Page 37 of A Very Miller-Cooper Life

Carter shook her head. “It’s not nice to call people names.”

Nana leaned in close and rubbed her nose against Carter’s. “You’re right, sweetie. It’s normally not. But certain people in this family deserve it.”

“I think I’ll just be nice to everyone,” Carter said with a shrug.

I hugged her tight up against me and kissed the top of her head. This little girl was way too good for this world. I lookedacross the room to where her brother and sister were taking turns jumping off of a chair to see who could go further and laughing hysterically each time one of them landed on anything other than their feet.Well, one out of three ain’t bad.

An hour (and a lot of water chugging later), Nana asked if I could give her a ride home. It made more sense for Charlie’s parents to take her since they were going to the same place, but I could tell she wanted the extra time with me, so there was no way I was going to say no. After cleaning up, Charlie took the kids in her car and I took Nana in mine.

As soon as I started driving, Nana put her hand on top of my hand that was resting on the middle console. “I wanted to thank you personally for doing that for me today.”

My heart swelled at the sincerity in her voice. It wasn’t often that Nana was serious, so the fact that she was being so open had my heart on the edge of bursting. “It was a joint effort.”

“That’s not what I heard. Everyone else, even the assholes in this family who don’t particularly like you, told me that it was all you.”

“It’s what you deserved. Ever since that first summer, you always made me feel like family. That’s more than can be said for most of the Millers.”

“As the oldest living member of the family, I feel like I need to take the blame for that.”

My eyes darted to her face to see if she was smirking, because she couldn’t be serious. Much to my surprise, there wasn’t even the slightest hint of a smile. “Bullshit. You’re like the most amazing person ever. You don’t even deserve to be associated with the majority of the assholes in your family, let alone take the blame for their decisions.”

“Hate breeds hate. That’s what they say.”

I shook my head. There was no way she could ever convince me she was to blame for her terrible relatives. “Andyou’re the most loving person I know, so clearly it wasn’t you. You’re too good for this family, honestly.”

“So are you, you know. Charlie and Jamie are too, so I’m glad you busted into our lives and stuck around through all the craziness. They need you.”

Thinking about my two best friends—my favorite people in the entire world—had me fighting to hold back my tears. “I need them, too.”

“Promise me something?” Nana squeezed my hand once again. “When I’m gone, please take care of them for me.”

“You mean you’re not going to live forever?” I forced out a laugh because I knew if I didn’t laugh, I woulddefinitelycry. The last thing I wanted to think about was a world without Nana. She was everything good in this world packaged in a small but fierce old woman.

“Sweetie, when you get to be my age, you realize that immortality ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. The more I see of this world, the more I want to leave it.” We were both silent for a minute, and I figured the conversation was over until she spoke again. “As long as you can promise you’ll take care of my babies.”

I swallowed hard, a heavy lump forming in my throat over the turn this conversation had taken. “I promise.”

Nana might not like the idea of immortality, but selfishly, that’s exactly what I wanted for her.

Chapter 9

Charlie

You should skip this chapter…

It had only been two weeks since my Nana’s birthday and I was itching to get back to my hometown again. Since I normally avoided Maryland like the plague, I had no idea why I was feeling such a strong pull to go back. My thoughts kept circling back to my nana and how I needed to spend more time with her. Her big hundredth birthday celebration was the worst reminder of how little time I had left with her, and I didn’t want to have any regrets once I (heaven forbid) did lose her.

“Would you hate me if I went back to Maryland this weekend?” I asked Reagan as we sat together and watched TV after all of the kids were asleep.

“I don’t hate you, and I’m coming too,” Reagan said without hesitation. “We all are.”

Luckily, Jamie and Ethan were more than okay with a few last minute house guests, so a few days later, we went to stay with them.

I called Nana as soon as we arrived and felt a strange sense of relief when I heard her voice on the other end of the phone. “Hey, Nana. I was just wondering if you wanted to get dinner with just Reagan and I tonight. Jamie and Ethan volunteered to watch our kids for some reason.”

“They must have a death wish.” Nana laughed her trademark laugh and it breathed life back into me. “But I do want to see those three rascals, so I’ll have your dad drop me off at Jamie’s house before we go. It’s a double positive for me because I can make sure I don’t starve to death waiting on you two.”

I told Nana to be at Jamie’s house at four-thirty, so she arrived right on time (for her) at four o’clock.

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