Page 52 of Ebbing Tides
“Oh wow,” Melanie replied. “That’s a big gap.”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” he said with a guffaw. “Trust me, we were surprised too. But it’s all good. Hey, Max told me you were here for a little bit. When do you leave?”
“We’re heading home on Sunday.”
“Hmm …” He rubbed a hand over his chin and flicked his eyes toward mine. “Either of you have plans for Saturday?”
Saturday. Her last full day here. It was also the one night a week I had off. Sid knew this, and I glared at him, fire and brimstone shooting from my eyes through the phone screen. He was trying to make plans, trying to meet her in the flesh, andwhy? I might’ve been trying to play a trick on my heart, but why play one on us all?
I began to shake my head and say, “I don’t know—” when Melanie cut me off and said, “Nothing I can think of.”
“You guys wanna come by and bring the kids? I can call up Lucy and Ricky, see what they have going on.”
I widened my eyes with a warning. He caught my expression and answered with a wink.
Asshole.
“I’ll have to make sure Charlie and Stormy don’t have anything planned, but—”
“Bring ‘em,” Sid said. “The more, the merrier.”
Melanie laughed, taken aback, but still, she smiled. “Okay.”
“Excellent.” He glanced at me again and nodded affirmatively. “I’ll see you on Saturday, brother.”
My eyes were slow to blink as I sighed and said, “Saturday.”
“Bring your mutt.”
“Always,” I replied softly, a strike of gratitude piercing my heart. Remembering that day he and Grace had brought that squirming black puppy to my door years ago.
“Love you, man.”
His fist pounded his chest, and I sighed before pounding mine.
“Love you too.”
He offered Melanie a smile, and then the call ended.
I groaned and threw the phone to the side, letting it clatter against my desk. My palm rasped over my scalp as I began to agonize over this woman and her kids meeting my sisters and brothers-in-law. The hope she’d bring them, the answer to a prayer they’d had for years that I’d find happiness once again in this cruel life, only for it to be torn away less than a day later.
God, what the hell had Sid been thinking? Was there even a brain in that thick skull of his? The man wasn’t stupid—I knew that much—but holy—
“Hey,” Melanie whispered, pressing her palm to the side of my face, guiding my eyes to look into hers. “Pretend I’m not leaving.”
Sparks ignited where her skin touched mine, and I lifted my hand to lay it over hers. I leaned in to graze the tip of my nose against hers, dropping my gaze to her full, parted lips.
“That’s right,” I muttered in reply, my voice gruff, choked by an ache already swelling in my chest. “I almost forgot.”
She swallowed, her breath hitching as a barely noticeable tremor passed through her bottom lip … but I saw. These trivial details that would’ve slipped by the eye of anyone else, all so important and crucial to me, as if every one of them meant something … because they did.
How often did I long to remember exactly the way Laura had sighed after taking a sip from a good cup of tea? How many times did I beg my brain to recall exactly what she’d said on our wedding night, the moment we were finally alone? None of them truly mattered in the grand scheme of this great big, wild, horrible world, but they all seemed to matter so, so, so much in mine … yet I couldn’t remember a single one of them. What if I’d just paid closer attention? What if I’d made it a point to catalog each and every one of those tiny, insignificant moments, knowing that one day, far too soon, they’d all be stolen away from me with her last breath?
I hadn’t known when Laura would be taken from me. I hadn’t known to pay attention. But with Melanie, I did. I had her departure from my life down to the fucking minute, and, dammit, I was going to memorize every single one of her tiny moments. Dammit, I was going to try, try,tryto remember this time.
“You’re not leaving,” I murmured, closing the distance between our open lips for a single beat of my heart before tearing them apart, only to thrust my fingers into her tangled hair and press my forehead to hers. “In my heart, I’m keeping you forever.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
