For Her (Broken Promises #2) (9 page)

By midnight I haven’t had a chance to check my phone at all. Gabe wasn’t wrong when he said tonight was going to be busy. Finally able to sneak a look at my phone I see a text from Al to call her when I can and a missed call from a local area code. Unlike my friends, I actually check my voicemail regularly.

“Hi, this is Allen Peterson with Hollstalf Law here in LA. If you could please call me back regarding your friend Mr. Sheridan’s estate I would greatly appreciate it.” He leaves his number that I scribble down frantically before hanging up.

His estate? That little shit left me something? I wonder if I was listed as one of the beneficiaries since he wasn’t close to his family for all those years.

Fuck.

“Everything good?” Gabe asks, wiping his hands from the bar towel as he walks into the stock room.

“Yea. That was Lane’s lawyer. Looks like I have to meet for something.” I sigh, hating that this all can’t just be over with. I’m tired of being sad and angry that I lost a brother.

He looks at me with a sympathetic look on his face, then pats my shoulder and walks away. He knows how rough I had it when he died. I slept on his couch, for Christ’s sake, because I couldn’t bring myself to go home and pass Lane’s door. He knows, and he’s there for me, but with something like this… it’s not going to just go away. I’m going to need to learn to live with it.

Alexis

“Alexis, do you know why you were asked to meet with me?” Allen Peterson, Lane’s lawyer, asks from across my parent’s kitchen table.

“I’m assuming it’s because there are still loose ends that need to be tied up neatly since Lane’s passing.” It’s hard as hell for me to talk about this without tearing up, but business is where I excel. Just being in this situation has me feeling more alive than I’ve felt in the last few months.

“Correct. You, along with Mr. Simms were named as beneficiaries to Mr. Sheridan’s will in the case of his death. There were funds set aside and plans pre arranged due to his conditions so the funeral and costs are all covered and finalized, but there are still a lot of loose ends, shall you say.” He smiles and passes me a file folder. “In here you’ll find all accounts that belonged to Mr. Sheridan, along with passwords and pins to gain access to all accounts. You will be splitting the estate 50/50 with Mr. Simms. Would you like our financial aids to help you in the splitting of these funds?”

I stare at him, eyes wide and mouth open after listening to the blunt words come out of his mouth I know he’s a busy man, but he didn’t waste any time at all getting to the point.

“Estate?” I stutter, opening the folder to see the numbers he’s talking about. “Holy shit,” I whisper, looking at the multiple accounts and digits in front of me.

“Yes. Estate. He assured me you would be comfortable taking control of his apartment and personal belongings. If this isn’t the case anymore, we are going to need to get it out of his name and on the market. It can’t just sit there-”

“Wait… what? His apartment? I can’t afford his apartment. I don’t live there, anymore, I can’t…. why the hell has this taken so long to get put into motion? He died months ago!”

“Ms. Grant, we were instructed in very… stern… words by your own parents lawyer to give you time to heal and get back on your feet before approaching you with this information. They feared it would cloud your already foggy state of mind if approached too fast with this much… money. Mr. Sheridan owns the building his and Mr. Simms’s apartment is in. It is paid in full, the only thing you’d be responsible for is sharing the taxes with your upstairs neighbor, Mr. Simms.”

I glance down again at the numbers on the paper, taking in the seven digits to split in half and lose all train of thought once my mind processes what he just told me.

“My parent’s lawyer?” What?

“Yes…  I came to visit you in the hospital, but I was given the name of your parent’s lawyer and not let in to see you. I was under the assumption that you were aware of all this. I apologize, Alexis, if this is all news to you. It wasn’t my intention to throw all this at an unsuspecting person today.” He looks truly remorse for what he did, but it’s not his fault.

It’s my parent’s fault. Why would they tell them that? Why would they keep it from me?

“Ok, so… I uh… are we done here? Is there anything else you need to tell me or can I take this and get started on… this…” I don’t even know what ‘this’ is that I need to get started on, but I have to talk to my parents. I need to know what else they’ve done behind my back. I need this man out of my house so I can get my thoughts together.

