Page 2 of Inspiring Dominic

“It is,” she said, sniffling and choked with emotion. “Granddad passed away, Dom. I know you just got to Miami, but we need you to come home as soon as possible.”

“Say no more, sis. Headed to the airport now.”

As I rushed to the car, my heart was beating so fast, I kept clutching my shirt, grasping for anything I could.Shit,I just fucking left Rosewood Heights.Although being Chief Security Officer for Prescott Holdings required me to constantly travel, I spent most my time in my South Carolina hometown.

And I just spoke to Granddad.In fact, I’d recently gone to see him to play cards and shoot the shit like I’d been doing with him since I was young boy. One thing about Abraham Theodore Prescott, it didn’t matter how old he was, he could whip your ass in cards. He even won the last time we played.

It wasn’t until I was sitting on the plane that I realized the true reason I couldn’t get my breathing under control was a feeling that I was all too familiar with … guilt. I was the oldest grandchild. I should have been there. Ineededto be there. Logically, I knew that one man couldn’t be everywhere at once, but I’d never imagined Granddad would pass away when I wasn’t in Rosewood Heights to be by his side. Even worse, what would I do to help my parents and siblings through this?

The Funeral

DOMINIC

Tears. Heartache. Sorrow. Words that didn’t bother me much when separated, but when placed together represented an entire feeling that all boiled down to one key word … grief.

I’m not a fan of funerals, and unfortunately, at thirty-eight, I’d been to more than my fair share and lost too many. Friends who enlisted in the military gone too early and others to diseases we thought wouldn’t affect us until our fifties. Some had died in ways I didn’t even let myself think about.

The January service was everything my granddad had wanted, and in addition to all the locals who attended, anyone who’d ever lived in Rosewood Heights was in town to honor him.

Looking around the repast that was being held at Rosewood Estates, I peered through the crowd trying to see if I could spot any members from my family, but came up short. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been with them all day, it was just that I wanted to make sure they were okay.

We all hadn’t been in the same space in a while, but I had to admit, as bittersweet as it was, it was nice to have everybody here. It was in those moments earlier when we were all standing in the pew behind my parents that I really got to observe my siblings and witness the pain and confusion about the future in their eyes.

Cooper, my brother who could charm the pants off a nun, but couldn’t see how uniquely special he was to the Prescott family. Hunter, the one who hadn’t had it easy and suffered more in his quiet moments than he’d ever admit to us.

Then there was Maverick, the brother I spent the most time with growing up who was a bit of an asshole, but also the one too smart for his own damn good. Yet, there were layers people often missed.

Lil’ sis, Ava, the glue that kept us together whether she saw herself that way or not. I may have been the one to check on my brothers the most over the years, but Ava was the one who held a soft spot in all our hearts.

I took a swig of my drink —an Old Fashioned in honor of one of Granddad’s favorite cocktails— as the woman who owned the antique store in town approached me to offer her condolences.

“Ms. Parkins, are you going to bring this up at the next town hall meeting?” I asked, after she rattled off about how she hated the bus stop being in front of her store.

“I most certainly am,” she said. “However, there are other matters to discuss that I think the Prescott family should be aware of beforehand.”

“Okay, what would those be?” I asked, not really wanting to have this discussion on the day we buried Granddad, but knowing she would eventually track me down to tell me anyway. The Prescotts were one of the founding families of Rosewood Heights and the most prominent family still residing in town. With that title came certain responsibilities that couldn’t be ignored if we tried. The townsfolk didn’t just want to talk to any Prescott though. They wanted to talk to one of the Prescotts who would actually listen to their problems, which sometimes meant Ava, but more often, they wanted to talk to me, the oldest grandchild.

As a joke growing up, my dad called me DomiFix because I was constantly helping my younger siblings with their issues. Since Ava had been my shadow back in the day, she was the most like me in the family and damned if I wasn’t proud about that. With all the pressure of being a Prescott, our family needed two fixers. Problem was, Ava could cut it off when she needed to focus on herself, her family, or friends. Me, on the other hand, I didn’t have a cutoff switch, and at times it felt like the weight of the world was on my shoulders.

“Did you get all that?” Ms. Parkins asked, breaking my thoughts.

“I did, and I’ll do what I can.”

She gently slapped my cheek. “Such a good young man. Good ole’ Abe did good in training you.”

I was still shaking my head when a few of my friends and brother-in-law approached.

“Ms. Parkins giving you a hard time?” Owen, Ava’s husband, asked.

“No more than usual.”

“Well, she hit up Ava a few minutes ago,” he informed. “But Ava was distracted, and I’m sure Ms. Parkins didn’t like that. She just didn’t want to deal with Rosewood stuff on a day like this. So, she occupied herself with the kids, and of course, she’s been worrying about you, your parents, and your brothers.”

Owen and I were friends before he fell in love with my sister, and our friendship had only grown stronger since they married.

Smiling, I shook my head. “I swear, she may be the baby of the family, but she worries more about us than Mama does sometimes.”

“It’s in her DNA,” my friend, Alex, who was also married to one of Ava’s best friends, Mackenzie, stated. “Ava is always checking on Mac, and every time I walk into Mac’s home office, she’s talking with the ladies about something, but Ava is usually the one leading the wellness checks.”

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