Page 40 of When to Call a Blitz

“You’re a good old southern boy?” she smiles.

“If you want to say that, sure.” I pause. “A southern boy with a northern mentality, I’ll just leave it at that,” I add. “We were being shown around, and afterwards, everyone told us weneeded to bring our significant others to the aquarium.” I smile at the thought.

“I had been down to Georgia a couple of times to visit theirs, but in my opinion there’s nothing like the National aquarium.”

“It’s a good one,” she says beside me, her gaze still forward at the sunset. “I’d love to go see the whale sharks though.”

I nod. “They’re definitely cool. Worth going to see for sure.”

“Did she love the aquarium?”

“She adored it. We had so much fun. She was pregnant at the time, and when we reached the top of the aquarium, where they have all the birds and things? I don’t know. I’ve never seen her look so happy. I knew that if I ended up here, I was going to bring her there all the time.”

“I love that,” Heidi says quietly.

I lick my lips. “When we were up there looking for some of the animals, a couple butterflies landed on her hand. She took it as a sign.”

“What kind of sign?” Heidi asks, but I know she probably already knows. We talked about it that night.

I swallow.

“A good omen of sorts,” I shrug. “I’m not super sure what all of that means, but McKenna was really into symbolism too. She said that they represented new beginnings,” I meet her eyes, remembering her exact words from that night, and the responses I couldn’t quite get out. “She was convinced from then on that we’d end up in Maryland.”

“And you did,” she whispers.

I nod. “I did.”

But she didn’t.

Taking a deep breath and shoving the tears threatening to escape down, I clear my throat. “What’s your favorite memory with your dad?”

“I think it was those long drives,” she says with a shrug. “I don’t know. There were a lot of really good memories. There was one time we went for a drive, and the sky was literally bright orange. I don’t think I’ve ever really seen anything like it.” She smiles, pulling at her fingers in her lap.

“We got out of the car and climbed onto the roof to watch it. I don’t think I’ll ever see anything like it again.”

A single tear falls from her eye as she looks at me, sucking at her lip. “It was a week before he passed away.”

“I’m sorry,” I tell her sincerely.

We’ve both known loss, both hitting in different ways, but both equally horrible.

She shrugs one shoulder. “Like I’ve said. Life happens. It’s just what you do with it that matters.”

“That’s true.”

“Can you be honest with me for a second?” she asks out of the blue.

“Sure.”

“Why did you ghost me?”

Fuck.

“I don’t do friendship well,” I say simply. “I think the more people you let in, the more people you have to lose.”

“You won’t lose me though,” she grabs my hand, her fingers warm and soft in my rough hands, and I close my eyes at the feeling.

I haven’t been touched in a long time.

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