“Just one more thing,” he says, and then pulls out a white envelope with Lane’s handwriting scrawled across the front. ‘My Al’, in his manly all caps handwriting that he never could get away from along with a heart in the bottom right corner. My heart sinks as he slides it across the table to me. “This is for you. I was instructed to give this to you only after the cancer took him. I know it wasn’t cancer that took him, and I don’t know what’s in here, but I know he would want you have the words in here no matter what. He was very much in love with you, Alexis.” He hands me the envelope and I take it with shaky hands. Lane touched this. He wrote these words for me. This is the final time I’ll ever see his words, and I’m not certain I want to open this letter.

“Thanks,” I mumble.

I see him out and lay against the door as it clicks shut. This new information has me reeling.

My parents are the reason I moved home. They are the reason I’m here right now, because had they let the lawyer get to me earlier while I was still in the hospital, I would have probably chosen to stay in LA.

Holy shit this changes everything.

“Dad,” I blurt, opening the door to the office where he was hiding. Startled, he looks up at me. “What’s this about a lawyer wanting to contact me, but you guys wouldn’t let him?” Slamming the door, he stares at me like he’s just been caught and sighs heavily.

“I think we need to wait to talk about this when your mom gets home, Alexis,” he mumbles, standing from his desk and moving to the kitchen.

I love my parents. We’ve had our rough times, of course, but honestly I’ve always thought I’ve had a pretty fantastic relationship with my parents. I refuse to believe they did whatever they did out of spite and with bad intentions. They always agreed with my life in LA, even if it meant I didn’t get to see them as much. There’s no reason they should be keeping things like this from me.

When my mom gets home she’s completely oblivious to the news that I’m about to drop on her. News that I know what game she played, even if… at the time… she didn’t know she was playing a game.

“Dear, we need to sit down and talk with Alexis,” my dad says as my mom walks into the kitchen. She sees the look on his face and knows immediately that something’s wrong.

“I know, Mom. I met with the lawyer today. Finally.” Crossing my arms, my papers still in my firm grip, I watch her face fall, defeated.

“Oh honey, I’m so sorry,” she whispers. A tear slips down her face as she sits at the table next to my dad. They both look so old and beaten down by life. I’ve never looked at them in this light before. They’ve both aged dramatically since I first moved to LA.

God, why am I so pissed that I moved back here to be with them? I don’t have much time left with them in the grand scheme of things. I know they aren’t going to be around much longer, if a month or two of my adult life is spent living in their house while they help nurse me, mentally, back to health then so be it. I think I’m more hurt that they hid this from me. I thought we pretty much told each other everything.

“It wasn’t supposed to happen this way, Alexis. You and Lane… everything. God, Alexis, if you could have seen the devastation on Braydon’s face the night of the accident. I’ve never seen anyone look so broken. You have so many people that love you. It all wasn’t supposed to happen like this.” She sniffles and shakes her head, not making eye contact with anyone in the room. “Your father and I were in the waiting room the next day, before you woke up, and the lawyer came in.  He wanted to wait until you woke up. You were everything on Lane’s accounts so they were trying to wait for you to wake up to make you make the big decisions. I knew you couldn't handle that, Alexis. You… you have to believe I made him go away for this long because I thought it’d be better for you to have time to find yourself again after the accident. I knew you’d be angry with me, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I didn’t do it to take you away from your friends, Alexis. I didn’t do it to take you away from a man that obviously loves you.”

“Mom, what?” I gasp, her words hitting a nerve with me. “The man I love is dead. I’m not sure what is happening between Braydon and I, but Lane was his best friend and my boyfriend. We aren’t going to do that to him.”

My dad clears his throat and speaks up, “Alexis… You only get a second chance at living life so many times before you’re left alone and miserable the rest of your life.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“What your father is trying to say, honey, is that you don’t need to not love because of your love for Lane. Don’t push aside any feelings, no matter how guilty they make you feel.”

