Chapter 24

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Alex

“I DIDN’T NEED THIS fancy place,” William complained once he was all settled into his apartment.

“There’s nothing fancy about it, William. You just won’t be out on the streets anymore,” I explained. “You’re going to have an aide who’s going to be with you most of the day to help you with day-to-day things and cook for you, and then a nurse who will come in and check on you once a day, so you better be nice.”

“I don’t need anyone to check on me,” he grumbled.

“Hello?” Rose knocked lightly on the door before walking in with a grocery bag in one hand and a box of donuts in the other.

“Rose!” William smiled for the first time all day.

“I thought you didn’t want anyone coming over to check on you?” I teased him.

“How are you feeling?” Rose asked.

“I’m fine.” He coughed. “I don’t know why everyone’s making such a fuss.”

“Well, I got you some goodies.” She placed the box of donuts on William’s lap. “I’ll even allow you to share some with Alex if you’d like.” She looked at me and smirked, walking into the kitchen with the rest of the items in the bag.

“She’s a girl after my heart.” William opened the lid to the donuts, looking like a kid in a candy store.

“Wow, so you actually made it.” I walked into the kitchen and stood in the doorway, watching Rose as she unloaded the bagful of food into the fridge. She definitely wasn’t the perfectly put together girl I was used to seeing every day. Instead, she was dressed casually in sweats and a T-shirt, with her hair still wet and pulled up in a bun, but she still managed to make it look good.

“I told you I would.” She placed her hands on her hips and looked around the kitchen. “Please tell me this place has a coffee maker.”

“I think you’re out of luck.”

“Damn it!” She threw her head back.

“There’s a coffee place right off the street. What do you want?”

Her eyes widened. “Wow, you’d really go for me?”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t plan on going.”

“Anything…as long as it’s humongous and loaded with caffeine.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

She followed me into the living room where William was starting to nod off on the couch with the box of donuts still on his lap. “I guess, we should let him get some rest,” Rose remarked.

“Rest, I don’t need any rest,” William piped up.

“William, would you like some coffee?” I asked.

“No, I only drink the percolated stuff. The kind that puts hair on your chest. I don’t like that watered-down poor excuse for caffeine you kids drink today.”

“Suit yourself,” I replied.

He was going to be one tough patient, but as Rose took a seat next to him, something told me she would be the one who could crack through the rough exterior.

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I returned with the coffee to find Rose sitting alone on the couch, studying a black-and-white photo in her hand. “Where’s William?”

“He went and lie down.”

“What’s that?” I asked, handing her the cup of coffee and taking a seat next to her.

She held out the photo of a younger man standing next to an Asian woman, holding a newborn baby. It looked like it had been taken some time ago. If I had to guess, I’d say in the early 1970s. “That’s William’s daughter and her mother.”

“Oh, I didn’t know he had a daughter. He never mentioned her.”

“Audra…he hasn’t spoken to her in over twenty years.” Rose’s voice cracked. Her tear-filled eyes finally broke from the picture and locked with mine. “He met her mother when he was in Vietnam. She got pregnant, they were going to get married, but they started pulling the troops out of Vietnam immediately, and he had to leave. He sent her money, and she sent him photos, but then they lost touch. He found out they had moved to the States, and he was able to find her, but by then William was lost to drugs and alcohol. Audra was six years old. Her mother was married to someone else who was raising her, and he didn’t want to upset that happiness he knew he’d never be able to give her. She tracked him down twenty years ago after her mother had died. Her mother told her a little about him and their relationship. She wanted to know the entire story of how he and her mother had met. He wanted to get to know her better, but she told him her real father would always be the man who raised her. He should really see her before he…” She stopped herself, unable to say the word that was soon to be William’s fate.

“Does he even know where she’s at?”

“He doesn’t. He said the last he heard she was someplace down south.”

“Well, unfortunately there’s really nothing we can do. It sucks, but—”

“We can find her and let her know what’s going on.” Rose perked up.

“That’s not as easy as it sounds. She’s more than likely married and has a different last name, if she even had William’s last name to begin with, and what if she doesn’t want to be bothered by it? I mean, obviously she doesn’t if it’s been twenty years. Just leave it well enough alone. We’re doing all we can for him.”

“I can’t.” She paused and stared straight ahead. “He’s dying. He’ll never get the chance to see her again. Don’t you see, Alex? He wanted to be part of her life but never had a chance because of circumstance. Just think of how different things may have turned out for him if he were able to.”

When the hell did she grow a heart? Her words resonated with me, but I still felt like this situation was better off not explored. “Rose, I get what you’re saying, but I think it’s a lost cause. It’s a sad situation, but it’s really not our business.”

“I’m going to make it my business.” She took a sip of her coffee and stood up.

“And how are you planning on doing that?”

“I don’t know, but I am. What’s William’s last name?”

I was hesitant to give that information, knowing she was going to use it for this crazy mission she had in mind. I shook my head and looked away.

“Alex, I’m gonna find out whether you tell me or not.”

“Benton,” I muttered.

“That’s a perfect start.”

“Rose, what if William doesn’t want to see her? Did you ever think of that?”

She looked down at the floor and didn’t respond. “It’s his daughter, of course he’ll want to see her.”

I stood up next to her, taking her a little off guard when I gently took her arm. “Rose, I understand you want to help give an old man his dying wish, but sometimes things are a lot more complicated than what they seem. William’s had a rough life, but he’s tough. I don’t want to see you get your hopes up over your perceived happily ever after for him only to have it backfire in your face.”

“Things only backfire in my face when it pertains to my own happily ever after, Alex. That was confirmed by my debacle last night and foolishly thinking that maybe I could’ve found my Mr. Right. I may be hopeless in finding happiness for myself, but I have a pretty good track record when it comes to finding happiness for other people. So, I’m giving up on the quest for my happy ending and focusing on what I do best, finding it for others whenever I can.”

I looked away and closed my eyes, remembering how genuinely upset she was last night. I had judged her way too harshly right off the bat, all because I thought she was like someone else. After getting to know her a little better, I was coming to the realization that she wasn’t the girl I had originally pegged her out to be. Yes, she was pretty high-maintenance, but she really and truly did care about others.

“Just because you had one bad experience doesn’t mean you have to give up on finding your own happiness.”

“Isn’t that what you’re doing?”

“What?”

“Shutting everyone out around you because you’ve had your heart broken and then hating every girl you come across who reminds you of that person who did the damage?” Her tone was soft and gentle, a stark contrast from the sarcasm it was normally laced with.

“No,” I whispered, hoping she couldn’t see through my lie.

Something passed between us as we gazed at one another, neither wanting to look away first. I was seeing her so differently than I had when I first met her, so differently than I had just forty-eight hours ago, and part of me wanted to know if she was seeing me in a different light too. I lowered my head and my lips came dangerously close to hers, startling and being brought back to my senses by the knock on the door.

Rose snapped out of it and ran to answer it, while I stood there still lost in what could’ve happened and what more than likely would’ve happened had we not been interrupted. What the hell was I thinking? I raked my hand through my hair, trying to come to terms with what I almost did. Was it lack of sleep, lack of sex, or was it my own self-denial I was in, the same denial I’d been trying to fight every single day since I’d first met her?