Page 32 of Like A Moth To A Flame

“Something I could help with?”

Good question.

“I was just wondering, uhm,” the words were on the top of my tongue, but I couldn’t spit them out.

“About your dad?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I spat, nodding. “Yes.”

Except no, not really. I think he could sense it, too. The look he gave was knowing.

“Well, what can I help with?”

“I was just wondering,” I said, stealing a glance at Barrett. He wasn’t even paying attention, and maybe that was for the better. “What happened?”

“How’d he die, you mean?”

I nodded. Still, I had a feeling he knew I was holding back, but if he did, he didn’t say it.

“Heart attack,” he sighed, taking a quick sip of his coffee. “You remember Tommy?”

“Of course I do,” I asked. “Why?”

“He was driving by. He noticed your dad’s grass was a bit taller than normal.”

I snorted. Dad had always been super anal about his grass. Anything over a couple of inches would be super concerning, especially for someone who knew him like Tommy Eades.

“He knocked on the door, and didn’t get an answer, so he let himself in.”

I nodded, fighting the prickling, burning ball of emotions that had begun to roil and twist in my throat. Not now. I couldn’t cry now. I didn’t even have the energy.

“He walked in and found him unresponsive in his chair.”

I stayed quiet, just listening to him talk. There was something so comforting about his voice.

“I need you to know he did all he could,” Sheriff Banner said, giving me a sad smile. His brown eyes caught mine, and myemotions began to escape through my eyelashes. I couldn’t hold them back anymore. “He worked on him himself, and then he called it in. He never got a pulse back. Coroner estimates he was gone for just a couple hours before Tommy found him.”

I nodded, blinking the tears from the corners of my eyes.

“Th-thanks,” I said, reaching up and angrily swiping away a tear that clung stubbornly to the outside of my eye.

“I need you to know that even after what happened, he still loved you,” he said, catching my eyes once more. “Even after your fallin’ out, all he could ever do was sing your praises.”

I nearly lost it then. I could feel my lungs inflating, ready to burst. My throat burned, and my eyes swam with tears, and more than one escaped and slipped down my cheeks. I wiped my eyes, willing it to stop.

“Thanks, Sheriff,” I said, fighting to pull on a smile. “I’m glad to hear that, and to hear that everyone was here for him.”

“We were,” he nodded. “Every single one of us. I made sure to respond to that call personally. Tommy was distraught. Half the boys on the force couldn’t even step in the door knowing who was in there.”

He sighed, looking away, as if the memory was painful.

“I’ll have to thank him for everything.”

He nodded, and a long pause stretched between us.

“You sure you didn’t come over here intendin’ to ask me something else?”

Well, damn, he saw right through me, didn’t he?

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