02

There was a subtle clearing of the throat on the other line and she could sense Oliver’s reluctance to tell her what had happened. The silence was killing her though. Exhausted and utterly frustrated she snapped, “Oliver, just tell me ! Is it daddy ?”

Oliver breathed out a long winded sigh, “Yes Jade. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you this but your daddy passed away yesterday. We think he had a stroke. When he didn’t show up for his regular Saturday night game of Bingo, Ted Winslow called me up and asked me to check up on him. Your daddy never missed a night of Bingo so I told him I would drive out there. When I got there Jade, he was already gone.”

Jade sat up on her bed momentarily stunned. Even though she hadn’t talked to her daddy in years, the news of his death still stung deeply. It was even harder because of the way they left off their relationship. She felt the hot tear leak from her eye and ever so slowly drip down her cheek when Oliver spoke again, “Jade, are you there ?”

Wiping away the lone tear from her cheek Jade numbly replied, “Yea, I’m still here Oliver.”

“The thing is Jade, even though we know who your daddy is we still need a family member to come and officially identify him and then handle his burial and estate. Can… I mean can you do this ?”

Jade closed her eyes. It’s not like I really have a choice in the matter is it ? She thought to herself sadly.

“Jade ?” He asked again when she didn’t immediately respond.

Blowing out a breath of air in a whoosh, Jade said, “Yeah Oliver, I’ll be there sometime late tomorrow evening.” The mere thought of returning home to Hillsborough almost took her breath away. Going back to the same house that she grew up in with her father, the memories from her childhood and then there was the man, the one that almost broke her.

“That will be fine,” Oliver spoke breaking into her thoughts, “And again, I’m really sorry for your loss Jade. Jed Sampson was a good man and a mighty fine Preacher too.”

Jade was too choked up to say much more, all she could honestly manage was a small, “Thank you.” Jed was her father and for all of his faults, disowning her and such, he was a good man. He was only a lonely widower who raised a daughter and did the best he could.

She had some good memories of her father ; she knew that he had loved her the only way that he knew how. She just wished that he would have given Libby a chance. Jade then fiercely wished that she could have been the one to swallow her pride earlier and tried harder to rebuild the burned bridge between them.

Now it was too late. Her daddy was gone and there wasn’t a thing that she could do about it. Another tear ran down her cheek, when Oliver spoke again.

“Jade, write this number down and call me when you get to town. I’ll meet up with you at your dad’s place. I’m assuming that is where you are planning on staying ? »

Re-composing herself, Jade reached over and started to meddle through the drawer of her night stand looking for something to write down the number. “Yeah, I’ll be staying at the old house,” she confirmed sitting up with a pen and a napkin in her hand. “Alright, what’s the number ?”

“(336) 554-2312, it doesn’t matter what time you get in, call me and I’ll drop bye, okay ?”

Jade scrawled out the number and laid it on her night stand. “Sure Oliver, will do. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Have a good morning, Jade,” he ended with and hung up the phone.

Jade closed her phone and laid it on the night stand beside her. She turned on the lamp and covered her face with her hands. Working all day, coming home to a sick child, going on little sleep and then getting the news of her daddy’s death was just too much for her. The tears started to come in earnest as she sat there on the edge of the bed. For the next half hour Jade silently cried a river, mourning over her father’s death.

She knew that there would be no more sleep for her tonight. Sleep being a lost cause Jade stood up and went to her closet to pack. At this point she was only going through the motions. Soon Libby would be up and hopefully feeling better. Kids tended to rebound from those stomach viruses amazingly well.

Then she would return home. A home that she once ran from because of a careless mistake that she had made. She opened up herself fully to a man and he ruthlessly shot her down. He told her he loved her, but it had all been a bold faced lie. She was just another notch on his belt, another conquest he had conquered and another heart he had broken.

Because she had loved so fully and so wholly, she lost her relationship with her father and now that too was gone from her forever. All that she had left in this life was her little angel, Libby. This time going home she would not make the same mistakes again. This time, she would do things right and to hell with Austin Giles.

Jade was coming home.

“Layton, » Austin barked, « You and the guys run through the drill one more time and then hit the showers. We’ll pick back up tomorrow with reviewing the tape so that we can be ready for Chapel Hill come Friday night.”

“Yes sir,” Gabe Layton replied to his coach and then jogged off towards the huddle with the rest of his team mates.

Austin looked down at his clip board and blew out a tired breath. They had a really good chance at winning a State Championship this year but there were never any guarantees. Not in football anyway. To make matters worse he had Principal McKay riding him hard about bringing home that damn trophy. If they couldn’t pull it off there was going to be an awfully lot of disappointed people in this town.

“What’s going on little brother, you have the far off look in your eyes ?” Austin’s older brother stopped by his side and asked while giving him a healthy smack on the back.

Austin grunted but held his ground, “Not much man. Just working the boys and getting them up to par.”

« Really,” Tim said and turned to watch the group of guys set up in the center of the field. He heard the count and saw Gabe straighten himself with the ball tucked under his arms and then do a bit of fancy foot work when the pocket around him collapsed before letting the ball fly smoothly to the open receiver. Touchdown.

“That boy has a future ahead of him,” he remarked and turned back to look at Austin.

Austin continued to gaze out at the field. “Yep, he sure does,” he said wistfully. At one time Austin had that same bright future too until he blew his knee out for good when he played college ball for Boise State. One bad tackle and his dreams to play in the NFL were over. With a whole lot of pushing from his big brother, Austin finally finished school with an education degree, returned home and is now coaching his old high school team.