Man, did she ever feel like a slacker. The guilt of not figuring out Effie’s needs washed over her in a tidal wave. Marty had done her job for her, and that really bugged her.
Dex grabbed her forearms. “Listen, before we go in, I know what you’re thinking. You feel guilty because Marty found the information before you did, but don’t. You’ve had a ton on your plate and one thing after the other coming your way. Give yourself a break. Besides, this information should have come from upstairs long ago. We’re not detectives. We’re angels.”
“I want to be good at this, Dex. I need to be good at this.”
“You are good at this, George. You’re really good at this, and you’re only going to get better. Stop beating yourself up. It’s not like upstairs helped much. Now, deep breath and let’s do this.”
Her stomach gurgled, but she nodded. “Okay.” Rapping on the door with her knuckles, she took that suggested deep breath just before Effie popped the door open, her pale face falling when she realized who it was.
“Hey, Effie!” George said cheerfully, plastering a grin on her face she hoped hid the dread she was feeling.
Effie looked ragged, her skin chalky, her eyes red-rimmed. Her attitude? Crabby. “What do you want?”
“May we come in, Effie?” Dex asked, his smile affable and welcoming, clearly catching Effie off guard. But he didn’t wait for an answer, he stepped past her, taking George with him.
Once inside, she looked around, that sad, lonely feeling hitting her right between the eyes again. Effie’s bare walls and furniture-less living room left her heart aching.
This is what the end of a life looked like. Effie was obviously practical. She’d likely handled all the particulars because that’s who she was, but George didn’t want her to leave this world not at least feeling like someone cared she would be gone.
Effie closed the door, tightening her shawl around her shoulders, her hair pulled back in a short ponytail, wispy and fine. “So?” she barked. “What do you want?”
She wasn’t going to make this easy, was she? “Are you all set for your trip to Cabo?” George asked cheerfully.
“What’s it to you?”
“I just dropped by to see if you needed anything. If I can arrange a car to take you to the airport. You leave in two days, right?”
Her mouth thinned. “I don’t need anything.” And then, as though she’d remembered manners were a thing, she said, “But thank you anyway.”
George went silent, staring down at her black heels, making note of the fact that her dress would need a run to the dry cleaners.
Dex rocked back on his heels in the silence and gave her a light nudge when said silence had become a little awkward.
Clearing her throat, George looked up to find Effie staring at her with the eyes of a hawk. “Effie, I came here to talk to you.”
“About?”
“About what’s going on in your life and why you’re going to Cabo.”
Effie hesitated only a moment, her look of surprise coming and going in the blink of any eye. Obviously, she was used to playing cat and mouse as a former attorney. She knew how to keep her cards hidden.
“What business is it of yours why I’m going to Cabo? You’re a nosy little busybody, young lady, and I want you to leave my house. Now.”
As with everything she tried to do with Effie, it was all going left before she’d gotten out ten words.
“Effie,” Dex said, his tone soothing and calm. “We’d like it very much if you’d hear us out. We have something important to share.”
She eyed Dex, still in his uniform from the coffee shop, his broad chest covered in a crisp white shirt beneath his green vest, and heaved a sigh—one that almost sounded like admiration mixed with defeat. As though she were going to listen to them simply because Dex was so good-looking, but she refused to like it.
George almost laughed out loud at that observation and wanted to commiserate with Effie by saying, Girl, I feel that to my soul. He is good-looking, and smart, and funny, and he loves animals. He’s an all-around great guy. But she figured that wouldn’t go over well.
“You two sound like those Bible thumpers, always wanting to share the word. I thought solicitation wasn’t allowed here? What will the board think if they find out one of their employees is knocking on doors?”
Well, that wasn’t exactly too far off the mark, was it? Angels, Bible thumpers. Close enough.
“We’re not Bible thumpers,” Dex assured her. “We’re not here to convince you to believe in anything but yourself.”
She folded her arms together, skepticism written all over her face. “All right then. Say what you came to say and make it quick. I have packing to do.”
What could she say that would make this woman crack, show even an ounce of emotion and ease up on the hard-ass role she played so well maybe just a little? No one was this unfeeling.
Were they?
Her frustration with Effie’s situation, her inability to find a way to reach her, made her cut straight to the chase. “Effie, I know you’re dying.”
Her eyes went wide, but almost immediately, they narrowed. “How do you know anything about me, let alone something so damn personal?”
Dex blew out a breath with a pop of his lips, indicating she might have leapt before checking the water.
“Too much?” she leaned in and whispered.
He pinched his index and thumb together to indicate maybe a little. Yet, when he looked as though he might speak to cover for her blunder, she gripped his forearm.
This was her assignment, and her mess. “I know because I’m an angel, and we…we know things.”
Did that sound as “so there” to everyone else as it did to her?
As Effie gaped at her, jaw swinging, eyes wide with shock, Dex coughed.
“Still too much?” she whispered again, this time with a wince.
Dex sighed.
Yeah. Maybe too much.
Chapter 21
Dex held out a hand to Effie. “Please take my hand, Effie. I won’t hurt you, I promise.”
