Page 93 of Stone

“It’s Jerome, Dad. I don’t know. Maybe a heart attack?”

“No!” I clapped my hands to my ears. I didn’t want to listen. Hearing the words made it real, but I didn’t want it to be real. It had to be a bad dream. I’d run past Dad while he ate breakfast just a couple of hours before. He seemed fine, healthy, and happy. How could it be? How could he be gone?

“Let’s get you outside, Elise,” Robert said softly. “My dad’s going to get your mom. We’ll meet her at the hospital.”

I looked up imploringly, my fingers digging into the sleeves of Robert’s jacket. “No. I can’t leave him. I don’t want him to be alone. I want to stay with him. Please, Robert, make them bring him back.”

My stare slashed back to Dad, and my heart sank.

The paramedics had stopped working on him. “No!” I shrieked, turning to them and holding my hands out imploringly. “Try again. Please try again.”

One of the men flashed me a grave look, and he shook his head. “We’ve done all we can. I’m sorry.”

Robert tugged me against him, his arms banding around me tightly. Warm hands rubbed up and down my back soothingly, and he began to whisper words of comfort.

Head bowing, I began to sob quietly. My knees buckled again as something powerful hit me square in the chest, making me physically flinch.

My dad was gone.

The funeral was held ten days later.

I sat in the front row of the church with Mom, holding her hand as if she was my lifeline and I was hers. She was the only person keeping me tethered to the earth. We were joined in our grief and our sadness.

It was an aneurism. The doctor told us it was quick, and he wouldn’t have known a thing about it. He didn’t suffer. It helped a little, but it didn’t bring him back, and it didn’t ease the ache splintering my heart.

Mom was doing okay. She was ever practical and seemed to know exactly what to do, whereas me, well, I fell apart, because as much as my daddy was strict and overprotective, he was still the first man I ever loved and the first man who ever loved me.

Staring at the casket—which was thankfully closed—I smiled as I thought about all the beautiful moments he gave me. Whenever I had a bad dream in the night, or scraped a knee, or fell off my bike, it was always him I went to because he simply made me feel so safe and protected. My dad was my security blanket, and without him, I was raw and exposed.

Losing a parent was a fact of life, but I wasn’t ready to let him go. He was only fifty-five; there were so many years ahead of us. Who would walk me down the aisle? Who would be a grandaddy to my kids? And who would grow old alongside my mom?

My world had always been a shade of beautiful sunshine-hazy, but now it had dulled.

But it was only the tip of the iceberg because life was about to take an even bigger nosedive. What I didn’t know then was that the Reaper wasn’t done with me yet.

Not by a long shot.

“What do you mean there’s no money?” Mom whispered.

Pink bloomed across Harry Stafford’s cheeks, and he dipped his chin sagely. “The business hadn’t been doing well last winter when the new Superstore opened in Mapletree. Jerome had to take out a second mortgage to keep everything afloat. Things had picked up, and he’d begun to pay it back, but then…” His voice trailed off.

“He dropped down dead from an aneurism,” I muttered flatly.

Mom’s hand squeezed mine.

“You have a small mortgage, which would be manageable,” Harry continued. “You have the option to keep the store running or sell it. You should have some money left over from the sale so that you can pay back a portion of the mortgage. Jerome had a small life insurance policy he paid into. You’ll be okay.”

“Would it be feasible to keep the store running between us?” I asked. “Maybe bring a manager in?”

Harry shrugged. “I don’t know. All the stores in town are currently feeling the pinch, Elise. The economy isn’t an easy one, and with all the new franchised stores being built in the surrounding towns and undercutting prices, the smaller, family-owned stores like yours are impacted. Think about it; do you truly want the battle? You could both get part-time employment and, between you, pay what’s left of the mortgage without all the stress of keeping a struggling business afloat.”

My spine hit the back of the couch, and I turned to Mom. “I’ll give up college and ask the mayor if I can work at his office. I’ve already learned enough to do what he needs, and I can pick up evening classes later if I need to.”

“No, Elise,” Mom breathed. “We’ll manage somehow.”

I stroked my thumb over hers. “College costs money we haven’t got. I’m not a child anymore. I can step up, Mom. Let me do my bit.”

She paused, and then her eyes slid to Harry. “How much have we got in the insurance policy?”

---