Page 88 of My One

I took a pull of the warming beer. “You could have just told me instead of sending me on a wild goose chase.”

“Maybe, but I did what I thought was best.”

“So you’re just going to live here for the rest of your life?” I questioned.

She smiled at Avery Senior. “Yes.”

“Under what name?” Nicole asked. “Because you introduced yourself as Avery.” She pointed a finger at him.

“My I.D. says Michael Moore, but I still tell people Avery.”

“What if someone were to find out?” I asked.

He shrugged. “I live in paradise and just serve drinks. No one is looking for a no-name guy who’s been dead for over twenty years. I wasn’t a criminal or anything. I justdiedwhen I hit a tree.”

“And your family?” Nic questioned.

“All who matter are dead—really dead,” he replied.

I rubbed the back of my neck. “This is some crazy shit, Mom.”

She smiled. “I know, but now I’m happy.”

My heart swelled. “Good.”

We were all silent for a few moments as I processed everything—and I meaneverything. What the fuck would be next? I hoped fucking nothing because I was just now feeling like myself again, and I wanted it to be that way. I wanted to move into the house Nic and I bought, I wanted Nic to give birth to our baby, and then I wanted her to get pregnant right away again. I wanted to fill up the five-bedroom house and grow old with my wife and kids.

“So, whose ashes do we have at our house?” I asked.

“You mean in my urn?” Mom wondered.

“Yes.”

She shrugged. “Probably something Arnold took from his fireplace or something.”

“What about Edna?” Nicole finally asked. “Does she know?”

Mom grinned. “She knows. I called her to ask if you’d shown, and she told me that you had. We came up with the plan to get you two here so I could explain everything to you.”

“So, she doesn’t have an old flame who she created hot memories with here?” Nic questioned.

Mom laughed. “I’m sure there might be. She was quite the catch in her day.”

“You knew her then?” my wife probed.

“No.” Mom chuckled. “But she was a famous actress when I was a young girl.”

“Really?”

“Do you remember the movie,Whiskey Dreams? The one about the girl who ran the tables at Speakeasies?”

“Yes,” Nic and I answered at the same time.

“That was Edna.”

“No shit?” The movie was old, but I still thought the chick who played the lead was hot. I had no idea it was sweet little Edna. Now I loved her even more.

“Sure is,” Mom affirmed.