Page 17 of Keeping Happily Ever After

No.

Nothing and nobody else was as important as this.

“You can get that.” Bella nodded toward the phone on the coffee table.

Jeremy shook his head. “No, they’ll leave a message. Ignore it.”

The phone rang a few more times before it stopped.

Good. It had gone to voicemail.

“Sorry,” he said apologetically. “Tell me what you know. Where do you have to—”

Again, the phone rang out, shrill, between them.

Jeremy turned, ready to shut it off completely this time. But the caller ID caught his attention.

Charlotte.She still hadn’t returned his text from the night before, and although he’d been distracted all day, she’d still been on his mind.

And she never called. At least she hadn’t in months and knowing what he knew…

Jeremy looked at Bella and shook his head. “I’m sorry, it’s my sister. I have to get this.”

Just the way he knew she would, Bella nodded and smiled. “Of course. It’s not a problem. I’ll get us some more crackers.”

As soon as Bella stood, Jeremy snatched up the phone. “Charlotte? Is everything okay?”

“Jer?” His sister’s voice was thin and shaky. “Help.”

ChapterSix

“Okay,that’s the last of the boxes.” Bella slammed her trunk shut and wiped her hands together before turning to look at her mother, Lisa, who’d joined them in the packing and purging the day before. Bella had been working on packing up her grandfather’s house for more than a week, and could have used her mother’s help a whole lot earlier, but better late than never. And her mother could do the hard work now, actually moving Roy into his new place, while she spent some more time with Jeremy.

After their day biking around town, there hadn’t been much time to hang out. Not quality time, anyway. Bella had finally heard from Lewis with some of her preliminary pre-shooting schedule and it was a lot, to put it mildly. Things were about to get busy and she wanted to spend as much time as she could with Jeremy before things got crazy.

“That’s it?” her mother said beside her. “Are you sure? I didn’t think we’d ever finish in there.”

Bella turned and crossed her arms. “We? What is thisweyou’re talking about?” She laughed as she teased her mother. But that’s all it was, teasing. She’d enjoyed the time with her grandfather as they went through his things and sorted a lifetime of memories.

The Christmas ornaments he’d so lovingly collected over the years with Bella’s grandmother that meant so much had been carefully packed away with the promise that one day Bella was to have them all for a tree of her own.

She’d agreed despite the fact that she didn’t like to think ofone day.But she didn’t dwell on that. Instead, Bella enjoyed every moment of her grandfather’s company.

Roy was full of all kinds of stories, and he’d taken immense pleasure in sharing them all in great detail with Bella as they sorted, packed, and purged. Well, as mostlyBelladid the work while Roysupervised.His stories had definitely added time to the process, but Bella didn’t care. She wouldn’t have traded the time with Papa for anything. They’d created some more of their own memories in the little house, and she’d learned a lot about the man that she’d never known along the way.

She would never tell her, but Bella was a little disappointed that her mother had shown up because the dynamic between them had definitely changed. Lisa was much more efficient and down to business than Bella and Roy were on their own. It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing that she didn’t have time for the stories and memories, but Bella had enjoyed it.

“Okay, Dad,” her mom said from her own car, where she’d just finished loading the items that were making the move with Roy to his new place. “Is there anything else you can think of? Anything that might be hidden in a wall, under a floorboard, in the cellar…anywhere?”

Bella looked at her mother with a question.Why on earth would there be anything hiding in her grandfather’s house?

To her surprise, Papa shrugged casually, and then appeared to think about it before answering. “You got the files in the cubby in the back of the closet?”

Her mother nodded.

Bella’s eyes widened.

“And the jewelry, behind the stove?”

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