Reluctantly, Hilary and I finally were forced into cold, plastic chairs in the hallway right outside of my father’s room. One of the doctors came out, melancholy drenched his features as he spoke to us. I was in a daze—barely able to wrap my head around what he was saying. Shocking my dad worked. They got a faint heartbeat, but it was obvious things weren’t going to be good. He was brain dead—at least that was what he explained to us.
“I’m so sorry.” The doctor’s head dropped, and I clung to Hilary as we both wept.
“There’s nothing that can be done?” she asked desperately, her voice cracking through the sobs.
“Unfortunately, his body is slowly shutting down, and there is no brain activity.”
The words were harsh and cold. My father was a great man—kind, caring, hardworking—and now he had been reduced to a corpse that was being mechanically kept alive for his organs to be harvested.
“Can we say goodbye?” I didn’t know what else to do, wanted to at least have a moment with him.
The doctor nodded and Hilary looked at me. “How about I go in first and then you can take as long as you need?”
With a tight hug, she left me in the corridor to watch as she cried at her husband’s bedside. Hilary was a great stepmom, loved me more than she had to and never treated me like I wasn’t her own daughter. I had never been more grateful for her than I was in that moment.
Once Hilary was finished, I took a seat next to my father’s side. “I am going to grab a cup of coffee,” my stepmom muttered as she exited the room.
We were alone, just like we had been for the first seven years of my life. I had always thought it would be my dad and me against the world forever. It’s crazy how fast things change.
“Daddy…” I sobbed as I spoke. “I love you. I will always be your little girl. You’re my hero, my rock, and now you will be my angel. Thank you for always being such a wonderful father.” And then I broke. I was uncontrollably crying and shuddering, holding on to his hand for dear life. I didn’t want the moment to end. I didn’t want to actually say goodbye.
Hilary’s faint voice came from the door. “Liv, it’s time.”
I stood, kissed my father’s cheek, and said, “This isn’t goodbye. This is see you later. I love you, Daddy.”
Chapter 3
Olive
Present day
“Hey, Liv!” I heard Shaw call through the open office door.
Wiping the grease from my hands, I trudged over to him. His grimy hand covered the receiver of the office phone while he whispered, “Hank Collins is callingagain.”
I rolled my eyes, taking the cordless. “Hank? Now to what do I owe the pleasure of hearing your voice again today?” I cooed into the smelly plastic, trying to not sound annoyed that this particular customer was becoming a royal pain in my ass.
Hank cleared his throat loudly. “Just calling to check up on my tractor again. Been two whole days here, Liv, and you know what a farmer is without his damn tractor? This friggin’ hay ain’t going to bail itself.” The condescension that oozed from his tone made me want to reach through the phone and strangle the life out of him.
I took a deep breath, counted to ten, then responded, “Now, Hank, we went over this just yesterday. The part isn’t coming in until tomorrow at the earliest. If you hadn’t ignored your regular servicing, we wouldn’t be looking at a cracked radiator, but I’m not pointing fingers. You know what a mechanic is without her parts?”
“Damn useless.” He snorted before making the most detestable spitting sound on the damn planet.
“You’re right on that one.” I sneered and spoke through gritted teeth. “Once it’s delivered, I will have that part in as fast as my fingers can go. Until then, you need to sit tight and deal with using one of the other three tractors on your farm. I am sure one of them can keep you busy while you wait.”
With a huff and a few choice words, he ended the call and I turned to Shaw. “Patience is a virtue that man will never master.”
I rubbed my temple and Shaw tossed my headache medicine over to me. I threw back my head, gulping down two pills and a bunch of water. Long days and nights with barely any sleep and countless hours spent under the hoods of vehicles were starting to catch up to me.
“I would have told him to go fuck himself. He is a patronizing prick that needs to stop calling.” Shaw spit into the paper cup on his desk as he started sifting through some of the paperwork he had been neglecting. “When are you going to bite the bullet and finally hire a damn secretary?”
I knew it had been time for far too long, but money was tight and we were getting by running the garage with just the two of us. “We’ve been over this. Can we not get into it again?”
Shaw and I had been friends ever since I could remember, and when we’d graduated from mechanic school together, it had been a no-brainer for him to come work for me when I turned my father’s workshop into an actual moneymaking automotive repair shop. He was the closest thing I had to family, and he knew how hard it would be for me to trust anyone else with my baby.
“All I am saying is that it would be damn nice to have someone else fielding the calls from our idiot customers and doing the ordering so we could do less of that bullshit and more of the actual work that pays the bills.”
Taking a seat, I threw my boots up onto my desk. “I’ll go over it with the accountant at the end of the month, happy?” The Copenhagen smile that spread across his face infuriated me. “But, I won’t hire anyone while you’re still chewing that nasty shit.”
