Page 45 of Waiting For A Girl Like You (Haven House #4)

For an aching fraction of a second, Josie thought Miranda was gone, but then—as she always did—Miranda surprised her.

“I love you, Josie.”

Josie took her wife’s other hand and squeezed. “I’ll love you forever, Miranda.”

“I don’t need to tell you to take care of Samuel. I know you will.” Miranda's head sank into the pillow, her eyes drifting closed once more. “He’s yours, as much as he’s mine and Ben’s.”

“Samuel’s stuck with me.” A sob threatened to tear right out of her, but Josie covered it. “Right, boy?”

“I’ll take care of them, Mama.” Samuel leaned down, pressing his face to his mother’s shoulder, his arm draped protectively over her. “Always.”

The room went still.

And they listened.

To the waves. To the gulls crying in the air. To the precious sounds of Miranda’s final breaths.

“Josie?”

Josie startled and released a tearful laugh. Her girl really was always full of surprises. “Yes?”

“Don’t be sad,” Miranda exhaled, her muscles relaxing. “My friends are here, and I’m not afraid anymore.”

It might have been silly, but Josie had felt them this whole time.

Their past. Their friends. They had been there, waiting to take Miranda.

She wasn’t one to believe in such things, but she would make an exception this time.

Laura Jean and Devon weren’t the type to let their friend down.

She knew they would walk with Miranda as she journeyed into the unknown.

“Okay.”

That was all she could say. Her tears ate away at the words she wanted to speak, drowning them out while she counted Miranda’s breaths. One. Two. Three.

And then…

Nothing.

Samuel’s shoulders shook violently as he cried. Burying his face in his mother’s neck, he screamed, his heart shattering on what should have been a simple September morning .

Josie gathered her in from the other side, wrapping her arms around her wife’s body and her son’s grief.

The anger would come later—she could already feel it rising—but now wasn’t the time. Now was for sorrow. For the weight of absence. For falling into the void Miranda left behind.

But she couldn’t let Samuel drown in it.

After one minute more, just one, Josie pulled back and ran her fingers through Samuel’s hair. “Do you want to call your dad, or do you want me to?”

He lifted his head, red eyes staring at her. “I’ll do it.”

Swallowing hard, he released Miranda and came to where Josie sat next to the nightstand that held the house phone.

“Should I call his office or his cell?”

Normally, Josie would’ve said his cell. But not today. Today, she wanted the call to route through Hillary first. She would soften the blow before it hit Ben.

“The office.”

Samuel dialed and put the call on speaker. Hillary answered on the first ring.

“Mr. Fairweather’s office.”

“Can I talk to my dad?”

Samuel sounded so small. Too small. Josie had to turn away so he wouldn’t see her tears return.

Hillary didn’t ask who was calling or what was wrong. She didn’t need to. Everyone knew they’d been playing the waiting game. “Oh, sweetheart. I’m so sorry. Let me get him.”

It took less than a minute. Ben had fought hard against leaving North Carolina earlier in the week. He hadn’t wanted Josie and Samuel to go through this alone. But even from afar, he was there when they needed him.

“Samuel?”

Samuel didn’t speak. He just simply broke all over again when he heard his father’s voice.

“Samuel, listen to me,” Ben said, clearly trying to keep it together but failing. “I want you to take care of Josie. I’ll be there in less than two hours. ”

Samuel nodded as if Ben could see and hung up. Josie pulled him immediately into her arms, swaying back and forth with her boy until he calmed again.

“What do we do now?” Samuel asked.

“We call the hospice nurse.”

Picking up the phone, Josie dialed the number. Nurse Kelly had been so helpful in answering all her questions and taking wonderful care of them. “I’m close,” Kelly said after giving her condolences. “I can be there in a few minutes. We’ll take care of everything when I arrive.”

Josie hung up, reality setting in. It was time to begin the business of death. There would be paperwork to fill out and procedures to follow. All of it designed to box up a life into files and forms. It was beginning already.

The process of packing Miranda away.

“Samuel, can you go downstairs and let Nurse Kelly in? She said she’s close.”

“Okay.”

His footsteps, once loud and unsteady, were quiet now as he left.

Josie took a moment to look down at Miranda’s beautiful face, half expecting her to stir and say her name again.

But she didn’t.

It was over.

Their story had well and truly ended.

Some part of Josie had believed it wouldn’t happen. That Miranda would somehow keep going just to spite the odds. But the silence in the room said otherwise.

Her hands shaking, Josie picked up the phone and dialed a number she hadn’t used in what felt like forever. Ben would understand this pain, and she could talk to him about it eventually, but for now, she needed someone else. Someone who knew what it meant to live with this quiet rage of unfairness.

The line picked up.

“Hello?”

God, it really had been too long.

Miranda had wanted to go back one last time. They had planned to. But life—and dying—had other plans. They’d said goodbye to that chapter and to the people who filled it.

“SiSi? It’s Jos.”

Her voice broke, and she cleared her throat, but it was useless. Simone was already crying, her screams of losing yet another friend carrying through the phone.

“Miranda’s gone.”