Dying to Live

Chapter 27

⏳ ZOE, June

When I came home from work on my last shift before we were supposed to leave for our honeymoon, I couldn't find Adam anywhere. It was the third day after his latest chemo treatment so he wasn't exactly in the best state to be leaving the house this late in the evening, but I figured he could've possibly gone to visit his brother.

I dropped my groceries down on the counter and sent him a text asking where he was.

"Hey puppy, where's your dad?" I said to Joplin and now that I had my hands free, I finally got on my knees and gave her some much needed love. I looked over my shoulder into her food bowl. "You've been fed recently so he isn't too far," I said and gave her belly a rub.

I didn't know how long it'd been since she'd gone outside to pee so I slid the door open and let her go out into the backyard to hang out while I put away the groceries.

He still hadn't replied to my text by the time I was done putting everything away in the cupboards or the fridge, but then I heard some noise in the garage so I decided to go in there and investigate further.

"Hey, I was looking for you," I said when I found him. He was crouched on the floor, halfway underneath one of his cars, the vintage one that we didn't use regularly. Actually, I was pretty sure I'd only been in it two or three times.

He grunted as a greeting. He didn't speak. He didn't make any effort to look at me. He just kept working, and I got the feeling that something wasn't OK.

I sat down on the floor next to him and watched as he worked.

"Careful, you might get some drops on you," he said, throwing his wrench onto the concrete floor and then quickly moving out from underneath the vehicle. I stood up just in time. The oil started to stream out from the hole now that he'd unscrewed the plug. The dark liquid fell into the rectangular pan underneath.

"You've been keeping busy," I said and leaned against the hood of his other car instead, a safer distance away.

"Mhm," he shrugged and wiped his gloved hands quickly onto a used rag.

"Have you eaten dinner yet?" I asked him, trying to keep my tone casual.

He didn't respond.

I was beginning to feel a bit unnerved as I watched him move around. He was standing with his hands on his hips now, surveying the engine of the car. I looked around at the usually tidy space. There were tools everywhere at the moment, and he was usually really particular about keeping his garage clean, so it led me to believe he'd been here a while.

"I've been thinking," Adam said quickly, still not meeting my gaze. Now he was looking around for something on his workbench. I didn't know anything about mechanical work, but his movements seemed almost erratic. I wondered if he was doing more harm than good.

"I'm gonna sell the cars. I'm not fit to drive anymore. So what's the point? I'm gonna sell the cars and the motorcycle. You've got yours so we don't need anything else. I'll sell the boat too. That's a good idea. It's just a waste of space. I'll sell everything. Then you can take time off and we can go somewhere later this year. We'll have money to rent a cabin and go camping in Washington. It'll be perfect when the leaves start changing colors."

OK, wow. This was all coming at me way too fast.

"Babe, did something happen today?" I asked cautiously.