Page 138 of Forever

He scratched the back of his neck. “When I visited your um…grave,” he whispered so Jacob didn’t hear. “I used to see your uncle’s grave too. And it always reminded me of how I never really knew him until you. His job was important. And I just treated him like he was invisible. So I don’t want anyone who I come in contact with to ever feel that way. I was living here for a while. I know the doorman. And I wanted to make sure to thank him.”

Tears were welling in my eyes again. “Uncle Jim would have really loved you doing that for people.” I couldn’t think of a better way to honor him.

Matt smiled down at me.

The elevator doors dinged open and Jacob jumped back. “Nunca,” he said.

“Sweet boy, Tanner lives at the very top of this building.” I couldn’t walk up all these steps in heels. “Let’s just give the elevator a try.”

“Nooooo,” Jacob said and took another step back.

“I have an idea,” Matt said. “How about you close your eyes and count to 100?”

“I don’t know how to count to 100.”

Matt and I looked at each other. “You go on up,” he said. “I’ll take the stairs with Jacob.”

“It’s so many stairs,” I said. “Jacob, maybe…”

“I want my abuelo,” he said. “He never makes me get in those.” He pointed one of his sticks at the elevator.

“Tanner is busy getting ready…”

“But I neeeeed him,” Jacob said. “Pleeeeeease.”

I could never say no to that. I looked at Matt and nodded.

“Okay, I’m going to go get Tanner then,” Matt said. “Unless you want to go up?” he asked me.

“You go ahead. We’ll wait here.”

Matt stepped onto the elevator and the doors closed behind him.

“Jacob, there’s nothing scary about elevators. They help you get from one place to another quicker.”

“I’m not in a hurry,” he said.

I smiled. “And they’re kind of fun. It’s like…a ride.”

Jacob shrugged. “Like at the carnival?”

Miller and I had taken him to a carnival once about a year ago. But we’d left pretty quickly because I was paranoid that I’d felt someone watching us. Well…not paranoid. Someone probably had been. Jacob hadn’t gotten a chance to get on a ride.

“Yes, like the carnival,” I said.

Jacob shook his head. “I didn’t want to ride those rides. And I don’t want to go in the elevator.”

“Okay, sweet boy. But it’s always good to try something at least once.”

“Not if you know you don’t like it.”

“Hmm.” He did kind of have a point. But I really needed him to start riding elevators.

The doors dinged open and Tanner walked out. He was wearing a dark suit with stitches that glimmered slightly in the bright light down here.

“Stop checking me out, woman,” he said. “We’ve been over this. I can’t date my best friend’s girl.”

I laughed. “I wasn’t. But I do like your suit.”

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