Page 95 of Free to Breathe
His face suddenly looks old. “I’d like to see you again, Colby. I know I should wait to be asked, but I…” He doesn’t get a chance to continue before Corinna yanks the phone from my hand.
“I agree. You should come by while I’m recovering. You can meet my family. I’m so sure they’ll want to meet you.” She turns to me and asks, “Do you think he’ll be the catalyst for Keene and Phil to get along finally? I mean, it would just take one nasty comment and the two of them would be like the Wonder Twins, being all protective and whatnot.”
If I hadn’t seen what happens next with my own two eyes, I would never have believed it.
My grandfather is clutching his stomach while he’s doubled over with laughter. His dove-gray eyes are crinkled at the corners, and the smile on his face sends a million wrinkles twitching. “Corinna, I should have known he’d have fallen in love with someone who’s nuts.”
Corinna shrugs. “Listen, he’s his own brand of special. I’m not getting any sort of bargain here.”
And my grandfather is laughing again.
My angel. My wonder. My love.
Uncaring if my grandfather sees, I trace her lips with my finger. “I love you so damn much.”
Her eyes are shining, and she smiles at me before returning her focus back to the phone.
* * *
Later that night,Corinna and I are in bed. I turn off the bedside lights and in the dim light from the overhead strands find her staring at me, her hands tucked under her cheek. “What is it?”
“Had Caleb not brought up your grandfather tonight, were you going to?” she asks bluntly.
I get comfortable next to her. Corinna immediately gets settled with her head on my chest. I stroke the skin of her tattoo, made more easily accessible now that her hair’s been cut so short.
By her choice. Her need for a clear conscience.
It’s time to give her mine.
“I’d hoped to get us past the next few days, Cori. I don’t want to burden your mind with more than it can handle,” I tell her honestly. I wait for the explosion.
It doesn’t come. Instead, what she says is worse.
Much, much worse.
“What if we don’t have tomorrow? What if the only time we’re guaranteed is each second we breathe?” she whispers. I tense beneath her head and wandering hand. “Then tonight would never have happened. And would you know your true grandfather is inside that man he presents to the world?” As I contemplate those words, the next ones knock me over. “How would I know I could rise above my own preconceptions about you? About love? How would I know the darkness no longer is something to fear? It’s just dark, but you’re waiting on the other side when I come out of it?”
Bracing up on my chest, Corinna looks down at me. “The time we have is often a curse but more often a blessing. Isn’t it time we stop counting our curses?”
“I know one blessing I count every day,” I say hoarsely.
“Don’t tell me.” She slides her body on top of mine sinuously. “Show me.”
And for the next several hours, I do.
I show the woman I love that she’s the answer to every wish, every prayer, and every dream. I just want to know I can keep her.
Later, as Corinna sleeps curled next to me, I lie awake, held hostage by the fears that assail me, knowing I may only have a few more nights like this before I return to a landfall of days that blur together because there’s nothing left in my heart to distinguish them from one another.
* * *
The next morning,I get another call from my grandfather. It’s over. Jack was dealt with swiftly by my grandfather’s attorneys when they showed up en masse at his practice in Darien.
After his initial demand they come back at a better time, their threats of their next stop being with the Attorney General scared him enough to cancel the remainder of his appointments.
As Cori predicted, Jack wanted everything he thought was due to him as the son of Brett Hunt. He asked for everything he thought was his birthright, including a stake in Hunt Enterprises. He was denied everything but his right to walk out of his office with the ability to keep his medical license, the money he would earn from selling his part in his practice, and the money from selling his house to move somewhere far away from the East Coast after he signed a document never to bother Corinna, my grandfather, me, or any of my relatives, save our father ever again.
Shaken, he realized the lawyers had him on several counts of mail fraud, where the statute of limitations was five years for withholding my letters to Cori. Cori also could have pushed a HIPAA case against his practice, which would have made his future earnings next to impossible, but all she cared about was eradicating him from our lives.
