Happy New Year, everyone. Welcome to my post on WIP IT UP WEDNESDAY. If you are new to this hop or are just now deciding that joining this hop would be a great idea, visit the WIP IT IP WEDNESDAY blog home page at: http://wipitupwednesday.blogspot.co.uk/ to read the sign-up instructions. Also on that page, you will find links to other wonderful authors and their WIP.
Today I’ll be continuing to share an excerpt from my new release, Saying Goodbye.
This scene takes place about a week after Michael’s death, and we see that Erica is learning the hard fact that everyone grieves differently.
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That Wednesday, her mom had to drag her out of bed. Erica had spent most of the week wrapped in Michael’s favorite blanket of hers, wearing one of his t-shirts, and a pair of his socks. Her hair was matted, she smelled a bit of body sweat, and her head hurt from all of the crying she’d done.
Rachel had worried that Erica would stay in bed forever and that she and her husband would have to commit her, but Sam had told his wife that he had made Erica promise that when the weekend rolled around she would make herself get up, shower, and get ready to start her new life. This didn’t dissuade Rachel’s fears, but she let Erica sleep until eight that Wednesday morning, and no later.
Erica cried and begged not to go, but her mother told her that she had made a promise to Caroline that she would help, and she insured Erica that this, too, was part of the grieving process. Both of Erica’s parents said that she couldn’t heal, couldn’t learn to go on without him while letting her grief get the best of her, so she had agreed to go on the condition that she didn’t have to get dressed.
When Caroline saw the way Erica looked, she sobbed quietly, and Rachel glared at her daughter. Erica felt guilty for looking so haggard and giving the woman more of a reminder of what she lost than she already had—as if going through his things wasn’t bad enough. On the other hand, Erica thought Caroline looked too nice, too controlled. She looked almost as if nothing had ever happened. This ticked Erica off a bit. She wanted to curse the woman, shout at her, and accuse her of not loving her son.
That night when they got home, she told her mom so, and Rachel chided Erica for thinking that way and told her that everyone grieves differently, and just because Caroline didn’t grieve the way Erica thought she should didn’t mean the woman wasn’t grieving. Erica didn’t necessarily agree with that at the time, but she kept her thoughts and feelings to herself.
Michael’s apartment was sparse, considering that he spent most of his time in school or at work. Caroline took his books, his trophies, his clothes. Erica took his photo album, which mostly had pictures of her or them in it, a few of her favorite t-shirts, a few DVDs, and the box of condoms he had tucked in the bottom drawer of his nightstand. That last item she snatched and shoved into a box quickly before either mother saw. They knew the two were having sex. They weren’t that naive, but Erica thought it best not to throw it in their face.
Erica piled a few other odds and ends of Michael’s into the back of her mother’s car. Once they had John’s truck loaded down with what was in the rest of the apartment, John, Carl, and James took the stuff back to Michael’s parents’ house where they planned to keep the items stowed away in the attic. Caroline, Erica’s mother, Emmy, who had come with James toward the end while they were loading the truck, and Erica went to work cleaning.
Caroline made sure that every crease, crevice, and corner was clean. By the time they left, no one would have ever known that a college frat boy had lived in the apartment. She hated that even more. He was gone and now every little thing that proved that he had been here was vanishing as well.
After looking over the room one last time and feeling the emptiness settle on her like lead, Emmy took Erica’s hand and pulled her from the apartment and the building. Erica cried all the way home, holding Emmy’s hand.
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That’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed it.
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***Saying Goodbye, a paranormal love story, is LIVE. $1.99***
Childhood sweethearts, Michael and Erica, thought they would have the prefect life together—the career, the house, the kids, the grandkids, the dying old holding each other’s hands. What they hadn’t planned for was for a car accident to take Michael’s life and leave Erica to face her future alone.
However, after discovering that Michael’s spirit has the ability to occasionally interact with the human world, they begin to wonder if they can’t make his presence on Earth permanent.
Although, with so many years gone by, can they reignite the flame that had fueled their teenage romance and more importantly can they live with the sacrifices they must make in order get back the future they lost?
#jenniferreynolds #sayinggoodbye #paranormal #lovestory #ebook
https://www.24symbols.com/book/x/x/x?id=974705
