Page 53 of Levi

But now it's Nana. My best friend. The last bit of my family left in this world.

It feels like proof that no one in my life sticks around, and that fucking sucks.

“Thanks for taking such good care of her,” I finally muster out, not trusting myself to say much more than that.

“We all love her here, and you know we will do whatever we can to help you. I just wanted to give you a heads up, that's all sweetie,” Holly says, her soft smile doing what it can to warm my heart, but damn I hate this.

“And she loves you. Do you know if she's in her room or in the common area?” I ask, tapping the counter as I push away.

“Last I saw, she was in the common room. They were going to play Dominoes, but Delilah couldn't find the Dominoes again.”

“I'll see if I can help.” I laugh before walking down the hall until I get to the big room filled with couches, recliners, more TVs than even in my TV room, and so many tables for games, puzzles or whatever else they want to do that day.

I love that everyone hangs out here most of the time. It makes me happy to know she's surrounded by people, never alone.

The sound of dice being rolled and someone shouting “Yahtzee” tells me I'm in the right place.

“Well, hello there. Are you stopping by to cause more trouble,” Delilah says as she slaps on her devilish smirk as she sits in a recliner reading a book.

“Who, me?” I say, pointing to my chest as I make my way over to her.

“Yes, you. You're always causing mischief when you're here.”

“Now Ms. Delilah, how long are you going to hold a grudge over me for beating you in Monopoly?” I say as I take the seat next to her, my eyes gazing around the room looking for Nana.

“How do you know it's that and not that I caught you cheating in bingo last month?”

“For the last time, I wasn't cheating! It's not my fault you gave me 3 winning cards in a row. I guess I was just lucky that day,” I shrug, looking at the other recliners still.

“She’ll be back. She went to the bathroom and to grab some chocolate. Said she felt like relaxing instead of playing games.”

“Nana wants to read?”

Shit maybe this is bad.

Nana has never been one to pick up a book and read it for fun. She’s more of a TV and movie girl, if anything—she usually preferred to be out doing something over anything else. It’s how we got started playing bowling and playing bingo. We played a lot of bingo in the beginning before she started branching out.

All of that just to say her sitting down to read…that’s weird as fuck.

Delilah shrugs. “Yeah, said she was bored of bingo for now and wanted to try something different. I found one of my books back in my room and thought she might enjoy a little accidental wedding in Vegas with the most delicious MMC that does delicious things. Dalton and Dia can cure any bad mood.”

“Delilah, are you speaking English? MMC? Delicious things? What are you getting into?”

“MMC is the main male character in a book, you nitwit.” She scoffs like everyone should know that.

I know a handful of things really well in this life…hockey, bingo,Murder She Wrotethanks to Nana, and Quinn. I’ve picked up a pretty eclectic mix of knowledge, but that last bit is starting to worry me—because the more I learn about Quinn, the more I truly get to know her, the more terrified I am of how quickly these feelings are growing.

I feel like I’m in the path of a tsunami, watching the water rush towards me knowing if it gets to me, if I let it happen, it’ll swallow me whole, drown me in its power.

But all that power could break me. To allow another person to come in my life, to make me care about them, only for them to hurt me, leave me. I don’t know. All I know is that the only thing fake about this situation between me and Quinn is that we keep saying it is. Nothing about the way I feel about her is fake.

I just need to figure out if I’m going to tell her how I’m feeling. If I’m willing to hand her my heart on a platter knowing she could devastate me, but hoping she feels the same way and will protect my heart instead of destroying it.

“As for what your nana is getting into, that’s none of your damn business and you’d probably do best not to push that subject. Might put some thoughts in your mind you’d much prefer to not have.”

“Gross…” I shudder.

“Your nana has been off,” Delilah says quietly after a moment.

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