TMI (2014 Collector's Dream Winner)

TMI - Chapter 46

There he was. Tall. Blond. Dimples. Older. With her heart swelling, Bailey just stared.

"Can I help you?"

She beamed.

The man's eyes popped. "Who are you?"

"I — I'm — Are you Matthew Schor?"

The man's face fell and he shook his head. "No. No, I'm sorry. I'm Josh, his brother. You knew Matt?"

Bailey's smile faded. "Um. No. I think he knows my mom, Nicole?

“Grant. Yeah. He knew her.”

“I'm Bailey. Bailey Grant."

Josh took a step out the door and halted, then pressed both hands up to his open mouth. "You… You're… Holy mother of God. Oh, wow. Christ. Jesus Christ. You'd better come in. Yeah. You should come in."

Bailey hesitated. If Meg were here, she'd do that frownie thing with her forehead, grab her elbow, and hiss in her ear that she was crazy to go into some stranger's house. But how could she not? She'd already lost so much time and to come this far without more? She stepped inside and waited for Josh to close the door. He led her to a comfy living room with a flat screen TV hanging on a wall, matching sofas arranged in an L in front of it, and sank heavily to one. She scanned the room, her eyes greedy for any glimpse of the man she hoped to meet. There was a graduation picture on a shelf. A picture of a handsome soldier hanging on the wall.

He stared at her for a long moment. "Oh, um, please. Sit. I… God, I don't even know where to start."

"Is Matthew home?"

"No, he's not." Josh stared at his hands. "You're Nicole's daughter. I'm gonna take a wild guess here and say you're what — a little over seventeen?"

"Yeah." Bailey smiled, impressed. "My birthday's in February."

Josh scratched his head and nodded. "And you're here because you think Matt's your dad?"

"He is." Bailey leaned forward. "It took me ages to find him."

"Yeah. So does your mom know you're here?"

Bailey's eyes went round and she shook her head. "No. She doesn't even know I figured it out."

"Figured —ah. Okay. Look. Bailey, is it?" At her nod, Josh leaned forward. "I don't — the thing is — hell, this is hard. I'm just gonna say it. Matt's dead."

Bailey's ears rang. Dead. The word bounced around in her mind, taking turns with the Oh my God chorus on repeat. Tears burned behind her eyes and her face crumbled. How, how could it hurt this much? How could she possibly feel this much pain over the death of someone she'd never met? She wrapped her arms around her middle and tried not to cry. She should have called first or — or maybe not come at all. All those years of wondering and imagining what her dad was like, all those weeks of figuring out who he was — where he was — and then, nothing. Oh my God.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have come, I really shouldn't have come." Bailey jumped up and hurried to the door before she lost it completely. She had her hand on the door knob when Josh stopped her.

"Wait! Don't go. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have blurted it out like that. It's just hard — Would you… if it won't upset you… maybe you'd like to hear about him?"

The tears fell then. "Yeah. Yeah, I really would."

Fifteen minutes later, they were back in the living room, cups of hot coffee on the table in front of them beside a fat photo album stuffed cover to cover with pictures and momentos. Josh had asked her about school and her friends. She'd told him all about the video game and he told her dad was a big Xbox fan and that really made her cry.