I had cleaned up the kitchen while she went to get ready for work. It had given me something to do and kept me busy while she was getting a shower. Knowing she had been naked in there had been hard to ignore. I didn’t want her to think I was there just for the sex. The sex was amazing, but it wasn’t what I needed the most. Just being near her was the one thing I couldn’t seem to walk away from. I needed her.
I wouldn’t have been able to leave her if it wasn’t for the fact I needed to go see my gran. When I was near her, my void was forgotten. Almost as if it wasn’t there. Ophelia masked it somehow. I craved that feeling of freedom her presence gave me. With her, even the silence was safe. There were no demons waiting to haunt me. She managed to keep it all away.
My uncle Preston had picked me up before noon and I’d been back in Sea Breeze by the time Gran’s treatment was over. My parents, sisters, Aunt Amanda, Uncle Preston, their boys, Larissa, Micah and Jilly had already arrived at Gran’s with dinner and had been sitting around the living room. The younger ones had been out at the pool. I had worried that everyone there would be too much on Gran after her treatment, but she had insisted on being put in her recliner in the living room. Even pale and weak looking she was smiling as she sat tucked under several blankets. My grandfather was the only one who was unable to act normal. The fear, worry, and concern etched on his face was clear. He had appeared to be in more pain than Gran.
My dad and Aunt Amanda were taking turns with staying there to help him with Gran through the weekend. I’d told both of them I’d stay the Monday and Tuesday then Larissa had wanted to be with her Wednesday and Thursday while she was off work. Aunt Amanda was taking Friday and half of Saturday and my dad the other half of the weekend.
Until Gran was stable and in better health, I knew I was going to be in Sea Breeze. We didn’t know how long we had with her or if the chemo would give her the time we hoped it would. Leaving was not an option I could consider now.
Finding somewhere to rent short term was my first objective on Wednesday, then I needed a job. After I got that handled, I’d need to go back to Atlanta and pick up my last paycheck at the club I had been a bouncer at for the past eight months. Then get my things from Grate’s apartment. The lease on my place had been up at the end of May. I’d known when I came back here I wasn’t sure where I would go next but that I wouldn’t return to Atlanta to live. Grate had taken my things for me until I knew more about Gran and my plans.
That was going to take the rest of the week and weekend. Which bothered me. The only thing I wanted to do was go back to Rosemary Beach and be with Ophelia. Although she understood why I had needed to leave, it didn’t ease my ache to be near her. We were keeping in contact daily through text messages and calls. I was trying to remember that getting in too deep with her was only going to end badly. But every time I thought about her, every time I talked to her, I couldn’t seem to care. Feeling guilty about how she made me forget, she made me smile, it too was getting easier. If I didn’t dwell on it too much.
“Eli, get yourself some sweet tea and come sit with me,” Gran called from the sunroom she’d been napping in. When I had arrived this morning, my grandfather had gone to work and Gran had wanted me to bring her into the sunroom where she was going to read a book Amanda had brought her. I had gone in there to join her with a book of my own I’d taken from the study, but reading had soon put her to sleep.
I already had a glass of sweet tea, so I picked it up from the small table beside me. Afraid I’d get a call and disturb Gran’s sleep, I had moved to the living room. Far enough away not to bother her rest but close enough she could call to me.
I stopped by the kitchen and took the cup of ice water that came with a lid and a straw with me too. Gran would be thirsty. I had taken her cup when I left her earlier so I could get her fresh water for when she woke up.