Olivia Graham was twenty-two when she started a whirlwind romance with charismatic Jakob overseas.
By age twenty-five, Liv was back home and checking off the widowed box on paperwork. With zero plans, Olivia and beloved dog Snuggles find themselves...
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Most of the guests have left following the bereavement gathering at my house, and I'm sitting at the kitchen table with a fun-sized flute of bubbly wine.
I rub my jaw with my knuckles to loosen the tight muscles and twist my neck around while pressing my thumb to that spot under my collarbone. Today's emotional stress has left me keyed up, and I'm maintaining my composure with some wine intake.
I cast a glance around the room, I see it's mostly just some of my closest friends and family, and my eyes find Lindsey's mischievous ones as she joins me, "You want anything?"
"No, thanks," I say with a smile for my best friend. I'm eager to talk about something else. "What are you working on for your blog right now?"
I reach down to pet Snuggles who has planted herself at my feet. She tips her head back to look at me with her soulful, amber eyes. She's been my constant throughout all of this.
Lindsey looks at me with cautious eyes before asking, "Would you be okay if I wrote about this?"
"Yeah? I don't care, Linds." Truthfully, I don't mind; it won't be my first cameo as a part of her life, and it will be respectful.
"Is this Jake's phone?" She asks, nodding to it plugged in near her in the kitchen.
I smile at my big brother as he approaches, leaning next to Lindsey on the counter on his elbows and showing me that boyish grin that makes him look ten years younger. I secretly think that nostalgic smile is only for his sister, the one that makes his eyes twinkle.
Will stands half a foot taller than me and has trained for years to have the lean muscle he does. He can run a mile in seven and a half minutes. I witnessed him challenge his wife to a push up contest once and they were at thirty before I exited the room out of apathy.
"Yeah," I sigh, "I was going to try to get into it to see if there's like a business associate that maybe needed a reply? I don't know, Will, what do you think?"
"Not a bad idea, Bug."
"I don't know his passcode," I admit, moving my mouth back and forth and wrinkling my nose.
"Do you know his Apple ID?" Will taps away at his phone
"Uh yeah, I think so, do you mean like the password?"
He gets me to the correct screen, asking for Jake's email, then hands it over, "Input what you think it is."
After a few tries, I am successful. "Had to really use my noodle for that!" I tell him.
