Prologue
I walk through the front door of our home in silence. My german shepard walks up to greet me, just like she does everyday. I scratch her head as I kick off my shoes and set my keys on the entry table.
“Hey girl.” I smile kneeling down to her level.
I run my fingers through her fur as she licks the dried tears on my cheeks. She eventually walks past me and stares at the front door waiting for it to open. If I could cry anymore tears I would. But there’s nothing left. Watching her stare at the door shatters my heart more than it already is.
It’s not her fault, she doesn’t understand. She just misses him. How do you explain to a dog that he’s not coming home? I stand up and head to the kitchen looking for nothing in particular but I don’t know what else to do. When I open the fridge I find it stocked to the brim. “Mom.” I say to myself shaking my head. She must’ve came earlier this morning after my brother Chase picked me up for the service. The fridge is full of labeled meals, all my favorite drinks. . . even some of his.
I grab a water having zero appetite for anything else and walk down the hall to our room to change out of my dress. I grab a pair of sweatpants, one of his T-shirts, and sit on the edge of the bed. Looking around the room I see his headphone case and watch are still on top of the dresser. Just above it a picture of Weston, Timber, and I is tucked into the mirror. Proven wrong, I feel the tears coming. I lay back on the bed, curl my legs into myself and bring his T-shirt to my chest hugging it, taking in his smell trying to bring to memory every feature of him. His brown hair and even darker brown eyes, his smile stretching from ear to ear when he laughed, the way he’d come up and hug me from behind to apologize every time we fought.
I don’t know what life even looks like without him because I can’t see it. I can’t see beyond this moment and for a second I feel as if I’ll be stuck here forever never moving forward. I feel the bed dip, then I feel Timber curl into my back as she nudges her head under my arm and lays it over my side. I run my fingers over her ears and close my eyes hoping to wake up and find that this was all just a horrible nightmare.
