Page 74 of Lucky
“I got to spend a couple hours with Gray.”Atlas grimaces, his stare fixed on his beer.“He looked awful.Like a skeleton.”
“Jesus,” I murmur, leaning forward.“How’s his family taking it?”
Atlas shakes his head, face scrunched in pain.“He doesn’t have any.His parents died when he was young and he was raised by his grandmother, but she died a few years ago.No siblings.”
“Aunts?Uncles?”
“Some on his dad’s side but they were estranged, so he doesn’t know them at all.”Atlas takes a sip of his beer, his gaze locking onto mine.“The life’s draining out of him faster than I expected.”
I hate to ask, but I do, anyway.“How much longer does he have left?”
Atlas shrugs.“He’s under hospice care at home right now.Could be a few months, could be a few weeks.They don’t know.”
I shake my head.The unknown has always been my biggest fear, but when you mix it with death, it’s terrifying.“You said he has a kid?”
Atlas takes another drink, then stares into the bottle like it might offer answers.“A little girl.”
“Christ,” I murmur, taking a healthy swig of my own beer.“So, he only has hospice workers looking after him and his daughter?”
“No, a friend of ours is helping to care for him.Maddie.She’s doing the lion’s share of the work.”
“You don’t sound like that’s a good deal.”
“It’s a good deal.I don’t get along with her all that well, but she loves him like her own brother and she’s taking excellent care of him and his daughter.”
Curiosity gets the better of me.“Why don’t you like her?”
Atlas stares into his beer, then exhales through his nose.“Maddie and I just… clash.”
I wait, but he doesn’t elaborate, so I prod.“What kind of clash?”
He shrugs.“We’re wired differently.She’s one of those people who says exactly what she thinks, no filter.Calls me out all the time.Always thinks she’s right.She pushes buttons just to get a reaction.”
“So… she challenges you,” I say, lips twitching.
He shoots me a dry look.“That’s one way of putting it.I call it being a pain in the ass.”
I grin, sensing there’s more under the surface.“But you trust her with your best friend’s life.And his daughter’s.”
His expression softens a fraction.“Yeah.I might not like her… but I trust her.And that’s the only thing that matters right now.”
I nod slowly, letting that settle in.
Atlas’s voice lowers.“He asked me to look after her, Lucky.”
My eyes widen in surprise.“After his daughter?As in care for her?”
“I don’t know.He wouldn’t come out and say it.Just a lot of, ‘Please make sure she’s taken care of’ type stuff.He’s on a lot of pain meds, so I don’t know what he means.”
“Would you do it?”I ask.
“I wouldn’t have a choice,” Atlas says.
“There’s always a choice,” I counter, because he has an incredibly demanding career with an insane travel schedule.Single parenting is not ideal in this line of work.“Maybe not a good one, but a choice.”
He shrugs.“I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it but if he asks anyone to take his daughter, it will be Maddie.”
I nod, feeling the weight of it for him.