She blinked, clearly considering. And who could blame her. This delicious man was asking her to hold his hand. Even if he was the devil himself, who wouldn’t consider taking his hand?
Effie might be a hard nut to crack, but she wasn’t a fool.
With a hesitant reach, she let her fingers touch Dex’s. His glow appeared instantly, surrounding his body with a comforting warmth not even the hardest ass could resist.
Effie gasped and blinked again, but she didn’t sound as terrified this time around as she had before. “What…what’s happening?”
Dex smiled. “I’m an angel, Effie. So is George. We’re here to help you. Will you let us?” he asked, his voice whiskey-warm and soft.
“I…I don’t understand,” she choked out.
And then, something in George took over. Something confident and sure. Taking Effie’s hand from Dex, she smiled at the woman who’d once made her tremble inside. “Effie, there’s something you’ve been yearning for. Something you’ve wanted for a long time. To meet the son you gave up for adoption before you leave this earth. We want to help you do that.”
It was as though Effie’s entire façade cracked. As though she were made of stone and someone had hit her with a sledgehammer. She crumpled against George, her frail body shaking.
“I don’t know how to…” she whispered with a hoarse sob, tearing at George’s heart. “I don’t know how to approach him. I’ve thought about this for months. Months after I found him…but…”
“We’ll help. I’ll help,” George reassured her, swaying in a soothing manner.
She trembled against George, making her hold Effie tighter to ease her shakes. “But…but I leave for Cabo in two days. It has to be before I go. It has to be…”
That sounded odd, but maybe Effie knew something she didn’t. She didn’t know when her time would be up. Maybe, when you were dying, you sensed your time was near? If going to Cabo
was one last hurrah, that would make sense.
“So you know where he is then?” George asked softly.
Effie began to cry against her shoulder as she nodded, surprising George. “I do. I had no choice, you know. I had no choice but to give him up. I had no one. I had nothing but a scholarship to college. The father was a silly mistake—a mistake who would never want anything to do with him anyway. A one-night stand, and I…I had no choice. I’m at peace with dying, but I don’t want to leave never telling him why I did what I did—I did it because I loved him. He was loved. It was always about how much I loved him.”
George leaned back against the entryway wall, taking Effie with her, letting her grief wash over them both. “Adoption is a hard choice, Effie, but obviously for you, it was the right one.”
Sniffling, she shuddered a sigh. “He had a good life. I saw it on his Facebook page, and he’s going to be a grandfather soon. The family who adopted him loved him, took good care of him. He had all the advantages I couldn’t offer, but… I just wanted one more chance to…to tell him I loved him, and if I could have, I would have kept him. Loved him…forever.”
It was then she began to softly sob. Her gulps for air said this was something she’d kept inside for a long time.
Tears stung George’s eyes as Effie’s pain swept through her. The worry. The wondering. The unknown. The unbearable fear. “We’ll help, Effie. I promise we’ll help you contact him. But you have to let us help, even if it’s just to be here for you while you do it.”
“I…” Exhaling, she leaned back, almost as if she just realized she’d relied on someone for support, and it was difficult, but George pulled her back in, ignoring her body language.
“It’s okay to need help, Effie. It’s okay to let your guard down. It’s okay to reach out. I promise it’s okay. I know you’re not used to asking for help—to needing help—but it’s okay.”
Effie crumbled once more, her limbs boneless. “Then help me. Please, please help me. I don’t want to miss this one last chance to see him—to explain. I don’t want to die without…”
George smiled even as tears fell down her face at the longing Effie had lived with for so many years, the sadness. “I will, and I’m happy to do it.”
“Do you really think you can help?” she squeaked.
“I make no guarantees, I can only promise you I’ll give it my everything.”
“But I’ve been…I’ve been so dreadful to you,” Effie said with a sniffle, shaking her head, her breathing labored.
George chuckled. “Yep. But it’s all good, Effie Sampson. To forgive is divine. To forgive you is divine times infinity.”
Effie’s shoulders shook with her laughter as she leaned back and eyed George. “So how does one…? Can you explain the angel thing?”
George snorted. If only. “Nope. This only just happened to me, and how it happened is a little on the left field side of things. I’m still trying to figure it out myself. But don’t think about me. This is about you and your son. Just know, it works—even with people who are skeptics.”
She gave George a wry smile, the first smile she’d ever graced her with, and it was pretty great. “I hope they have a special place for you up there. You deserve it after me.”
“Are you giving me a compliment, Effie Sampson?” George teased.
“I think I am,” she whispered.
Drawing her into another hug, she gave her a squeeze and said, “I’ll take it.”
As George looked to Dex over the top of Effie’s head, feeling the weight of Effie’s burden lift from her shoulders for the first time in a very long time, she felt her inner peace—peace that came from somewhere deep.
And that was good.
And it was right.
And George knew that to the very core of her soul.
Effie had really done her homework on David. She had his number and address and all she’d really needed was support—and a gentle reminder to prepare for the possibility of a poor reception from him.
