Giving It All Read Online Free

never this humid. I’ll adjust. I’d just forgotten how bad it can be.”
    He stowed his gear in the trunk of his mom’s Camry and pushed the passenger seat back as far as it would go. “Thank you for getting a car with leg room. I swear I spent the last six hours with my knees in my chest.”
    “I bet. I have a bottled water in the cooler behind you if you need to take any ibuprofen. I know how tight my muscles get after a cross-country flight, and I’m a foot shorter than you.”
    “Thanks, but I can handle it.” He’d had enough pain killers to last a lifetime. He avoided taking pills whenever possible now.
    “You always were stubborn.”
    “Not me. I was the good one. Jenny is the stubborn one, remember?” he teased.
    “Neither one of you will ever win points for your ability to compromise. She said to text her when you get home, by the way.”
    “Will do. I can’t believe she’s almost done with college already.”
    “I can,” she said wryly.
    “Not used to having a child of legal drinking age in the house?” he guessed.
    “Not just that, you realize she knows so much more than me with her almost four years of college.”
    “Ah, yes, the I-know-everything virus. I know it well. I can talk to her if you’d like.”
    “As I recall, you had your own outbreak of that disease. What makes you think she’ll listen to you any more than to me?”
    “I’m young and cool.”
    “There is that. Go ahead, knock yourself out. Who knows? Maybe she’ll actually listen to you.”
    “So how are things with Dad?”
    “We’re taking it day by day. Some are better than others.”
    “The only easy day was yesterday,” he said, giving her the motto that had gotten him through BUD/S.
    “Amen. He’s looking forward to seeing you. It’s good to have you home.”
    Before he could respond, his mom’s cell phone rang.
    “You want me to get that?” he asked.
    “No, I have a hands-free thingy, hold on.” She fumbled around with buttons on the steering wheel. “Hello? Hello?”
    “Mrs. Anderson? It’s Ellie.”
    “Yes? Is something wrong? Is Ed okay?”
    “Yes, yes, he’s fine. I had to call you though—” excitement tinged the woman’s words, “—Mr. Anderson lifted his arm. By himself. At least two, three inches.”
    “What?”
    “I was giving him some water when Charlie jumped on his lap and started rubbing against his right arm, and he lifted it like he was going to pet him.”
    “Oh.” His mom started crying. “I wish I was there to see it.”
    “He’ll do it again. Don’t you worry. He’s gonna get better and better, just you wait and see.”
    His mom sniffed and wiped her eyes with a tissue. “Thank you so much, Ellie. We’re still about two hours away, but we’ll be home as soon as we can.”
    “Don’t rush. I’m not going out until tonight. I can stay with Mr. Anderson as long as you need me to. Drive safely.”
    “I will. And thanks for calling. You made my day.”
    “Glad to do it. Bye now.”
    “Who was that?” Grant asked as soon as he heard the click ending the call. Seeing his mother cry tore him up inside, but at least they were happy tears this time.
    “Ellie Hall. You remember her, she lived next door to us with her grandma, God rest her soul. She’s been a huge help since Jenny left.”
    “Gangly, brown hair, kind of quiet?” Grant tried to put a face to the name. He vaguely remembered huge eyes in a tiny face covered by lots of hair. “She was a few years behind me in school, right?”
    “Yes. She rented the apartment over the garage after her grandma passed and she had to sell the house.”
    “And who’s Charlie?” he asked.
    “Charlie’s a stray cat we inherited. He’s the laziest darn thing, doesn’t do much but lay in the sun all day, but he’s gotten into the habit of sitting with Dad. The therapist said it was good for Dad and he seems to like it, so we kept him.”
    “So you’ve started adopting stray cats and stray girls? Anything else I