Avery chuckled. “By all means.”
I hurried down the hall to the bathroom. Once I finished, I washed my hands and splashed water on my face to sober up. Drinking too much would never help me figure out what Avery was trying to do by telling me about my own sister.
The guy knew things about Holly that, to the best of my knowledge, had never really been discussed and certainlyweren’t publicly disclosed when news of her accident had hit the papers. How the fuck did he find out details about my family that no one outside it knew?
I returned to the kitchen to see Avery leaning against the counter appearing worried. “I should have asked, but you said you were hungry, so I ordered Kung Pao chicken and Moo Shu Pork from China Palace for delivery. You can have either or both. I put it on my credit card because I owe you for taking me out to the car.”
Holden chuckled. “Thank you. You got anything else you want to tell me about my sister?”
After a sigh, the sexy guy smiled. “I know next to nothing about Happy. She came to me in a dream. I know that sounds absolutely insane, but I’m not making any of this up. I swear.”
He stared at the counter across the kitchen and a small smile lit up his face. “Happy wants you to know that she’s okay. She’s in a good place, and she loves you. Believe me or not, she wants all of your family to know she’ll always be with you.”
I wanted to hug and pound the guy at the same time. “So, I’ll go back to my original question. You said you had a dream about her. Are you a clairvoyant? A crazy fucking psychic? A person who can hypnotize me into believing my dead sister talks to you?” The venom in my voice made him flinch.
Avery swallowed and slowly nodded. “I see. Nothing I say will change your mind. Got it. The food delivery should be here soon. I’ll get myself home, and I won’t bother you again.” He headed out the front door without turning back, and I was too stunned to stop him.
I sat at the table and poured myself another drink I didn’t need. Confusion and alcohol were clouding my brain. Obviously, I was in no shape to drive Avery anywhere. I was an asshole for just letting him go, so I kept filling my glass.
In no way did I believe Avery’s declarations about knowing my sister from a dream. It was probably best that he left when he did. My bullshit meter pinged at high alert.
I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling of my living room, not sure how I got on the couch. Ossie was snuggled up to my side, and my head had a full marching band filled with cymbal players.
I slowly lowered the pooch to the floor and held onto my head as I sat up, hating myself for drinking most of a bottle of vodka. I hadn’t done that shit since Holly died.
“Avery?” No response. Obviously, he hadn’t come back after I was so rude.
Ossie barked and headed to the back door, so as much as I had to pee, I had to take Ossie out first. It was freezing cold. About an inch of snow had fallen, so I slid my feet into my boots and stepped outside to let him do his business. My yard was fenced, so he couldn’t get out, but I wanted to make sure he did what he needed to do and I could dry his paws when he was ready to come inside.
I patted myself down to find my phone was missing. I turned and glanced in the kitchen to see it on the counter connected to a charger. For the life of me, I didn’t remember plugging it in.
I pushed snow off the back steps with my booted feet and sat down at the top to let Ossie roam a bit. For some reason, I only remembered Avery walking out after I told him…Oh!
One thing I remembered was Avery telling me Happy had told him to say she loved us and she was fine. Was that true? Had he been able to talk to my sister?
Ossie hurried up the steps, and I dried his feet on a dirty towel before we went into the kitchen. There were two containers of Chinese food on the table that weren’t opened, so I looked inside to see they were full. Hell, I couldn’t remember them being delivered.
I grabbed my phone and scrolled to Avery’s number, pressing the contact. It rang three times before going to voicemail. “Hi, it’s Avery Langhorn. Please leave a message.”
I hung up.
Maybe that was all I needed to know about Avery Langhorn. I liked the guy a lot, but the shit he’d said about my sister…I had a hard time believing any of it. My sister was gone, and nobody would convince me otherwise.
For three days, I stewed on the things Avery Langhorn had said as I went about my workdays. I was fortunate that Steve wasn’t a big talker. He let me stew without interruption.
Had my sister really wanted our family to know she loved us? Had she somehow communicated to Avery that she would always be with us? Those were things I wanted to hear, for sure, and if Holly could tell us, those were things she’d want us to remember. Was there a way she’d told those things to someone she’d never met?
My biggest question was why did Avery Langhorn show up now? It had been a hell of a long time since Holly died, and whythe fuck was he coming around and saying he knew anything about her?
On Sunday morning, I made myself an egg sandwich, scrambling an egg for Ossie. I went to my bedroom and grabbed my laptop to bring it into the kitchen.
As I stared at the screen of a search engine, I finally typed in the words…
Information shared between organ donor and recipient.
Over one-million results popped up. How to begin sifting through them all wasn’t anything I wanted to do. My brain refused to accept the things Avery had said about Happy. Where did he learn those details?
My cell rang as I stared at the choices on my laptop screen. I reached for the phone, seeing it was Steve. “Hey.”
