Losing Him (Mitchell Family #8)(27)

Heather looked at me. I just laughed. “Yeah, buddy. I slept in here with Mommy. Is that okay with you?”

He started jumping around on the foot of the bed. “Yeah!”

“Jacob, you’re going to fall off the bed. Please don’t do that.” Heather’s attempts at getting him to listen never worked.

“Jacob, did you hear your mother?” He stopped immediately.

Heather groaned and put her head into the pillow, face first. She hated when he listened to me so quickly. I put my arm around her and stuck my head near her ear. “What are your plans for today?”

“I have to start going through things, I guess. The lawyer is coming this afternoon to go over my mother’s estate.”

“What’s an estate?” Jacob climbed up between us.

“It’s the belongings of a person that has died,” I explained.

He started jumping again. “I want to get out of here! Let’s go play!”

I sat up and gave him the look where I was about to punish him. He froze.

Heather finally turned around and sat up. She looked at Jacob and then back to me. “Buddy, I have to clean out the attic too. I bet there is some cool toys up there that you can keep.”

“Really?” His eyes got huge. “Let’s go now!”

Heather looked at me and rolled her eyes.

“How about you go watch television while Mom and I get dressed?” I pointed toward the door.

“Get dressed? Why don’t you have clothes on?” His eyes went toward the covers. I got that he was being curious, but he was way too young for that explanation.

“Jacob, just go watch one of your shows. I’ll be right out.” I motioned toward the door one more time.

He ran out, like he was afraid of me. Heather started laughing and pulled the covers over her head. I ducked down under the covers with her. “Are you hiding from me?” I pulled her close to me.

“Of course not. I’d never hide from you.”

I started to tickle her. Just one touch and she was wiggling around and screaming. Her boobs were so close to my face that I was starting to get aroused. Since I had to pee, I needed to stop before I was locking the bedroom door and taking some morning loving. “I’m getting up.”

She reached down and felt me. “I can tell.”

I rolled out of bed and held onto my jewels like I was protecting them. “Jacob is waiting for us, you know?”

She pointed to my morning erection. “You’re the one with the problem. I was perfectly content until you started touching me with those sexy hands.” Heather was giving me that look and I needed to get into a cold shower to calm myself down.

I pulled on my boxers and waved as I walked out of the bedroom. A pillow came flying at my head and I heard her laughing. I liked seeing her smile. She hardly ever did, so it made it more special.

A little later, after my shower and some cereal, we headed up to the attic. Heather’s mom’s attic wasn’t like the kind with the pull down stairs. It was a door that you opened and walked up a set of steps. I imagine that some people would finish it off and make it an extra bedroom. She had set hers up as storage on one side and a sewing room on the other.

Heather bypassed the sewing room and headed right for the slew of storage boxes. I noticed her mother had been working on several blankets that she had hanging up. Pushed to the side was a wrapped package. Thinking that it was for someone, and she had put a lot of time into it, I picked it up to see if there was name attached to it.

It was labeled:

To Heather, Love Mom.



The box was pretty big. I just assumed that it was a special blanket that she’d made, since that was what she always made for people. “Babe, there’s a box here with your name on it.”

Heather handed Jacob a container full of matchbox cars and started walking toward me, without saying a single word. She had this blank look on her face as she sat down next to me looking at the wrapped package. “Where was it?”

“Sitting down there in the corner.”

She pulled the tape off of the corners and lifted the box open. I couldn’t have been prepared for what she pulled out.

First, it was a note. She read it out loud.

“Heather, I wanted to give you this in person, but if you’re reading this than the timing wasn’t right. I hope that one day you will be able to wear this. I made it with love. Please don’t be sad if I’m gone. I will always love you. I’m so proud of the mother that you’ve become. You’re so beautiful and I know this will be stunning on you. Love, Mom”

Heather was crying as she pulled back the tissue paper and lifted out a satiny white bunch of fabric. As she stood up, I finally understood what it was. Her mother had made her a wedding dress. Heather held it close to her chest and continued to cry. She finally sat back down and folded it into the box. “Aren’t you going to try it on?”

She looked at me and said nothing. With tears running down her face, she traced the fabric with her fingers. In a whisper, “I’m afraid.”

“Of what? She worked hard on it.”

Heather looked right at me. “It’s not like I can wear it.”

It wasn’t like she was pressuring me to ask her. She didn’t say it like that. I knew she wouldn’t push me on issues like marriage. We were starting over and needed time to work things out before we took a step like that. “What am I supposed to say?” I felt terrible. Her mother had made her something so special. Was I being a dick for not dropping down on one knee and popping the question?