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“You’re practically family already,” Melissa said as she glanced at the picture.
If a heart could grow in size, mine enlarged on the spot. I’d been more at home here with this family than with the one I was supposed to call my own.
Grabbing the bag from Dean, I started walking toward the kitchen.
“I’ll show you around the house. ” Dean grabbed Melissa by the hand, leaving me alone.
Gran and Gramps sat at the table, drinking out of coffee mugs. Gran scooted out of her chair and shuffled toward me, her arms outstretched. “Oh, Cassie. It’s so good to see you. We miss you. ” She kissed the side of my cheek and hugged me as tightly as her frail arms could.
“I miss you too. Here, I brought these. ” I pulled out the flowers and the wine.
“The kitten is here!” Gramps practically shouted before wrapping his burly arms around me, the smell of tobacco lingering on his clothes.
I breathed him in, the scent reminding me of being here with Jack. “Gramps! I miss you the most. Don’t tell Gran,” I whisper-shouted near his ear.
“I heard that!” Gran yelled out from the sink where she worked on arranging the flowers in a vase.
“Come sit,” Gramps said as he plopped back into his chair.
“Should we open the wine?” Gran asked, still arranging the flowers.
“I’m OK. We brought those bottles for you guys to enjoy with dinner. Save them. ” I winked at Gramps, and he grinned.
Gran placed her hand on my shoulder as she passed me to sit down. She sipped from her mug before eyeing me. “So, dear, how is everything?”
My smile faded quicker than I intended. “It’s good. Everything’s good,” I lied, as the realization that being around Jack’s family without Jack was harder than I anticipated. I missed him. And I knew I couldn’t get anything past Gran.
Gran reached out a hand, touching my fingers gently. “We saw that dreadful magazine. Why won’t she just go away?”
“I don’t know, but I’ve wondered the same thing. ”
“Jack said you’re having a hard time dealing with it all. Tell us what’s going on. ” Gran had a way of making you talk about the things you wanted to avoid.
I looked into Gramps’s tired eyes, the worry lines around them increasing. “He’s right. I’m just having a hard time dealing with all the press and the Internet sites. ”
“Why? What do they say?” Gramps asked through his confusion.
“Just a bunch of mean stuff about how I’m not hot enough for Jack. I’m too fat. They take my picture and basically say whatever they want about it. They just make things up. And now with the whole Chrystle thing, I feel like I can’t take it anymore. ”
“Cassie, you know how much we love you, right?” Gran asked, and I nodded. “It broke our hearts what Jack did to you. We were so disappointed and sad. But to know that you’ve taken him back after everything, we can’t tell you how happy that makes us. ” She reached out to squeeze Gramps’s hand.
“The press sounds dreadful. Truly awful. And I can’t begin to imagine what it must be like to deal with that on a daily basis. But, dear, one day, all of that will fade away. The press, the Internet, the websites, Chrystle,” she paused, “they will all be things of the past. ”
She leaned forward, cupping my face in her hand. “I know you can live your life without all of those things, but can you really live your life without Jack?”
They already knew the answer as I blinked back the tears. “I think I’d be miserable without him. ”
“Because you love him,” Gramps called out, joy animating his voice.
“Of course I love him. ”
“Then don’t give up. One day you’ll look around and realize that all the things you thought mattered so much, really didn’t matter much at all. ” Gran eyed Gramps, the love between them apparent. “What matters the most is who you love. Because when everything else is a distant memory, the people you love are all that’s left. And love is the single most important thing we can do in our lives. Give it. Receive it. Teach others how to do it. ”
My eyes filled with tears again. “Love is the most important thing? Above everything else?”
“Absolutely,” Gramps said with a crooked smile. “It’s funny the things you think will last forever when you’re young. I figured I’d work until I died. But even work stops at some point. And you find yourself looking around, taking stock of your life, and you realize that you don’t give a shit about where you worked, or what you did to bring in money, but you care about the lives you touched. The love you shared. The family you created. You care about who is standing beside you when the shit hits the fan. ”
Gran swatted at Gramps twice, presumably for each time he cursed, but missed. “It’s true,” she said. “The older you get, the more you realize that it isn’t about the material things, or pride or ego. It’s about our hearts and who they beat for. I know your heart beats for Jack in the same way that his heart beats for you. I don’t think one can survive without the other. Do you?”
