'Til Sun Beams Find You [COMPLETE]

Thirty (Part 2)

"What do you say?" Dale asked, as Nico's eyes followed Carter while he exited the restaurant. She saw him take a seat on the bench right outside the door.

"Uh.." she blinked her eyes, slightly dazed.

Should she have left the table to follow Carter? Was she supposed to give him space?

"Hm? What do you think, Nico?"

When he spoke it was concise and intimidating, like his words were larger than Nico, and the table the sat at and the restaurant they sat in.

Dale Simmons had a great voice, equal parts domineering and important, and like people felt inclined to listen to him based solely on that. Nico believed that was probably why he was so successful in his field.. every time he spoke, people listened.

Including her.

"It's a three-bedroom house, nice upkeep, big backyard, finished basement. Only thing is, I'm not looking to sell at market value. I want to sell it for how much I bought it for all those years ago. And to a family, preferably a young one." He felt it was what his late wife would have wanted for the home, for new lives to start together beneath that roof the way theirs did, and he was only trying to honor her.

"I don't.. I don't think I could do that," Nico answered.

"You don't think you could sell a house below market value?"

She drank the last of her drink, suddenly regretting there was no alcohol in it. "I don't wanna be in the middle of this."

"The middle of what?" He asked, his eyes following Nico's outside the window to where Carter sat on the bench with his head in his hands. "You aren't in the middle of anything. Carter will get over it. He's... he's sentimental. We should have sold the house ages ago.. it's what she would have wanted."

"I think you should be discussing that with your son, not me."

"Well this lunch was intended for me to discuss it with my son but he no longer is at this table, is he?"

Nico swallowed. "I'm sorry for your loss, Mr. Simmons–"

"Dale," he corrected.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Dale, but I think there's a much more appropriate way to share your intentions with Carter than sharing you already called in movers to move her things and you want to get rid of the house where the only memory of his mother exists. That's not news you break casually over lunch."

He leaned back into his seat. "It's been fifteen years.." this time, his voice wasn't so overbearing.

It was gentle and reflective.

"I can't let time continue to pass me by."

"A house isn't getting in the way of time."

"It is. It's the memory of Celine on this earth.. in the home I bought for her.. for us, holding me back fifteen years. Except now there's no more us, there's no more her. It's just me.. and Carter.. and we live two separate lives now. Why not let her go?"

He had a real sad look in his eyes as he spoke about his wife, and Nico felt her heart breaking inside her chest.

She knew loss, but she didn't know loss quite like this.

"What would you do?" He asked her next.

"I don't know," she answered, as she completely understood where he was coming from, as well as where Carter was at.

They were on two separate grief journeys and this was the crossroads.. and it was a tough crossroads to be stuck at.

Nico glanced outside of the window again but she couldn't see Carter on the bench anymore.