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“Where is this coming from?”
Over the next few minutes, I told Dad about Ollie, about how I’d grown close to him and how he’d caused me to look at the world differently.
My father listened to every word. He was always very set in his ways, but surprisingly, he seemed open to my suggestion. “Interesting. Well, you know, when your mother was losing her sight due to the cancer, this never even dawned on me. Perhaps it should’ve.”
“Yeah. Just something we need to keep in mind.”
“I’ve never heard you so passionate about anything. I can see you’ve really grown attached to this kid—and his sister.”
“I don’t know what’s gonna happen, Dad. I’m just taking it one day at a time. But yeah, I really like being here with them.”
He let out a long sigh into the phone. “You’re a good man, Ryder. I don’t tell you that enough. I know I can be hard on you, and I see how hard you try to please me. I’m proud of you, son.”
Wow. Well, I definitely wasn’t expecting that to come out of this phone call. But it was nice.
“Thank you, Dad.”
“Now, figure out a way to get this girl out to L.A.”
I chuckled. “Not that simple.”
“Alright, well, keep me posted on when to expect you home. And I will take what you said today into consideration. Maybe I’ll even task you with creating a team to assess how much we balance the use of visual and non-visual elements in our films.”
“I would love to take that on.”
“Very good, then. Have a good rest of the weekend.”
“You, too, Dad. Try to take a break.”
“Love you, son.”
“Love you, too.”
When I walked back into the house, Eden was alone in the kitchen. Ollie must have returned to his room.
My mood was apparently obvious to her. “Why are you smiling?” she asked.
“I just had a nice conversation with my father. And that’s pretty rare.” Grinning from ear to ear, I said, “It actually had a lot to do with Ollie.”
“Aw, really?”
“Yeah, some stuff he helped me realize about movies. I’ll fill you in later. Right now, I just want to kiss you.”
After devouring Eden’s mouth for a few minutes, I grabbed her and spun her around. I was feeling content, just so happy to be here in Utah with her.
“You trying to dance with me, Mr. McNamara?”
“Why not? I think we’re overdue for a dance, Ms. Shortsleeve.”
I wrapped my arm behind her back, and Eden placed her hand in mine as we swayed to the non-existent music. We didn’t seem to miss it or need it.
Later that night, the three of us sat down and watched a movie I’d chosen from an online list of films that were deemed to be heavy on narration—“blind-friendly.” Ollie had seen most of the movies on the list, except for Forrest Gump, so that’s what we watched.
The fact that Forrest Gump had also been my mother’s favorite movie wasn’t lost on me.CHAPTER TWENTY* * *EDENThat Sunday morning started as normally as any day did with Ryder here.
He and I had stayed up late into the night having amazing sex. I’d skipped camming to spend the full evening with him.
We woke up before Ollie to have some private time over coffee, and Ryder had decided to stay for a long weekend until Monday. He couldn’t take much more time off of work right now, but I was happy for any time we got with him, even if it was just a few days.
He was pouring cream into his mug when he looked down at his phone.
Picking it up and staring at the screen, he said, “Hmm. That’s odd.”
“What?”
“I missed a few calls from Lorena while we were sleeping. My ringer was off. And now she just texted me to call her.”
“Lorena is your housekeeper, right?”
“Yeah.” He looked concerned. “Hang on. I’m just gonna see if everything is okay.”
I watched as he dialed her.
“Lorena, hey. I just got your message.” After a bit of a pause, he said, “Why do you want me to sit down?”
My heart beat faster as Ryder slowly sank into one of the kitchen chairs.
The next few minutes were a blur. His breathing became labored as he listened to the call.
Ryder’s voice was shaky. “What? How could—how could this be?” Suddenly, his lip trembled. “No,” he whispered, then shut his eyes tightly.
Oh my God.
What is happening?
Panicking, I rushed over to him and placed my hands around his shoulders. I didn’t know what was going on, but I knew he needed my support.
“Are you sure?” he asked her.
Several minutes passed as he silently listened. Then he hung up the phone and tossed it aside. He placed both hands around his head and looked at me. It seemed to take forever for the words to come out. And when they did, it was like a sucker punch.
