Free Keeping Her (The Lexington Series Book 2) by Belle Winters

I checked the time to see it was only
noon. I crawled back into the bed and spooned with Lucy. She didn’t stir but moved
her body as close to mine as possible and sighed. I kissed her head and went
back to sleep.
    We met up with James at 5:00 in the
lobby. The storm had passed and it was muggy out. He informed us that he would
take care of the funeral arrangements and has already notified the school so
they would excuse the additional days of absence. We would need to meet with my
dad’s lawyer after the funeral and get the details of his estate. Samantha came
down shortly after with Max. No one had told him what happened, but he was
still weary I guess he could sense the sadness in everyone. He’s always been
perceptive for his age. He went right to Lucy and grabbed her hand. She bent
down and gave him a kiss on the forehead and ruffled his hair. We left the
hotel and headed back to the house. Mel was sitting on the stoop waiting for us
to arrive. When we got there she went straight to Nick and threw her arms
around him. Her face was red and puffy like she’d been crying a lot. Her face
mirrored pretty much everyone’s. I was happy she was there for Nick. Lucy made
a quick dinner and we ate in silence. I kept watching Max and he looked
confused. Fuck. How was I going to tell him this? What was going to happen with
him? I knew Lucy was concerned for him as well because she watched him with a
hawk eye.
    When we got home Lucy suggested that
we have ‘the talk’ with Max. I was dreading this moment but it needed to
happen. Lucy and I waited for him to get situated before we went to his room to
talk, truth be told I was just procrastinating as long as possible. When we
went into the room Max was laying on the floor coloring. Lucy sat down on his
bed and called him over, once he took a seat next to her she held onto his
hands not saying anything then her eyes met mine. She was just as stuck about
this as I was.
    I walked over to where they were
sitting and kneeled in front of them. “Max we need to talk to you about
something ok?”
    He nodded. “Ok.” He said with a
smile, and that almost broke my heart.
    Lucy cleared her throat. “Well little
man, your dad was in a very bad accident.”
    Max’s face instantly fell. “What
happened to him?” he asked worriedly.
    “Well you remember that day it was
raining really hard and you were a little scared?” she asked and he nodded.
“Well that bad rain made it hard to see the road and your dad got into an
accident.”
    “Like when you had an accident? When
is he coming home?” Max asked.
    I felt my eyes sting. Dammit I wish I
could just tell him that he was coming home tomorrow and that it would be true.
“That’s the thing Max. His accident was really bad, worse than Lucy’s. The
doctors tried to help him and everything but he got hurt too bad. Dad went to
heaven with mom.”
    His eyes instantly watered and the
tears started to fall. “But mom never came back.”
    Lucy grabbed him and settled him on
her lap and began running her fingers through his hair. I sat down next to her.
“I know little man, I know. But daddy is an angel now. As long as you don’t
forget him, he’ll always be here even if you can’t see him.”
    Max nodded. “You’re not leaving too
are you?”
    I shook my head. “No Max, I’m not
planning on going anywhere anytime soon.”
    “Am I going to see daddy again?” He
asked sadly.
    I shook my head. “No, at least not
for a very long time.”
    He cried into Lucy’s chest and she
held him. When he was done he asked if he could come with us, which I expected.
He would be afraid of someone else leaving for a while probably. I took him
from Lucy and carried him to the room. He fell asleep on my chest clinging onto
Lucy’s hand.
    The funeral would be in two days.
Lucy made some quick soup since no one wanted to go out and really didn’t have
an appetite. The natural mother instincts in her forced us to eat but I was
happy it was something