Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 116708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
“I love you too,” she whispered. “Hey, bud, this room is a disaster.”
“Truett said it was okay. Right, True?”
True.
Everyone called me that. It was the logical nickname. But there was something about hearing him say it that, once again, hit me deep.
“Yeah, it’s totally fine. Actually, it looks good if you ask me.”
“See?” Nate giggled.
Gwen looked at her son. “Truett is a neat freak who folds his underwear. We’re lucky he didn’t have a stroke when he walked in here.”
“You fold your underwear!” Nate gasped in pure horror.
I shrugged. “What can I say? Old habits die hard.”
Gwen’s face turned serious. “I want to show you something else we do, but I’m worried it might make you uncomfortable. Being that it’s Wednesday and all, we might be pushing you too far already.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I think you’re more obsessed with Wednesdays than I am. I’m fine. Really.”
“Okay, then. We watch old videos a few times a week. You up for that?”
I swallowed hard. Boy, did I know about watching old videos. Though I had a feeling Gwen didn’t talk back, pretending she was still alive. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
Together, we piled onto the couch. Nate insisted on sitting between us in his self-proclaimed spot.
Gwen grabbed the remote and turned the TV on, and within seconds, Kaitlyn’s smiling face filled the screen. My heart lurched as her excited giggle floated through the speakers, her sweet voice calling my name.
“Daddy! I wanna ride that one!” Her stubby finger pointed toward a roller coaster she wasn’t tall enough to ride.
The camera panned to a man I didn’t recognize. “Aw, baby. That one’s too big.”
He was lean, clean shaven, with a high and tight haircut, his arms covered in tattoos. His shoulders back and his spine straight, he exuded a confidence that wasn’t arrogant, but instead full of life.
I stared at him, my heart in my throat, trying to remember when that man had turned into the Truett of the present. Was it the day I’d left for deployment? The moment I’d lost my team? Or was it the second I’d let go of Kaitlyn for the last time?
“But, Daddy! Pwease! I just wanna ride a coaster.” Kaitlyn’s voice was laced with tears, and my heart squeezed, just as it had that day at the amusement park.
The young and happy version of Truett scooped her up into his arms and promised her that she’d get to ride a roller coaster—just maybe not the biggest one in the park. Gwen’s laughter from the other side of the camera sent a wave of longing through me. I’d heard her laugh at least a hundred times over the last few weeks, but not like that. This was filled with carefree youth. Oblivious to the traumas headed our way.
The video cut, and when it resumed, Kaitlyn and I were seated in the front of a ride shaped like a caterpillar. Her eyes were wide, her mouth hanging open in a grin as we both turned and waved at the camera just moments before the ride started.
We were in the kiddie section, the rides all fairly tame. But this was her first experience, and by the time the caterpillar train came to a halt at the end of the tracks, Kaitlyn’s wide smile had transformed into round eyes and a look of horror.
Nate giggled beside me. “This is my favorite part!”
Together, the three of us watched as I helped my daughter down the stairs, her lower lip quivering as we made our way toward Gwen, who was still standing behind the camera.
“How was it, baby?” she cooed.
Kaitlyn swallowed hard, and then without a hint of hesitation, she shouted, “I wanna do it again!”
Nate dissolved into a fit of laughter. “She looked so freaked out when she got off but then wanted to do it again! What a champ. That’s my sister!”
The wind rushed from my lungs as though I’d been punched in the gut.
“That’s my sister.”
Of course she was his sister.
Gwen was Kaitlyn’s mother, and she was Nate’s mother.
But, until that very moment, it hadn’t seemed real.
My baby girl had a younger brother. A brother who not only knew about her, despite never having met her, but one who was proud of her. I looked at Gwen who was eyeing me over the top of Nate’s head. She offered me a soft smile that I returned as I reached for her hand.
Lacing my fingers with hers, I said, “She was a lot like you, Nate.”
Nate tipped his head back at me. “Yup. Let’s watch another.”
For over an hour, we sat there watching home videos, many that I was in but had never seen. And with each one, I realized that I missed the carefree man who had taken his daughter to the park, snuck kisses from his wife when no one was looking, and smiled so much his cheeks had to have hurt.