Shuddering slightly at the conversation topic but also struggling not to laugh loudly, I watched as Elijah moved back an inch, his eyes scanning her face. “You just said it twice for me,” he informed her, his lips twitching. “And it was awesome!”
Standing up straight, she looked at Gramps. “It must be tough being the normal one in the family.”
I swear, my legs almost collapsed under me with the force of the laughter that came belting out. Through the tears that came with it, I watched as Elijah threw his head back and did the same thing.
“Jesus,” my brother Archer said behind us. “What did I miss?”
“She—” Elijah wheezed, smacking his hand down on the bar. “She called him normal,” he gestured at Gramps, who was glaring at both of us.
And then Archer’s deep laughter joined ours.
“Crackers the lot of you,” Sadie huffed, the sound of her heels tapping on the wooden floor announcing her departure.
Once the hilarity left us—although it took a while—I set three beers down in front of them. “Not that I’m not glad to see you, but what are you doing here?”
“Tate knew I was in the area and texted to ask me to meet up with everyone here,” Elijah replied, his eyes following Sadie.
Picking up his bottle, Archer held his finger up in the air. “Same.”
Looking over at Gramps, I finally noticed the lack of sparkle in his eyes. “Are you okay?”
“We buried a good woman last week,” he sighed sadly, and I saw a tension in him I’d missed previously. “It was… Christ, it was devastating. Your Grams and I decided to come visit to get our heads straightened out.”
Reaching over, I grabbed his hand and squeezed it. “I’m so sorry. Who was it?”
“You know that kid who works at your cousin’s garage called Jarrod?” I nodded, remembering the handsome guy well. “His girlfriend’s grandma, Maude, was beaten and left in a coma. Come to find out, she’d been diagnosed with terminal cancer previously, too, and hadn’t told her family.”
The three of us sucked in a breath at the same time.
“That’s not that unusual,” Elijah murmured as he dug a nail into the label on his beer bottle. “Some people don’t want their family to be burdened by it, or they want to have as normal a life as possible until the end. I think that’s what I’d do, you know.”
Wobbling his head slightly, Archer thought it over. “I don’t know what I’d do. On one hand, I wouldn’t want my family to be counting my days with me and feel scared that I wouldn’t wake up every morning. On the other, I wouldn’t want to carry the full weight of it myself.”
“I’m with you there. What happened after that?” I asked Gramps, who was listening to the conversation but lost in his thoughts.
“She never woke up and passed away in her sleep. Jarrod sang to her before she died and then again at her funeral. It was…” he broke off with a choke. “It was as beautiful as it was devastating. Maude would’ve loved it.”
Seeing my normally happy and stoic grandpa struggling cut me deep. “I’m sorry, Gramps. How’s her family?”
Shaking his head slowly, he whispered, “Not good. I think they’re blaming themselves for not noticing the signs, but, hell, I didn’t pick up on anything when I saw her either. Her granddaughter is a mess and keeps saying she thought it was strange how Maude kept pointing out moments for her to remember.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’d go out somewhere, and something would happen, so Maude would shout out that it was the best moment of her life or something like that. It’s like she was trying to stamp it into people’s memories.”
Hearing the explanation brought back a dozen memories I had of my grandparents, and if I sat down and wrote them out, I’d have thousands that made me smile. If I knew I was going to lose them, though, having those final ones where they were acknowledging it was the best moment of their life would hurt as much as it would soothe me.
Appearing out of nowhere, Sadie thrust some napkins at him. “Here you go. Let me know if you need anything else.” Then, turning to me, she smiled gently. “I’ll cover the bar, you look after your family.”
As she moved to walk away, Gramps called out, “I could use a hug and getting called rude British words.”
And he was back.
Turning back to face him, she raised an eyebrow. “Is that right?” Then she tutted and hopped up on the bar, swiveling gracefully on her ass until she was facing him and then dropped down from it. “All right, bugger lugs, give us a hug.”
Some people might have seen it as taking advantage, but he was as loyal and dedicated to my grandmother as he was to the rest of his family. He was breaking the tension, signaling he didn’t want to discuss it anymore, which I could respect. I usually preferred not to hash things that were bugging me out at all.