Always (Bold As Love 4)

Emily sits beside him on the couch and I tell her that I'll fix us a bowl as well. While we eat, I decide to broach the subject of the house with Drake.

“You know that we're moving to Chicago, right?”

He nods.

“Well, I'm going to sell the house.”

“We won't come back?”

“We'll come back to visit, but we're going to live wherever I play.”

“Oh, okay. When are we moving?”

“Next week, so we need to get busy packing and all that jazz.”

Seeing that he seems satisfied, I leave them behind to run upstairs to call the realtor and make an appointment for this afternoon. When I return downstairs, I grab a couple of trash bags and send Drake upstairs. In one bag, he's going to throw away any clothes that are too small and in the rest he's getting rid of toys he no longer wants.

“Alright, Sweetness. Let's get this over with,” I say once he's gone. With trash bags in hand, she follows me into my dad's room. Immediately, we're bombarded with the stench of alcohol. There are empty bottles scattered everywhere. It's mostly whiskey, his favorite. While I'm throwing those away, Emily's going through the closet.

“Jake,” she says after a minute.

“Yeah,” I reply without looking her way.

“All of your mom's clothes are in here.”

Gulping, the bag clanks to the floor and I walk over to where she's standing. Sure enough, my mom's t-shirts and dresses are hanging just like she left them. I reach across Emily and run my fingers over her clothes, ending with her favorite shirt. It is dark blue and a v-neck. It was a gift from me and Drake on one of her birthday's. She used to always say that when she wore it, she could feel our love. Plus, it was really soft, she would add with a wink.

My chest tightens and my throat burns at the memory. I

barely register Emily's hand on my arm. It feels just like yesterday that she pulled the shirt out of the box and smiled like we had given her a rare gem. Mom hugged us so tightly.

“Love,” Emily says.

“Just put them in the clothes bag,” I answer, letting my hand fall to my side.

Before I can get lost in memories and sadness, I return to putting empty bottles in the trash. I'm so thankful that Emily leaves it alone. I try not to watch as she takes my mother's clothes off the hangers and tosses them into the bag. I move on and do the same with the dresser, which has a mixture of my mother's and father's clothes. Emily leaves the things on the shelf in the closet to me since she will have a hard time reaching it. She moves into the bathroom and throws away their toothbrushes, toothpaste, hairbrushes, and all of their other products.

On that top shelf, were our old home videos. I don't want to watch them, but I do put them off to the side because I am not getting rid of them. There was still a tape in Dad's TV and I put it with the others. I can get rid of their clothes and such, but I can't get rid of my mom's jewelry. She loved jewelry, especially shopping for it.

“All done,” Sweetness smiles. “Are you keeping her jewelry?” she asks, coming over to the dresser where I'm standing with one of Mom's necklaces in my hand.

“Yeah. I don't want to get rid of it. Thanks for helping me.” I carefully put the necklace back in its place and kiss Sweetness on the forehead. I tie up all the bags as she returns to the living room.

“I'm going to check on Drake.”

I take the steps two at a time until I reach his room.

“Drake, what are you doing? You're supposed to be cleaning out your room.”

He's sitting in the middle of the floor, playing a video game. “I got tired of cleaning,” he shrugs.

I pick up the abandoned bags. “What cleaning? There's nothing in the bags!”

“I like my stuff. I don't want to throw anything away.”

“Drake, you don't play with half of this stuff. We aren't taking all of this junk with us. Turn the game off and help me.” When he makes no move to do so, I order, “Now, Drake.”

He huffs, but does as he was told. We start with all the toys on his floor and then move to the video games he no longer plays. It's not fun because he wants to keep everything. His clothes are a little easier to get rid of. By the time we finish, we have four bags and it's time for me to go meet the realtor.