Page 137 of Chasing Olivia (Trace + Olivia 2)

“Glad you like it,” he smiled and there was a twinkle in his eye that had been missing earlier. “The second thing I need you to do, is take these,” he reached over to the opposite nightstand and grabbed two letters in envelopes. He handed them to me and I saw that one had my name on it while the other had Trace’s. “I want you to read these when…when I’m gone,” tears pooled in his eyes. “I’m giving them to you, because I knew Trace would rip them up if I gave them to him.”

I stared down at the letters in my hands and my heart felt even heavier than it had before.

“Gramps,” I choked, overcome by emotion.

“I don’t mean to make you cry.” He pressed a shaky hand against my cheek. “But I had to give them to you.”

I nodded my head in understanding. I tucked the letters away in my purse and wiped my eyes. “No more talk about dying or babies,” I cracked a smile. “Let’s do something fun…but not chess. I suck at that.”

“There’s a room down the hall where the nurses have board games for patients. If you ask one of the ladies at the desk they’ll take you to it.”

“Okay,” I stood. “Anything in particular you want?”

“See if they have Clue,” he smiled, pushing the button on the railing of the bed to raise it.

I stopped at the nurse’s station outside the room and one of them led me down the hall to a storage closet full of odds and ends. On the top shelf I spotted Clue, but since I was so short I had trouble reaching it. I found a stepstool and even with that I had to stand on my tiptoes to reach the box. I grabbed it off the shelf and headed back to Gramps’ room.

“Look what I found,” I sing-songed, waving the box in front of me. When I lowered it, I saw that Gramps had fallen asleep. “Well,” I set the box on the table, “another time then.”

I settled in the chair, hoping Trace had made it home and was actually relaxing like he needed to. But knowing him, I was sure that was the last thing he was doing.

“Olivia.”

I hadn’t been in a very deep sleep and I jolted awake at the sound of my name.

I looked around the darkened hospital room, rubbing my eyes and smearing my makeup.

“Trace,” I yawned. “What time is it?”

“Three,” he shrugged. “I meant to be back by midnight but I slept longer than I wanted.”

I glanced at Gramps’ sleeping form and then up at my husband. “I’m too sleepy to drive back,” I stood. “I’ll sleep on the couch,” I pointed to the couch covered in plastic in the corner of the room. I knew it wouldn’t be comfortable, but I didn’t want to leave. My reasoning had nothing to do with driving, like I’d told him. It was because he looked so sad, and no one that looks like that should ever be left alone.

“I can take you home and come back,” he started to pull the car keys from his pocket.

“No,” I shook my head hastily, “that’s silly. I’ll be fine here. Besides, Gramps and I are going to play Clue.”

“Oh, are you now?”

“You wanna play?” I asked, grabbing a pillow and blanket. “You can be Colonel Ketchup.”

“Isn’t in Colonel Mustard?” He chuckled.

“Well, yeah, but I figured you’d like Colonel Ketchup better,” I reasoned, lying down on the couch.

“That does sound like a wicked cool name. Think my mom would mind if I changed my name to Ketchup?”

“I think she might be a bit mad.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he stretched his legs out, tapping the heels of his boots against the tile floor.

He looked better than he had earlier, but I knew he was still tired. His shoulders were slumped and his eyes were heavy as he fought sleep.

“Trace,” I called.

“Yeah?” He looked over at me, massaging his temples.

“I know this isn’t the biggest couch, but come lay down. Gramps is sleeping and you’re no good to anyone if you’re tired.”

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