Authors: B. N. Toler
Wrecking Ball (24 page)
And Brandon, my threat still stands from when I was thirteen. You hurt my sister I’m going to kick your ass. Or rather haunt you.
I know you won’t though. You love her and I believe that with every fiber of my being. I love you both, Kiss my
nieces, and tell them all of the awesome stories about me, even the ones that most parents wouldn’t because they think it would set a bad example. I want them to remember me accurately.
All of my love,
Tia
When he searched the papers he found a bank statement in the girl’s names. On the back was written,
so that my nieces can one day go on an adventure of their own together.
WENTY-NINE
Brandon
When we got back from Mexico
, Sophia threw herself into her normal routine. She’s been quiet and a little withdrawn. That’s to be expected. She just lost her sister. In some ways, I still can’t believe Tia is gone. She wasn’t my sister and we didn’t always see eye to eye, but she meant the world to my wife and that made her important to me.
As I sat drinking my coffee at the table one morning, Ferrah and Chloe crawled into the chairs on each side of me. Their eyes were red with tears and frowns covered their faces.
“What’s wrong, my little princesses?” I asked concerned.
“Mommy just caught us fighting and yelled at us. She said we should be grateful we have one another and stop arguing over silly things
,” Chloe answered with a weepy tone.
My heart sunk a little.
My poor Sophia. I wished so badly I could take away her hurt. She’d been more tense the last day or two after she went and had genetic testing done to see if she carried the same genes as Tia. We’re still waiting on the results.
“Girls, Mommy is just really sad right now.”
“Because of Auntie T?” Ferrah sniffled.
“Yeah.”
“Listen, I’ll talk to Mommy, but you two try and get along, okay?”
“Okay
,” they agreed in unison.
I
left for work that morning with a plan. Life is short. So short. Sophia and I were blessed with money to do things most wouldn’t be able to do. My career played a huge role in what almost destroyed us. It was no longer so important to me.
So I gave my resignation that day. When I got home,
I found Sophia in our guest room, where Tia had stayed, looking through a photo album as she sat on the bed.
“Hi
, beautiful,” I kissed the top of her head and sat down beside her.
“Hey
.” She smiled softly. “You’re home early.”
“Yeah, well I need to speak with you.” I rubbed her back gently. She looked exhausted, thin and pale.
“Everything okay?”
“I gave my resignation today
,” I blurted out. She stared at me blankly for a long moment.
“Why?”
“Because I want us to do the things we dreamed of. I want us to live life to the fullest.”
“But you’ve worked so hard Brandon.”
“None of that matters to me now. Chasing my career almost cost me you.”
“Well, what will you do now?”
“What will
we
do now is the question.”
“Okay.” She turned to face me pulling one leg up and folding it in front of her on the bed.
“Let’s sell the house and move to Mexico. You have your inheritance, I can find a job teaching down there, and we’ll have no mortgage since Tia and Antonio gave us the house.”
“Really?”
The first real smile I’d seen on her face in days appeared. I knew in that moment I’d made the right decision to quit.
“Yes. I have to finish out the semester, but we can move right after that.”
Sophia climbed into my lap and wrapped her arms around me. “I can’t believe we’re going to do this.”
“Believe it.”
“Thank you, Brandon.” Her lips met mine and our kiss exploded into passion and need. She pulled away from me briefly and whispered against my lips. “Take me to our bed and make love to me. I need you inside of me now.”
That’s all it took. I was hard as a rock with
just those words. The woman knows how to get me going. I scooped her up and as I carried her out of the guest room I growled, “Gladly.”
PILOGUE
Sophia
When Tia was born, as I said, I promised myself I’d be different than most sisters. I wanted to be her friend—
best friend
and I wanted to teach her everything; how to kiss—even though when she was born I had no idea how to do it myself, but I hoped to figure it out and be able to help her. I wanted to teach her how to dance; blow bubbles; swim, I wanted to guide her. The idea made me feel important, like I had purpose. As we grew up together, I did teach her many things, but I never thought my baby sister might actually teach me something.
In my thirties, she gave me the greatest life lesson. When you do something, do it all the way.
Brandon told me when Tia first took me to Mexico he thought it was to convince me to leave him. Maybe deep down, I sort of thought that too, though she never said that. But Tia was on a mission.
Operation
“Bring Sophia back to life.”
Tia wanted me to make a
choice and not go at it half-assed. She wanted me to throw my heart into it and give it my all. Tia wanted me to live. If I felt angry, she wanted me to show it, cuss someone out, punch a guy who was acting like an asshole at a bar getting handsy with her sister, stand up for myself. If I wanted to make love on a beach, she wanted me to be brave enough to throw caution to the wind, and live for the moment, because moments like that pass in the blink of an eye. If I decided to stay with Brandon, she wanted me full of fire and passion, not someone going through the motions.
Her most valuable lesson though, was her life. Life is so fragile and can end so unexpectedly. Tia
filled her days with memories that could fill hundreds of lifetimes. She wasn’t perfect and she never claimed to be, but she did what made her happy. She demanded happiness and when she died, even though she was so young, she had no regrets.
Brandon and I came together again, stronger than ever. Our love re-bloomed with all of the passion
and need we once had for each other. Tia’s death taught us to cling tight to each other and wake up every day with the idea to live it like it was our last.
With my new outlook on life, a lesson the wild and unruly Tia taught me,
Brandon and I moved to Mexico with the girls. He got a job at a local university making far less, but we had no mortgage with Tia leaving us Antonio’s house, plus my inheritance, so we live very comfortably.
One night as we were sitting on Tia’s bench, something occurred to me.
“Brandon, that day in the hospital when Tia asked to speak with you, what did she say?” I couldn’t believe I had never asked. I was so grief-stricken I guess it never occurred to me to ask him.
Brandon let out a little chuckle. “She told me
the day she met me she knew I was the one you belonged with and she still believed it even though I was a dick for hurting you.”
That sounded like something she would say.
“She said I was the only person she trusted with you, to help you through it and that I had to get you back and I couldn’t take no for an answer.”
“Pushy
, Tia. As usual,” I chuckled.
“I’m grateful to he
r,” Brandon said as he stared out over the water, his hand finding mine on the bench between us.
“I know.” I laid my head on his shoulder.
We made love on the beach that night, slowly, savoring the taste of each other. We’d found a great deal of happiness and though I ached inside at the loss of my sister, her bright light having diffused so quickly, I knew I was doing what I promised her I would do.
I was living.
Nine months later, we welcomed our new daughter into the world.
Tia Renee
.
Ali
ce, Kate, Ashley, & Leah, thank you for your encouragement and support. You guys are the best!
To
Ellen Sallas of The Author’s Mentor
for her editing and formatting and answering all of my questions because I always have so many! A big thanks to Kari Ayasha with Cover to Cover Designs for designing the cover. I know I can be picky and a pain in the you know what, but thanks for your patience.
To the bloggers that have read my other books, who have given a nobody in the literary world a chance, thank you.
To Brett and Amy Jo, my siblings. I love you both, and I thank God I got to have you both as my brother and sister. How tragically boring life would be without you.
And finally, Toler. For letting me read little bits of my story to you constantly asking, “Is this funny?” You never get annoyed and I kind of love you that. But mostly I love you because no one makes me laugh more than you and you know laughing is my all-time favorite thing to do next to sleeping in and reading. Seriously babe, thanks for everything.
B N Toler
is a happily married, mother of three who lives in Virginia. She enjoys reading and lives for a good book she can’t put down.
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