Page 7 of Prince of Storms
I smiled. “It means a lot to my dad. And you know I love him.”
“Oh, I know. A big daddy’s girl. Not that I’m surprised. Dougie is a pretty cool dude.”
“Damn straight he is!” I said with a laugh.
“So. Now that we’ve talked about the car. Back to your life. Are you gonna download Tinder now or something? Whatever is current?”
My smile faded into a frown. “You certainly are pushing this, Al.”
“Yeah. I need someone to live through vicariously,” she said. “Life is great with Tim and Axel. It really is. But we’re still early enough in that Axel dominates the world. I’m missing out on the husband-wife relationship and being able to date one another. Don’t get me wrong, we’re fine, and it’s starting to come back, but I want to live a bit more wildly through you. Spice it up.”
“Spice it up,” I said deadpan. “So, what? You want me to tell you all the terrible things guys say they’ll do to me as pickup lines, then use them on Tim?”
“Pretty much,” Ally said with a laugh.
I groaned. “You’re ridiculous.”
“So, you’re gonna do it?” she said eagerly. “It’s spelled T-i-n-d—”
“Get out of here!”
We laughed together until it faded into silence.
“I’ll think about it,” I said finally.
And I would. But I couldn’t escape the one question in my head.
How likely am I to meet someone like Mr. Suit on there?
Because if he tried to pick me up …
Chapter Four
Mia
Margaret Miriam Cherryson.
B. 1960 – D. 2021
Mother of Mia
Wife of Douglas
“May laughter always bring you up.”
I swiped at unbidden tears while my father stared stoically at the headstone above his wife’s grave. The last reminder of her and her final resting place.
“That was always her, wasn’t it?” I said, impressed I could get the words out without choking up.
“What was?” he asked, looking over at me, then putting his arm over my shoulders to help console me.
“Laughter,” I said. “She loved to laugh and have others laughing, too. Though, I guess she probably never meant that quote to be literal.”
My father smiled sadly. “You know, she’d probably find it ironic that it was laughter that killed her, in a way. I bet, if she could, she’d have words added at the end there. Probably something like ‘‘Cause it sure did for me’ or something. She would laugh all the way up to heaven over that.”
“Probably,” I agreed. Fresh wetness dripped down my cheeks as he reminisced. I always got misty-eyed whenever he talked about her. It brought back my memories of the three of us as a family. Memories that I would cherish forever. I’d started keeping a journal, writing down every memory I could think of that involved her. She was gone from my life but never from my heart as long as I had those pieces of her with me.
I couldn’t just dial the phone and call her anymore, ask her for advice or rant about what ridiculous thing happened in the latest season of theBachelorette, but I would always have those memories.
