“You okay, kid?” Aiden asked.
“Yeah.”
He stood. “The day I hired you, I told you not to let me down.”
“I remember.” I looked at him, incredulous. “I didn’t expect any of this.”
“You’ve earned your place here, Reid. You’ve held true to your word and made me proud. You made all of us proud.” He indicated the drawer. “That is our thanks for a job well done, and the rest is because, as Bentley said, we’re family.”
His smack on the back was much harder than Bentley’s was.
But I was grinning as he left my office.
After lunch, I stopped by Sandy’s desk. She finished typing on her keyboard and looked up with a smile.
“Reid.”
“Sandy.” I winked.
“Coming to schedule your days off?”
I shook my head, laughing. “I don’t need time off.”
“Yes, you do. Aiden is insisting on it. You have so much overtime, it is frightening.”
“Overtime?”
She sighed, pulling up a file on her screen. “Aiden figures we owe you about a month in extra time. Last week alone you worked the equivalent of two weeks. Add in the weekend, and it’s even more.”
“Can I see that?” I indicated her laptop.
She handed it to me, and I scanned the file. Aiden had been keeping better track of my hours than I thought. With a couple of taps, I erased everything and handed it back. She glared at me.
“Put that back, young man.”
I shook my head. “No one asked me to work all those other hours, Sandy. I did it because I love my job. I am not taking time off for it.” I chuckled. “I’d only come in here anyway, so why bother?”
She huffed in frustration. “I told Aiden you would say that. They want you to take some time off and enjoy yourself.”
“I enjoy work.”
“Maybe you could spend some extra time with Becca?” she asked with a wink. “Bentley is giving her a few days off as well.”
I frowned and shrugged.
She pursed her lips. Standing, she came around to the front of the desk. “What is going on, Reid?”
Before I could answer, her phone rang. She glanced at the screen with a frown and held up her finger. “Excuse me. I need to take this call.”
She lifted the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
Her face turned ghostly white, and tears sprang to her eyes as she listened to a voice on the other end. She made a choking sound, and her trembling hand reached out, gripping my arm.
“No,” she whispered. “God, no!”
Her phone hit the floor, and she buried her face in her hands, falling hard into my chest as her legs gave out. Panicking, I shouted her name, trying to hold her upright.
Chaos broke out at my yell. Aiden came running down the hall, his eyes wide when he saw me.
“What the hell?” he shouted, scooping her up. Maddox followed him, Bentley close at his heels. They all gathered around her, concerned.
Maddox grabbed her phone, speaking fast into the mouthpiece, demanding to know who it was on the line. His eyes grew round and he turned his back, lowering his voice. Aiden carried an incoherent Sandy to Bentley’s office.
Maddox followed with a grave face.
“What is it?” Bentley demanded.
“It’s Max. He had a heart attack.”
Sandy’s sobs grew louder.
“He didn’t survive.”
I tugged on the collar of my shirt, uncomfortable and tense. I had never been to a funeral before, and I found it overwhelming. The flowers, the music, the people, and the sadness.
Jesus, the sadness.
I stood close to Sandy. We all did. Since Max had passed, one of us had been with Sandy all the time. Even when her stepson, Aaron, arrived and Colin was around, we stayed nearby. Colin’s sister, Jennifer, arrived last night and we had shaken hands when I offered my condolences, but I hadn’t spoken to her otherwise.
I didn’t know what to say.
I didn’t know what to say to anyone. I recalled the feeling of sadness when Mrs. Reid was gone, the pain of losing Rodney, and the anger of not being able to grieve his passing with anyone. I felt the loss of Max, saddened by his death, yet in the face of the devastation of his family’s grief, it seemed insignificant. I didn’t want to take away from their pain by expressing mine.
The first time Sandy had brought me to her house, Max was accepting and kind. Our conversations were always spirited and interesting. The affection between them was obvious, and he teased her about her adopting yet another “misfit,” as he called us. The term made me laugh, given he was including Bentley, Aiden, and Maddox in the description. I enjoyed spending time with him. Diagnosed with late-onset MS, Max struggled with his failing body, since his mind remained razor-sharp. They’d had their home refitted to accommodate his needs, and I developed some cool voice-activated systems to augment what he already had in place. I knew the disease took its toll on both of them in different ways, but Sandy was devoted to him.
Now, she was lost. It hurt to watch her. Always vibrant and filled with light, she was a pale shadow of herself. The shock of the massive heart attack that struck Max had taken some of her life as well. Colin rarely left her side, and Bentley, Aiden, or Maddox, often all three, stood behind her, carefully monitoring her needs. They were worried over her lack of tears. She hadn’t wept since receiving the call. Not once.
She did all the right things. Shook hands, kissed cheeks, accepted murmured words of condolence, and offered platitudes of thanks. She was dressed in a black suit, her hair swept into its usual chignon, but everything was off. Her suit jacket gaped open, her hair not as perfect as usual. Her expression was empty, her smile forced and sad, her posture defeated and closed off with her grief.
Somehow, that hurt more than Max’s death.
Van appeared beside me, his gigantic frame poured into a suit. Used to seeing him in T-shirts, jeans, or overalls, I had barely recognized him. He had his jacket pulled tight across his shoulders, the sleeves taut around his biceps, and he looked as uncomfortable as I felt in my suit—as if we were pretending to be someone that we were not.
“How you holding up?” he asked, shaking my hand.
“Fine.”
“I see you boys are keeping a close watch on Sandy.”
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Did you know Max?”
“I did,” he stated. “I’ve done a lot of work at Sandy’s place. She is constantly changing things, and Max let her do whatever she wanted. We had some great conversations. He liked to watch me work.” He shook his head. “He worshiped her.”
“She felt the same for him.”
“I know. I liked being around them. It was always a lesson in how a relationship should work, you know?”
Since I was failing at my first attempt at a relationship, I couldn’t offer him an opinion. “She’s going to miss him.”
Van nodded, draining the cup of coffee he was carrying. “She will. And as sad as that is, it’s a testament to the love they shared. We should all be lucky enough to have someone miss us when we’re gone.”
Then, as if he said too much, he turned and walked away, his long stride carrying him fast.