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At 4:53 thatI couldn’t Moh, and I’d woken her before the nurses could arrive She had kissed his face and told him over and over that she loved him, then curled intoher and watching as the nurses began undoing all the ood-bye To the best ht hard, but in the end I knew he couldn’t hold on any longer I’d promised him I’d take care of Momma, and I wouldn’t let him down

When it was time for us to leave, I held my mother in my arms, and alked out that door for the last ti roo it to be empty

It wasn’t Brady, Nash, Gunner, Asa, and Ryker were all lying around on different chairs or sluh I’d asked theo home, these five hadn’t left We had been a friends and teammates since ere kids, but o call your grando wake the boys and tell theone to visit her over the years, but she was a stuffy old rich woman who looked down her nose at the life randfather had passed away of a heart attack when I was five I didn’t rerandparents I had met My dad’s parents had died in a car accident on Old Morphy Bridge in a store He’d been an only child just like my mooing to go ho Mo me about one

First I went to Brady, as slumped in a chair with his baseball cap pulled down over his face Hehis hat back on his head, he looked up atHe knew

Standing up, he pulled"I’m sorry, man So damn sorry"

I nodded, and he moved back and helped me wake the others Each one told , to call the and told theements

Brady was the last to follow the others out He stopped and looked back ather to you ifyou need et ie needed her rest She’d been with me more than seventeen hours yesterday without sleep "When she wakes up, tell her to call me"

Brady frowned I’d said for her to call me not text me He was confused Thankfully, he didn’t question it, just nodded before turning to go

I let Maggie’s words play over and over again in h this Then I went to find Momma and take her home

After Momma was asleep, I crawled into bed and crashed The nu ho here, it hadn’t fully sunk in I embraced that for now

I slept for more than fourteen hours It was dark outside when I finally openedthem for the food Must have been the knock at the front door that woke rabbed a shirt and pulled it on, then headed down the hallway to see how she was doing I had hoped I would wake up before her I hadn’tto the kitchen with a casserole dish in her hands She turned to look at me, and the dark circles under her eyes worried ht us so a smile

Miriam was Nash’s mother She’d always been nice to Momma even if they had never been close friends Miriam didn’t socialize much with the other women in Lawton either But from the times I’d been to Nash’s house, I knew she was a nice lady

"You gonna eat?" I asked her, hoping she’d say yes I didn’t feel ed then sniffed and wiped at her eyes "I’ry just yet"

"When was the last tiain

I moved around the bar and put my arm around her shoulders, then forced her toward the table "Sit You’re eating We both are We need to eat"

She sat doillingly I grabbed two plates and dished up sona

I set the plate in front of her then placed a fork and napkin down beside it before getting us both drinks

Once I had everything on the table, I sat down at my chair "He’d want us to eat I promised him I’d take care of you Help ain then nodded I waited until she took a bite of her food before eating ood, and once I started eating, I realized I was starving I went and made myself another plate before Mo to take a bath and go back to bed," she said quietly "I have so pills left I think I’ll take one I didn’t get hts off I can’t stopdown and walked over to kiss her on the head "We’re gonna miss him We’ll always h this" I could hear Maggie’s encouragement as the words came out of my mouth Without her the past three weeks, would I have been able to say that? To help my momma deal? I doubted it