“Noted.”
“What do you want to do first?”
Avery cocked a brow and looked over at the white bed.
“No, no. We could have stayed home for that.”
“All right. Let’s go walk on the beach. The sun will be setting soon, and Google told me that there’s a lighthouse not too far from here.”
I smiled. “That sounds perfect.”
We left our shoes and walked down to the beach, hand in hand. The sand was soft, and the ocean was slightly warm as we strolled along, waves crashing against our feet.
“Thank you for this,” I gushed.
“I figured we could use time away. While we both love our jobs, it’s nice to have a change in atmosphere.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
“Plus,” Avery sighed, “I feel rundown or something.”
“Are you getting sick?”
“Not sure.”
I reached over and touched his forehead as we stopped. “You don’t feel warm.”
“I don’t know.”
“Monday you can come into my work, and we’ll run some blood tests.”
“Blood tests?” We started walking again, our fingers locked.
“Maybe you’re low on iron or something. A blood panel workup will be good for you.”
“I guess it’s good I married a nurse.”
I grinned. “I guess so.”
“I should have told you sooner.”
“What?” I yanked on his arm, stopping him from moving forward.
“I’ve been feeling like this for a week or so.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was just waiting to get sick, and nothing came.”
“And now you feel the same?”
Avery shrugged. “Not too much, but the feeling comes and goes, I guess.”
I scrunched my brows in confusion. “Comes and goes?”
“When I’m concentrating on stuff, I don’t think about it, and I guess I feel fine.” He shrugged a shoulder.
I stared into his azure eyes that reflected the setting sun. “Monday, first thing, we’re taking your blood.”
He smirked. “You sound like a vampire.”
“If I were a vampire, I’d cure you by turning you so we could live together forever.”
“You think I’m—sick?”
“Sick as in a cold?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Sick as in cancer sick or something.”
“What?” I drew my head back. “Why would you think that?”
“You said cure.”
“Let’s not think about this until we run the blood work, okay?”
Avery nodded slowly and took a deep breath. “Okay.”
“We should plan that trip to Dublin,” I suggested.
He balked slightly. “Dublin?”
I shrugged. “We talked about it a few years ago.”
“Yeah?”
“Maybe help to take longer than a weekend away.”
Avery nodded. “Yeah, Dublin sounds good.”
We walked down the beach toward where Avery thought the lighthouse was, but the farther we walked, the more apparent it became that the lighthouse wasn’t walkable. The shore started to get rocky, and finally, we’d walked as far as we could. The lighthouse was still in the distance, but since we didn’t have our shoes, we decided to walk back to the hotel.
“We can drive there tomorrow,” Avery suggested.
“Sounds good to me. It’s getting dark, and we need to eat before our swim.”
He pulled me to him as we kept walking. “So, sex in public is okay as long as people can’t see?”
I bit my bottom lip, thinking about being promiscuous by having sex in public. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
We walked along the shore, enjoying the warm breeze and the quiet that wasn’t the hustle and bustle of New York City. Avery pulled his phone out of his pocket and glanced at the screen. “A California number is calling me.”
“Oh?” I asked. “Are you going to answer it?”
His gaze flicked to mine as we stopped walking. “It’s probably a telemarketer or something.”
I shrugged. “Maybe or it’s—”
“I don’t want to talk to them,” he answered, already knowing who I was referring to. Avery’s parents lived in California, but he hadn’t heard from them for years. The phone continued to buzz on silent in his hand.
“We don’t know for sure.”
“Then the person can leave a voicemail.” Avery grabbed my hand again, and we continued down the beach. A few seconds later, he stopped and pulled the phone from his pocket again. “It’s the same number.”
“Just answer it. You can always hang up,” I suggested.
He slid his finger across the screen and then held the phone up to his ear. “Hello?” Avery was silent for a few moments as he listened to the other end. I couldn’t hear who it was or what was being said, except for his words. “Yes, this is he.” A pause. “What?” I watched all the color drain from his face, and my heart rate picked up. “Are you sure?” Another pause. “How?” He nodded, a blank look on his face. “Yeah. Can you call back and leave the address on my voicemail? I don’t have a pen and paper handy at the moment.” There was another pause. “The soonest will be Monday.” A final pause. “Thank you.”
He hung up the phone.
“Who was it?” I asked.
Pain I never wanted to see in my husband’s eyes looked back at me. “My parents ... They ... My parents were in a car accident. They ... They died.”
After I uttered the words out loud that my parents were dead, I crumpled to the sand. I wasn’t sure how long Nicole and I sat on the beach, but she held me while I cried. Even after the way my parents treated me my entire life, my heart still broke to know that I would never ever hear from them or see them again. A part of me thought that I would eventually get answers from them, find out why they hated me so much, but now that would never happen.
Because they were dead.
My parents had fucking died.
“Can I ask you a question?” Nicole asked as I opened the door to our hotel room.
“Of course.”
“What’s happening on Monday?”
I sighed and shut the door behind us. “I have to go identify the bodies.”
