Dedicating Every Day to You

15K Bonus Chapter

(A/N: Hey, everybody! Thanks to you guys being such fantastic readers. Thanks to you, we've hit fifteen thousand reads with this book that I started writing in my spare time. It's now become my main project, and I have a whole notebook full of the plot and various ideas. Because of you all, I've really written a story I'm proud of- a story that has reached eighty-five thousand words. Let that number sink in for a moment. That's more than I've ever written in one story before.

Anyway, since you are all such amazing readers, it's high time for another bonus chapter. This one is about our eternal optimist, the one who's handy with tools, the logical thinker. This one's about Philip.)

Philip Seabury is the son of Samuel and Kiri Seabury. You know he's smart and dedicated, friendly and cheerful. You know he's a poet and loves reading Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Also, he's in a wheelchair, but that's the least important part of his character. As anyone he knows can attest, he has not become his wheelchair any more than you would become a bad cold that you catch.

Philip's bonus chapter is told in one long storytime with Samuel, so grab a fluffy blanket and a hot drink and settle in. It's storytime.

My bedroom door creaks open, and my dad, Samuel, pokes his head in. Before everything, before the accident, I would go downstairs for a goodnight hug and a glass of water. Now that I'm in this chair, though, I can't even get down the stairs without help getting into the chairlift.

"Hey, Pip." My dad grins and walks into the room, placing a glass of water on my bedside table before leaning down to give me a hug. His construction job leaves him smelling like fresh wood. It's a part of the smell I associate with my house- wood shavings and jasmine perfume. Well, the jasmine perfume is mostly replaced by dust now, but if I go into my dad's room, sometimes I can smell it again.

I stretch my arms over my head. "Hey, Dad." He's been on an overnight job about an hour away, and Margo's been taking care of me, with the help of Carter and Lucy. Margo is the nurse who comes to stay with us when my dad's away, but I'm glad he's back. I like him better.

"Did you miss me?" He sits down on the end of my bed and bounces slightly before settling into a comfortable spot. I can tell he's been away from home- sandy stubble lines his cheeks, and he looks tired.

I nod emphatically. "I always do." He laughs and leans forward to hug me again. I rest my head on his shoulder. "Will you tell me the story about Mama again?"

My dad sighs and rubs my back. "Of course I can." He closes his eyes and begins to speak, his words coming slowly. "I first met Kiri, your mother, when we were twelve years old. My family took a trip to New Zealand, and the two of us were waiting in line at the same ice cream truck. I was so busy trying to kick my big brother that I knocked her popsicle out of her hand and into the dirt. She called me a klutz, stomped on my foot, and ran away."

"Even I've never done that." I laugh and rub my eyes. I'm tired, true, but not too tired to miss the story that I've heard a thousand times before.

"The next time I saw her, she and I were both in college. I was working at Starbucks to pay for my textbooks and all that jazz, and she came in and ordered a coffee. I didn't recognize her at first, but when I dropped the coffee on the floor and then slipped in it, she laughed and called me a klutz in that same accent. I wrote my number on her cup, and she called me that very afternoon." There's a dreamy look in my dad's eyes. I miss my mother a lot, but he does even more.

"I asked her out. She said no. I asked her out. She said no. Finally, after about a month of trying, she kissed me and said yes, she would go to the movies with me." He flicks his hair out of his eyes.