"We do?" Buzz asks.
"Yeah. I got a call from Grandpa Arnie's lawyer. He said he has something for me."
"That sounds vague and mysterious," Lola says, handing Brock over to Buzz, although I suspect if she didn't have to get started on dinner service, we'd be struggling to pry him out of her hands.
"Any idea what it could be?" Buzz asks, and I smile.
His hands are trembling slightly, although his grip is steady. It's clear he's equally in awe of our son as he is petrified of inadvertently hurting him in any way.
We've been parents for less than forty-eight hours, so I expect his fears to pass with time. Just when I thought I couldn't love him any more, turns out—I can.
"No idea," I say, grabbing my cell phone and car keys off the counter. "But there's only one way to find out."
I darted into the lawyer's office by myself since Brock had fallen asleep on the short drive over. When I get back to the car, he's still asleep, so I shut the door as quietly as possible.
"How did it go?" Buzz whispers.
"He gave me this," I say, lifting an envelope.
"What is it?"
"Don't know. Other than it's from Grandpa Arnie. Should I open it now…" I peer at the rear-facing capsule in the back seat. "Or wait until we get home?"
"Now. Brock's fine. A car alarm went off and not even a whimper."
"Okay then." I unseal the envelope, take out a two-page handwritten letter, and read it out quietly.
My beloved Court,
I'm writing this on your twenty-ninth birthday. I'll call you when you finish your shift at the hospital, but I know myself, and I know I won't be able to tell you what I'm really feeling in my heart. So I'm going to write it down instead.
I'm getting older now, and I can't assume I'll get the chance to say what I want to say to you. Life doesn't guarantee us anything, especially time.
I want you to know that I love you with all of my heart, and I deeply regret not getting to spend more time with you as an adult. Seeing you grow up before my eyes has given me so many precious memories I will cherish until the day I die.
Unfortunately, our family was torn apart, and by consequence, so were we. I understood why you and your father left, and I also understand your reluctance to return to Clovelly. I should have done more to reach out and visit you, but I guess I got bogged down by shame, which seems so silly and useless in retrospect.
Which is why I want to do something useful now.
If you're reading this letter, it means I'm gone. But it doesn't mean I can't be an interfering old man from the afterlife.
You love Buzz. You have ever since I can remember. You weren't just best friends, you adored him. You lit up around him. He made you laugh, and he brought out a sweet, hopeful innocence in you. Qualities that life took away from you, but qualities that I nevertheless know you still possess.
I always believed you two would end up together. Unfortunately, life got in the way. I may not be able to change what happened in the past, but I can take one last shot at bringing you together.
If you're wondering why I set out the conditions in my will, let me come right out with it—I knew you'd pick Buzz to marry, and I knew that, given a chance to spend some time together, you'd finally take the plunge and reveal the thing I and everyone who has ever known you knows—you love him.
It is my last wish that true love finds its way to you both.
And if Buzz is dating one of those losers he always seems to be, you have my permission to veer into the morally gray underworld and do everything you can to stop him from making a huge mistake. He belongs to you just like you belong to him.
I glance over at Buzz and deadpan, "It's like he predicted Zane."
Buzz chuckles, rolling his eyes. "Shut up and keep reading."
"That's it," I say. "He says he loves me and signs off,Love from here to eternity, forever your Grandpa Arnie."
My eyes have grown misty, so I shake the paper out in front of me, willing the tears to stay put.