Nic gasped. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. I need to fly there on Monday once we’re back in the city.”
She walked over and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Do you want me to go with you?”
“Can you?”
“Of course. I’ll call my boss in the morning and let her know. I’ll also book our flight if you want.”
“Yes,” I whispered on another sigh.
“Okay. Let’s grab dinner, and I’ll do that when we come back to the room.”
As we sat at a nearby restaurant, eating local seafood, the shoe-dropping feeling had returned. Maybe deep down I’d known all along that something life changing was going to happen.
Although, should the death of my estranged parents really be that life changing?
We made it to the Crawfords’ on Sunday in time for dinner. I didn’t want to go, but I knew I needed to tell them what happened, especially Easton since I needed to take more than the weekend off from Halo.
“What’s wrong?” Jane, Easton’s mom, asked the moment she saw Nic and me walk into the kitchen where she was cooking dinner.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “I need to wait until everyone is here.”
“Are you pregnant?” she asked Nic as she sucked in a hopeful breath.
“No.” My wife smiled. “I’m not pregnant.”
“Then what is it?” Jane inquired.
“It’s better if we wait for everyone,” I replied.
She studied my face. “Are you sick?”
I looked over at Nic and then back at Jane. “Don’t think so.”
“Okay.” She patted my cheek. “We don’t need
another one of you getting sick.”
“I agree.” I tried to smile, but I could barely get my mouth to curve.
The front door opened, and I heard Easton somewhat yelling, “I don’t care what Erin’s parents let her do. I said no.”
“God!” Cheyenne shouted. “You’re so unfair.”
I looked at Nic as if she knew what was going on. She shrugged, and Brooke and Easton walked into the kitchen.
“What’s wrong with C.C.?” I asked as I sat at the kitchen table. Cheyenne had apparently gone up to her room.
“Stupid high school shit,” Easton replied, giving Jane a hug. “School hasn’t even started, and already she’s giving me gray hair.”
We all looked to Brooke for clarification. “Homecoming dance is two weeks after school starts, and Erin’s parents are getting the girls and their dates a limo. Chey wants to go,” Brooke replied as she hugged Jane.
Easton went to the fridge and grabbed four beers, handing them to us. Everyone except Jane sat with me at the table. I had no idea where Jimmy was.
“Let her go to the dance,” Jane chimed in, stirring something on the stove.
“It’s not the dance I’m concerned about. It’s the limo,” Easton stated.
“What’s wrong with a limo?” Nic asked.
Easton glared at her. “Kids alone in a limo? What could go wrong?”
“Yeah, what could go wrong?” Nic continued to question, either not hearing the sarcastic tone of Easton or not understanding.
“East thinks they will have booze and it will lead to an”—Brooke dropped her voice to a whisper—“orgy.”
I choked slightly on the big gulp of beer I’d just taken as I laughed. It was the first time I had laughed in days. “I needed that laugh. Thank you.”
“It’s not funny,” Easton groaned and then took a long pull of his Fat Tire.
“They’re what? Thirteen and fourteen?” Nic asked. “I’m sure nothing will happen.”
Easton cut his gaze to me. “What were we doing at thirteen?”
My own gaze moved to Jane as she still stood at the stove. Did he really want me to answer that while she stood there?
“Shit.” He rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Mom knows we weren’t angels.”
My gaze moved back to him. “And you think that C.C. wants to—”
“If you finish that sentence, I will beat the shit out of you,” Easton warned.
I held up my hands in surrender. “I won’t utter another word.”
“Now, if you boys are finished, dinner will be ready in ten minutes,” Jane stated. “Avery, do you want to tell us what you need to tell us now or after dinner?”
Easton and Brooke both turned their attention on me and I downed the rest of my beer. “Where’s Jimmy?” I asked.
“Upstairs in his office,” Jane replied. “Jimmy! Get your ass down here! The kids are here!”
A few seconds later, footsteps could be heard coming down the stairs. “Dinner better be ready,” Jimmy stated.
“Almost,” Jane answered. “But Av has something he needs to tell us first.”
All eyes turned to me.
I guess I was telling them before dinner.
Under the table, Nic squeezed my knee, and I smiled tightly at her. I wasn’t nervous to tell them. They all knew my parents—except, of course, Nicole and Brooke—and needed to know. It just sucked that it was my reality because, deep down, I wanted those answers from my parents that I would never get now.
“What about Chey?” Brooke asked.
“No.” I shook my head. “She doesn’t need to hear this.”
Easton leaned forward. “What is it?”
I laced my fingers with Nicole’s and gave her hand a little squeeze as I watched Jimmy grab a beer from the fridge. I needed another one. I needed ten. Hell, I needed the strongest alcohol there was because so many emotions were running through my body. A part of me felt as though I shouldn’t care that they died since they didn’t care about me. The other part felt as if a piece of me was gone. It was silly since all I’d ever wanted was to be accepted by them, but I never had been. Maybe I should have tried harder to live out their dream of their son playing in the Major League. Maybe I should have tried harder to gain their love. Maybe I should have actually gone to visit them instead of only calling. Maybe. But now I’d never know if that would have changed things.
