Page 26 of Sugar Coated Secrets

As I walk in the front door, Mary is already getting her things together. “I’m home,” I call out.

“Hi, sweetheart.” Mary greets me with a smile.

“How is she?” I ask with a worried expression, my stomach in knots.

“Hanging in there,” she says with a polite smile.

These past few months, my grandmother has been getting worse. I know it’s only a matter of time. She has lasted way longer than expected since the doctor put her on hospice the last time he saw her. He gave her six months, and that was four months ago.

“Is she awake?” I ask hopefully. She is usually asleep after her dose of pain meds when I make it home late. I had to stay later than usual to place an order for more supplies since Ford bought me out.

“Yeah, I think she’s waiting for her bath.”

Grandma met Mary at the doctor’s office when she went in for a routine checkup. On the twenty-ninth of June, the day of my parents’ wedding anniversary, the doctor diagnosed her withcancer. In my sophomore year of high school, she started chemo, and things began to go downhill fast.

“Alright, I’ll get to it,” I tell her, placing my bag on the chair right outside her room. “Could you lock up for me?”

“Sure thing, love,” she says, walking toward the front door. “If you need me?—”

“You’re a phone call away,” I finish for her.

She puts on her sweater and grabs her keys. “Dulce?”

“Yes?” I ask, masking the emotions clogging my throat whenever I walk home. I know it’s only a matter of time before she’ll be gone.

“Are you…okay?” she asks with a worried expression.

“I’m fine,” I lie.

“Don’t forget to get a checkup at the doctor, you hear?”

I swallow thickly. “I know. I mean, I will.”

“Good.” She smiles. “I’ll be here in the morning.”

“Oh…um, Mary?”

She pauses before she closes the front door. “Yes, love?”

“Could you stay with her a little later Friday night?”

“Is everything okay?”

I lick my lips nervously. I’ve never asked her to stay later, especially on a Friday night. I owe it to her to tell her why. She was there for me when?—

“I promised Dan—Officer Mays—I would go out to dinner with him on Friday.”

Her brows gently rise. “Oh…” Her eyes twinkle. “Is it a date?”

A flush creeps up my neck. “I think so.”

“You finally accepted.”

I accepted before Ford showed up when I was making the batch of cookies.

“I did.”

It’s no surprise. Everyone knows Danny, and all the ladies are drawn to him. Some call the police station to report things,hoping he shows up to the call. There is no doubt that he is handsome. The kind of man who makes you feel safe.

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