They’d called Effie’s son together, and as George freshened up her makeup after a splash of cold water over her face, and tidied her hair in Effie’s bathroom, she felt a million times better on Effie’s behalf.
They’d decided the best way to contact her son and test the waters to see if he was receptive to meeting her was simply to call him. While they all agreed the circumstances and reasons behind meeting him could be off-putting, it was up to Effie to make the choice to reveal her situation to David—which she chose not to do.
She made it clear she didn’t want David to feel pressured to meet her because she was dying. Effie refused to play what she called, the sympathy card.
Still, Effie was a real champ, and David, married to his husband of twenty years, was a gentle, soft-spoken soul who turned out to be very receptive to an in-person meeting. They’d set up a place to meet each other halfway before Effie got on a plane to Cabo, and while Effie appeared nervous, and George had to keep her personal feelings to herself about the woman not sharing her cancer diagnosis with David, all in all, it had gone well.
Blowing out a breath, she ran her fingers through her hair, noticing how in need of a trim she was, then went to gather her purse—when she saw Effie’s cosmetic bag. She noted a hairbrush and some moisturizer…
But on top of that bag sat a prescription bottle for barbiturates. Pentobarbital, to be precise—filled only three days ago.
Her heart stopped as her fingers reached out to pick up the bottle and type in the name of the drug to her phone.
Now her stomach fell to the floor when she saw what it was used for.
Euthanasia? Effie was going to take her own life?
And then Effie’s words came back to George. It has to be before I go…
Her mouth went bone dry, her eyes filling with tears. She’d said she had to meet David before she left for Cabo and it was because she was going to take her own life there. George knew it—felt it.
Oh, no. No, no, no! She couldn’t let her do that! She didn’t want her to be alone when she left this world.
No.
Without thinking, she rushed out to the barren living room to find Effie and Dex standing by her big picture window, talking about the scenery as though she wasn’t planning to take her life. As though nothing were amiss, which served to upset her further.
“Effie!” George huffed as she rushed up to them. “Where did you get these?” She held up the prescription bottle to show her—and in a brief second, the old Effie was back.
She tried to snatch the bottle from George’s hand. “Why are you snooping around in my personal belongings?” she snapped, her shawl falling to the floor
George shook her finger at her. “Oh, no, Effie Sampson. I didn’t go digging in your medicine cabinets. No, ma’am! They were right on top of your cosmetics bag for all the world to see!”
In an instant, all the progress they’d made was gone. Her angry face and thinned lips said so. “Give them to me, young lady!”
“I will not! These will kill you, Effie!”
“I know!” she howled, grabbing the bottle and snatching it from George.
George’s mouth fell open. She knew. Of course she knew, silly, and George knew what she planned to do, too. Yet, for some reason, she needed verification. She needed to actually hear Effie confirm she wanted to take her life so there was no mistaking her intent.
Grasping at straws, she asked, “Where did you get those? It’s illegal to be in possession of a deadly substance!”
Effie’s tired face, lined with her outrage, turned red. “Not that I have to justify myself to you, but I have money, and when you have money you make connections, and that’s all you need to know!”
George had to fight to keep her temper in check. How could she consider something so…so singular, so lonely?
You mean the way you considered the same thing for very different reasons?
George shook off the memory. This wasn’t about her. “Effie. You c
an’t—”
She shook the bottle of pills, her fingers wrapped tightly around the plastic, thwarting George’s admonishment. “I can!” she yelled. “This is my life, young lady, and I won’t suffer through your lectures because you want to talk ethics! I’m done with chemo and being someone’s pin cushion only to tack on a couple of months to a life that’s destined to end in agony!”
During her explosive conversation with Effie, Dex had remained silent, but now—now he stepped between then, giving George a look so cold, she wouldn’t soon forget the expression.
“It’s time to go, George,” he said, his words stiff as he put an elbow under her arm to usher her out.
But she yanked it away. “Dex! How can you—”
“Because I said it’s time to go,” he said, cutting her off, his tone unsettling her but firm in its resolve. “Effie, if you need us, don’t hesitate to call. I’ll check in with you before you leave for Cabo.”
Taking her by the hand, he firmly led her out of Effie’s little house and toward her car. The wind tore at her hair, but she was so surprised by Dex physically dragging her out of Effie’s that she didn’t really notice anything except how angry she was.
“Hey, guys. How’d it go?” Wanda, who, at Dex’s request, had come by after work to drive George back to Marty’s, hopped out of her car with a smile and a wave. That is, until she saw George’s face.
She clenched her teeth together but somehow managed to remain polite. It wasn’t Wanda’s fault Dex was a jerk. “Can I have a moment alone with Dex, please, Wanda?”
“Everything okay with you two?” she asked, her beautiful face filled with concern.
“It’s fine. Just give us a sec,” George all but demanded.
Wanda hopped in the backseat of the car with a sharp nod of her head, and George took the opportunity to go around the back of the vehicle to confront Dex.
“How could you, Dex?” was all she managed to spit out, while he had the audacity to stare her down with eyeballs of daggers.
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