fortunate man.”

“Luck you, too. Because if you jump and have the good fortune to die, you’ll have the best M.E. this city has to offer. And since she’s already on site, she’ll get to you before the snow cools your body.”

“You’re not very good at this.” He looks down at the street. “Aren’t you supposed to tell me how brave and kind and wanted I am?”

“Am I?”

“Instead, you tell me about the M.E. who’ll cut me up.” He brings red-rimmed eyes to mine. “She’ll find cancer in there. Lots of it.”

“Yeah.” I draw a long sigh and think of my dad, the murderous bastard. He, too, died of cancer. “If that’s what your doctors said, then I suppose you’re right. She’ll find cancer. Doesn’t mean you should die today. There are some folks inside this hospital who are flatlining right now. Bet they wish they had three more months.”

He sniffs and swipes tears from the tip of his nose.

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