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Taylor closed her eyes and heaved out a tense breath.
“Hey,” Derrick said, bumping her with his shoulder.
Taylor looked at him out the corner of her eye, “What?”
“What do you call a guy with a rubber toe?” he asked.
“What?” Taylor asked, completely irritated.
“Roberto,” Derrick said, wiggling his eyebrows.
Taylor closed her eyes and turned back to the window in aggravation, both at his inopportune comedic timing and the fact that she really wanted to laugh at his stupid joke.
“How much does a pirate pay for corn?” he asked, but Taylor ignored him. “A buccaneer!”
Taylor rolled her lips in and bit down to keep a smile from breaking through. She had serious issues here and her husband was apparently trying out for a comedy club. She would not give in to him.
“Why did the lifeguards kick the elephants out of the pool?” Taylor shook her head. “Because they kept dropping their trunks!”
Henry coughed in the front of the SUV, but Taylor was positive that he was covering a laugh and now she was mad at him, too.
“How do chickens cheer for their favorite team? Come on, they egg them on. That one was foul but easy, Taylor,” Derrick said.
She couldn’t hold it back anymore. She shook her head and smiled, turning to him. “Is there a point to these horrible jokes?” she asked, rolling her eyes at him.
“Yes, it got you to laugh and to relax. And when you relax you can think better than when you are tense and frustrated,” he reminded her. He put a hand on the back of her head and pulled her to him, planting his lips on hers. “Relax, Tay, we will get this all figured out.”
Taylor closed her eyes, heaved out a breath, and leaned her forehead into Derrick’s. “It’s hard,” she whispered to him.
“I know,” he nodded.
“I want my happily ever after,” she said looking at him. “I have the happily, but the ever after keeps getting interrupted by bullets and secrets.”
The bing of her email alerted her, and she slid her phone out of the bag at her feet. She opened the home screen and clicked into her email app to check it. She was still behind in work from when Derrick had been in the hospital, so she was quick to check any email, text, or phone call, day or night.
The subject line was ‘About our visit’, and was from none other than Dr. Mellon.
Taylor clicked without saying a word, curious what the good doctor had to say just a little over an hour since their departure.
Mrs. Preston-Fletcher,
I have been here musing over our meeting and do feel badly that I have sent you on what could possibly be a blind search. I wish that things had been different in so many ways
for your family.
I do have something of a peace offering, if you will. I have attached the letter your father sent me years ago when he asked me to help your uncle. I found it within the files I had secured regarding Cedric. I feel that this is more about Cedric’s care than about your family's past, and therefore I feel comfortable sharing this with you now.
I look forward to speaking with you once you have some pieces to the puzzle.
Best,
Xander Mellon
Taylor openedthe attached file that Dr. Mellon had titledGrant Preston, and her heart stammered a bit as her father’s handwriting appeared on the small screen. She had memories of her father, but she could not remember ever seeing his handwriting. It wasn’t beautiful, but it wasn’t illegible, either. Instead it was something in between. And to Taylor, it was perfect. She took a minute to just take in the scrawling penmanship before she actually read what was on the page.
Dr. Mellon,
My name is Grant Preston. I am not sure if you recall but I met you several years ago when my brother Cedric was under your care for his drug addiction issues.