Never Giving Up

Chapter 24

The sound of a glass being placed on the quartz worktop has me looking away from my cup of coffee and to the glass. It contains a golden coloured liquid, most likely whisky, and ice. My eyes drift up from the glass and to the person who placed it down next to me.

"Drink up," Jane encourages. She raises her glass to me and downs some of her own drink which is the same as the one she's given to me. "You'll need this more than the coffee."

I push the glass away. "Thank you, Jane, but I'm not a whisky drinker."

"Neither was I until my brother went through the same thing as your father only four years ago. The Dr. Kim and Dr. Watts both operated on him and he made a great recovery."

She stops talking and stares at the remainder of her drink. She swirls the liquid around in the glass a few times and sighs.

"That saved him but the car crash he was involved in just last year didn't," she finishes. She raises her glass again. "Nick's mother gave me the same drink and spoke to me about how her father died. She may be old but she's wise. She never drank anything other than whisky but never swallowed a drop of alcohol until that day as it was her fathers drink."

She places her empty glass down on the worktop and sits down next to me. Her hands clasp together on her lap and her chest rises and falls on a silent intake of breath.

"The drink isn't for the sake of drinking. It's a way of trying to calm your nerves and because you tend to drink it slower than the alcohol you're used to drinking, you have the time to think about the good times you've had with that loved one. I drank that when my brother died and it took my mind off the horrible fact that he wasn't here anymore. It was only for a small fraction of time but it worked. I could have easily let that get the better of me but I didn't. I did what I always did and always do and that was stepping up.

"I was able to help my parents and my brother's family make plans for their funeral. I was able to take most of the burden off my family when they were close to going off the rails. I did what I had to which is what I told you I do when we went for lunch in New York."

The woman in front of me has dropped her facade of the strong woman she claims to be. In reality, she's someone who is dealing with an everyday issue that normal people like myself have, unfortunately, come face-to-face with. Simply hearing Jane talk about something as personal as losing her brother in a car accident after she thought she'd lose him when he had a heart attack . . . it's something I certainly didn't think would happen anytime soon.

"I, uh . . ." I clear my throat. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Because I thought I was alone in all of this," she answers softly. "Everyone single person in my family thought we were alone but we weren't. We had each other and we had our partners there to fall back on when we needed them. You're in the same boat. You have your family to fall back on. You have Luca to fall back on and if you wish, you have both Nick and I if you need us."

I open my mouth to respond to her but cut myself short when I hear Luca's voice overpower a softer voice that seems to be coming into the kitchen.

"You're supposed to be in bed. Louisa, you can't go in there when your gran is having a private conversation. Louisa, come back here. Don't start acting up because there's someone else here. Louisa, come back here. Louisa!"

"No!"

I turn my attention to the quick footsteps that come rushing into the kitchen but only catch the top of Louisa's dark hair as she runs around the opposite side of the island and disappears from view, dropping to the floor to hide from her dad. I look at Luca who enters the kitchen with an angry look on his face, sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows and the top two buttons undone.