Page 83 of All Your Tomorrows

“I don’t know. Were you a good girl this year?” he asked.

“Define good?”

He chuckled before pressing a kiss to the top of my head. “Your phone’s been blowing up all morning.”

“Probably just my mom wishing me a Merry Christmas before she gets here.” I opened my eyes and moved my head so I could see him.

He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. “Can’t wait to meet her,” he said.

“Did I say you were meeting her?”

“No, but I expected her to want to meet me.”

I smiled. “Oh, she wants to meet you alright.”

“Can she see spirits too?”

I shook my head.

“But you said people could if they wanted to,” he said.

“She tried to see my dad, but no matter what I had her do, she just couldn’t see him. I thought she might’ve been too scared.”

“Scared?”

“Yeah, like it would be too hard to see him again and then not be able to see him. Like, if he was gone, she could come to terms with that eventually. But if he popped in when he felt like it, it would just make it harder to move on.”

“Makes sense.”

“I kind of think me being able to see him and her not was the catalyst for her to start being a traveling nurse. That way, she didn’t have to live here without him.”

Kyler’s eyes conveyed sadness, and I wondered if he was thinking about my mom and dad, or if his thoughts were on our own fate.

I grabbed my phone off the nightstand and checked it. Five texts from an unknown number filled the screen.

7:02 It’s Daci. I’m using my brother’s phone. I need you to do me a huge favor…

7:06 The café’s alarm keeps going off. I think it’s malfunctioning.

7:10 Nora are you there?

7:12 Could you pleeeeassse go punch in the code and turn it off.

7:15 I really don’t want to leave my family.

“Shit.” I checked the time. 7:20.

“What?” Kyler asked.

“Daci needs me to go turn off the alarm at the café.”

“Right now?”

“She’s at her parents’ almost an hour away.” I sent her back a text that I could and rolled out of bed. “I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

“I’ll come with you,” he said, starting to get up.

“Oh, no you don’t. I want you right here when I get back. I wasn’t ready to get up yet.”

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