“I’m not guilty,” I blurt, feeling my anger rising. I do feel guilty, but they don’t need to know that. “I’m hurt that you guys didn’t tell me. I’m upset that I can’t seem to find myself like I thought I would, and I’m scared that I never will unless I move back to LA!” I spit out the last part before I even know what I’m saying, now they’re looking at each other with the look I remember from my childhood when they both knew something was inevitable to happen. They were just waiting for it to go down. The ‘I told you so’ look.

“So… what’d the lawyer have to tell you today?” My mom smiles gently, pulling out the chair at the table for me to sit. I move towards her, finally feeling like I can move around like a normal person. Albeit a little slower than I’d like, I’m beginning to get around a lot better than I thought I ever would. Sitting in the chair, I set the file folder in front of me and stare at the name “Sheridan” on the tab.

“I need to clear out his apartment,” I mumble, picking at the corner of the envelope. “It only makes sense. It can’t just sit there empty.”

My parents nod and my mom clears her throat. I see them exchange another glance and feel like I’m being handled with kid gloves and don’t like it.

“Listen,” I say, standing up. “I’m going to head up to take a nap before dinner. There are lots I need to think about and I’m just on overload right now. Thanks for everything, guys. Soon I’m going to be able to do more around here… maybe learn to live on my own again.” I smile and leave the room, making my way to my bedroom and shutting the door behind me and tossing the papers from today on my desk.

A bedroom. I’m a mid-twenties girl who had it all, living in LA with her model boyfriend… minimized down to a small childhood bedroom in my parent’s house in Santa Barbara. Not that this is a small town or not as busy as LA, it’s just… this is the hometown neighborhood I grew up in. I’m never going to feel like I can spread my wings and grow living here.

The second I start to close my eyes and drift off I hear something fall. Opening my eyes, the envelope I sat on my desk when I came into the room is now on the floor.

Strange.

The only thing that is out of place is the one thing I’m trying to ignore today. Maybe it’s because I feel like if I ignore it, there’s still a part of him alive… maybe it’s because I’m so scared to read the words inside that small white envelope that I’d rather not know. I can’t say, but the thought of opening it and reading Lane’s final words to me is nauseating, exciting, and depressing all at the same time.

Whatever it is that made that envelope fall I’m not sure, but it has to be a sign. I’ve ignored it since the second he gave it to me, even though it felt like fire in my hands when he handed it to me.

I need to read this. If I ever want to move on, I have to read this.

Before backing down, I reach down and grab the white envelope from the floor; tracing the letters of my nickname he and Bray have been calling me for years and smile. Only those two call me Al. I wouldn’t let anyone else even if they tried. It’s reserved for my two best friends only.

Breaking the seal gently, I take out the lined paper that Lane had to hand write his note on and take a deep breath, letting my eyes trace over his words.

Alexis,

My Al. The girl who stole my heart well before she knew it. I knew you were a beautiful face even before I even saw you. I knew you were a beautiful person before you spoke to me. It wasn’t until I spent time with you that I realized you’re truly the best person I’ve ever met. Truly. (Don’t tell Braydon this, he may get jealous) I’m still in awe that I’m able to call you mine.

Well… that I was able.

If you’re reading this, it’s because I finally lost my battle with the disease that’s been trying to take me for longer than I knew. It’s funny how that works out, isn’t it? Damn cancer. I used to be angry about it. I didn’t want you in my life because I didn’t want you to see me weak, but you pushed your way in and I was able to spend my time left here on earth with the beautiful woman I love so dear.

Love.

It’s funny how that works, too… isn’t it? You pick someone and you’re just like… ‘you’re it, let’s go’…. So we did. We picked each other, we had a beautiful time together, and now I’m gone and you’re left to pick up the pieces.

I know you, Al. I know your brain is thinking about all the paperwork and shit that comes with dealing with death, but I don’t want you to worry. You’re all covered. The lawyer has been paid in advance; the funds are all ready to be moved to wherever they need to be. Don’t worry.

Don’t. Worry. I’ve got this.

I love you, Al. I’ve always loved you. I’ll always love you.