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“I’m his next of kin,” he scoffed. “And his health care surrogate. They need me to sign some papers. I’m going to have to go down there.”
“No,” she said, emphatically shaking her head. “Fax. Scan. DocuSign. There’s no good reason for you to go there.”
“There is,” he countered. Raising her hand to his lips, Kodiak kissed it. “I’ve got to clean out the house before the church folk get in there. Make sure final arrangements have been made.”
“Why?”
Because I’m afraid of what they might find if I don’t.
“I’m his son.”
“He’s done nothing but hurt you, baby.” Kelly caressed his face, concern evident in her pretty blue eyes. And he loved her for it.
“He’s dying, Snicks. He can’t hurt me anymore.” Was he trying to convince her of that or himself? “I feel, I dunno, guilty? He’s been emailing me for months and I trashed them all.”
“You don’t owe him anything.”
“You’re right. I don’t.” Kelly didn’t understand, but then how could she? Holding her close to him, Kodiak tried to convey why he needed to do this. “I don’t want him to be a ghost that haunts my soul. He haunted me in life. I won’t let him haunt me in death.”
Resignedly, she nodded. “Are you looking for some kind of resolution?”
“Close the circle.”
“Maybe.”
She rubbed her finger back and forth across her lips, and after a long pause, Kelly spoke, “What about your sister?”
“What about her?”
“She’s his daughter.”
“I think you’re forgetting something.” He polished off the rest of his beer and snickered. “In his twisted mind, Linnea is my wife.”
“Jesus, don’t go,” Kelly pleaded.
“He’s still my father. I have to.”
“I have a really bad feeling about this.”
He kissed her forehead.
Me too, Snicks. Me too.
He debated whether to tell Linnea at all. As far as she was concerned, Jarrid was already dead. But in the same vein that Kodiak couldn’t move forward with Kelly keeping secrets from her, he couldn’t keep them from his sister either. Besides, his heart harbored far too many. There wasn’t room for another.
Glancing over at him from the passenger seat of their rented Chevy Tahoe, Linnea reached across the console and took hold of his hand.
Lacing their fingers together, Kodiak squeezed. He knew this was difficult for her. Returning to Crossfield was the last thing he wanted to do. Nothing there except bad memories for both of them. Linnea came along to support him anyhow, and just as any other siblings would, they’d see to their father’s final journey.
But then he and his sister weren’t like other siblings, now, were they?
“There’s a rest area coming up if you need to stop and feed the baby or anything.”
“That’s okay. She’s good for a while.” Linnea peeked over at Charlotte, asleep in the car seat behind her. “I’d just as soon get there.”
“And get it over with?”
Because that’s what Kodiak wanted too. Once they attended to all this unpleasantness, they’d be free.