Taking a deep breath, I answered Easton as I looked down, not meeting anyone’s stare. “My parents died on Friday.”
Jane dropped the utensil she was using on the stove, the only sound in the room being her gasp as my words sank into each person. It felt like minutes before someone spoke, but I knew it was only a few seconds.
“How?” Easton asked, concern in his voice.
I took a deep breath and met his gaze. “Car accident.”
I heard Jane suck in another breath and my gaze moved to see Jimmy wrap her in his arms. Jane pulled back slightly to look into Jimmy’s eyes, and I thought I saw a silent question move between them. Jimmy shook his head slightly and pulled his wife against him again. Back in the day, they would come over to my parents’ place for barbecues and let Easton and I play together, so they had to be friends, but I wasn’t sure because it seemed as though no one had talked to my parents in over seven years.
Brooke reached out and patted my free hand while Nic squeezed the hand she was holding.
“I’m sorry,” Easton responded. He knew how I felt about my parents. “What can we do?”
“Cover my shifts for a few days. Tomorrow, Nic and I are flying to Santa Barbara to see what all needs to be done.”
“Whatever you need,” Easton assured me. Easton and I both stood and engulfed each other in a hug. I hugged Jane and Jimmy next and then Brooke.
“This breaks my heart.” Jane gave me a sad smile. “But they’re in a better place now.”
I didn’t know what that meant. To me, when people said those words, it was because the person who died was sick or in pain. Did they know something I didn’t? Surely if my parents had cancer or something, and Jimmy and Jane knew, they would have told me.
“Sorry to drop this on you all before dinner,” I stated.
“Nonsense. We’re family,” Jane said.
I gave a solemn smile. “Yeah. Yeah, we are.”
The next morning, Nic and I flew to California. After a layover in Phoenix, we flew into Santa Barbara where we took a cab straight to the coroner’s office—the sheriff had given me the address when he called back. I didn’t have my parents’ address. They’d moved just north of where Easton and I had grown up in Ventura. I had no idea what their house looked like, where it was located, nothing. Growing up, my mother was a housewife, and my father was a top plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, but they were strangers to me.
The taxi pulled up to the coroner’s office. After getting out of the car, I grabbed our bags and followed Nicole into the white building. I’d never had to identify a body before, and now I was going to confirm that two were my parents.
“Can I help you?” the woman behind the desk asked after hanging up the phone.
“I’m here to …” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’m here to identify my parents.”
“And your name?”
“Avery Scott.”
“Have a seat. It will be a few minutes.”
“Thank you.” I turned to sit in the chair next to Nicole.
“Do you want me to stay here with our bags?” Nic asked.
I looked over at her. “What? No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I need you.”
She squeezed my knee. “I’m not going anywhere.”
A few minutes later, a guy in a white lab coat came into view. “Mr. Scott?”
I stood and stuck out my hand. “Avery’s fine.” We shook. “This is my wife, Nicole.”
They greeted each other. “I’m Arnold Keaton, the coroner. Right this way.”
I grabbed our bags before we foll
owed him to his office. I was expecting to go to the morgue or something like I’d seen on TV.
“Please have a seat.” Arnold motioned to two chairs in front of his desk. We sat, and my hand slipped into Nic’s for support. Arnold took a seat and opened a folder. “This may be tough, but I just need you to confirm these are your parents.”
He handed me two photos face down. I’d assumed I would have to actually see the bodies, like on television. I took a deep breath before I flipped them over. The first picture was of my father’s face with a white sheet just below his neck. He looked lifeless and pale and he had some cuts and bruises on what I could see of him. I swallowed and looked at the other photo. It was my mother, and she looked the same as him. The moment I saw her, a lump formed in my throat.
“Yeah, that’s them.” I handed Arnold back the photos.
“Okay, that’s all—”
“Do you know how they got into an accident?” I asked. Nicole squeezed my hand, and I smiled tightly at her. I wanted to know. Something told me I needed to know.
“The investigation is ongoing, but from what the sheriff’s office told me, a car was driving the wrong way on the highway and hit them head-on.”
Nicole sucked in a breath and squeezed my hand again.
“Did they ...” I cleared my throat. “Did they suffer?”
“I don’t believe so. I’m almost certain they died on impact.”
I nodded and took a deep breath. “Okay. Now what?”
Arnold grabbed a clear bag that was on his desk and handed it to me. “These were their belongings. Next step, unfortunately, is to plan their funerals. The funeral home you choose will contact us once you have all the details sorted out, and we’ll release your parents to them.”
“Right,” I breathed. “Thank you.” I’d never had to plan a funeral before, let alone a double one. Thankfully, I had my wife, my rock, to help me figure out what to do.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” Arnold said as he walked us out of his office. “I didn’t know your father well, but your mother was in a book club with my wife. Your mother seemed like a wonderful woman.”
I chuckled slightly. It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him that I wouldn’t know. Instead, I just told him thank you again.
My One Page 8
