Polished Rust (Wilkins Brothers Book #4)

Chapter 8

ROSEMARY

“What do you have going on today, Mercy?” I take a sit on the edge of my little sister’s bed while she’s staring at her phone. She looks up and shrugs, going back to what I’m sure is more interesting than paying attention to me.

“I was thinking maybe we could go get some lunch today before we meet with the lawyers, what do you think?”

She looks up from her screen again, “I’m not very hungry.”

“I know, me neither, but it is important that we don’t forget to skip our meals or anything like that. What do you say? We can even go to some greasy hamburger place and I’ll get you a chocolate shake.”

The idea of a shake seemed to pique her interest just a bit, she momentarily put down her phone and studied me for a moment, “From Freddy’s? With extra fry sauce?”

“Everybody knows you have to get extra fry sauce if you order from Freddy’s.” I reach in her direction and place my hand on her shin to feel the connection with her. “Listen, Merc, I know this has been a really hard couple of years, but I’m here for you, okay?”

“I know you are, Rosemary, it’s just, it sucks,” she wipes a few tears off her cheeks.

“The word suck doesn’t even seem to do enough justice, does it?”

She shakes her head. “Not even close. I mean, I knew this was coming, you know? She was getting worse and worse and once she decided to just do hospice but it doesn’t make it any easier.”

“It was never going to be easier. Just like it wasn’t any easier when Dad went so quickly. It was going to be a giant ball of suckiness regardless. At the end of the day though, we’ve got each other and I’m always going to be there for you.”

“Yeah, until you go off and marry Vinnie,” she says his name with a bunch of attitude. “Then what happens to me?”

“We’ve talked about this, Mercy, even when the time comes to Vinnie and I get married, you’re not going to be left to your own. I made a promise to mom a long, long time ago that you would come first and that is a promise I intend to keep no matter what vows I make to another man.”

“Vinnie doesn’t like me, though.”

“Like I give a shit.” That gets a laugh out of her. “Come on, Merc, get dressed and let’s go eat our feelings for a bit, okay?”

“Okay. Hey Rosemary?”

“Yeah?”

“I know that I don’t say thank you enough. You’ve spent a lot of time trying to make sure that I’m okay and you don’t really have anybody checking in on you. I just want you to know that even though I’m a lot younger than you are if you want to talk, cry, scream, or whatever it is that you need to do, you can count on me too.”

I scoot up her bed and hug my sister. “I love you so much, Mercy. I hate that we have to go through this, but things will get better, I’m sure of it.”

A month ago I got the call from my mom’s hospice nurse that I had been dreading, she was gone. The nurse said that she had gone in her sleep and from what she could tell me it was peaceful and she wasn’t in pain. I don’t remember a time in which my mom wasn’t fighting some form of cancer or another sickness, so to think about my mom being in peace was actually pretty comforting to me. That didn’t stop the pain and the hurt. Not only did it mean I was in mourning, but I had a younger sister who also lost both her parents in a very short period of time.