For a Song (Needing Harmony #5)

Chapter One

I lightly tapped on the steering as I hummed a tune from one of the projects I was working on. It was a light Christmas jingle that had quickly gotten stuck in my head these past few days. All my job requests had been Christmas related.

Just the other day, Toby tried to play Christmas music through the radio and I had to turn it off instantly. I was so over it. Christmas was still weeks away, and I never wanted to listen to another holiday song ever again. Never ever again.

There was a soft thud, and I glanced through the giant fence and at the large warehouse in front of me. Self-storage units lined the side with big, dark, metal red doors. There were three buildings in total, all of them hiding the private lives of who knows who. A car on the other side of the fence drove to it and scanned their card. The gate opened, letting them through. It drove by me and onto the road.

Sighing, I leaned back in my seat, trying to shake off the paranoia that seemed to have made a home inside of me these last few months. I was tapping at the steering wheel again, trying to keep my emotions in check. It was harder than usual.

About two minutes later, another car pulled up next to me. Aunt Laura climbed out. Her long, wavy black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and she wore a teal blue winter headband. Her black parka wasn’t zipped up, revealing a black sweater underneath.

“Finally.” I sighed in relief and scrambled out of my car as she waited patiently next to hers.

“I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long?” she asked.

“No.”

“Good. Shall we go see what we can use then? You can get in with me.”

I met her gaze with gratitude. “Thank you for doing this.”

Aunt Laura’s expression softened, warmth shining in her brown eyes. “No one else thought about doing this, and I think it’ll do Justin good. You brought up a good point. His dad was his last family with memories of his mother and sister. So we should do what we can to honor his family.”

As she climbed back into her car, I joined her, getting into the passenger seat. She drove through the gate and around the first storage building. Arriving at the third one, she parked as close as she could get to the building and left the car running with the heat blasting.

After sorting through her keys, she found the one she wanted and took off the lock before lifting the sliding door up. Inside, neatly packed boxes and containers were stacked high against the back and side walls. It wasn’t overly packed and there was even a small table set up near the opening with nothing on it.

Aunt Laura made a soft humming sound as she stepped in. The light from outside made it easier to see, but it was still a bit dark.

“I kept what I could and what I thought Justin would want one day. I didn’t bother with any of the furniture, opting to sell it instead to help with Justin’s college funds.”

I looked closer at the boxes and realized they were neatly labeled with their contents. Clothes. Shoes. Toys. Pictures.

“Here, grab this one.” Aunt Laura heaved down a box from the middle of the unit. I had a moment of hovering, scared she was going to fall or hurt herself as she stood on top of a flimsy looking folding chair.

She laughed when she saw my expression. “I swear, I’m stronger than I look.”

“I believe you,” I said.

“Uh huh. Here.” She handed the box to me. As I put it on the table, she grabbed another, placing it down next to it. She dug through her purse and pulled out a box cutter, easily slicing through the tape and pulling open the flaps to look inside. “Just like I thought.”

“What?” I asked, trying to see inside.

Aunt Laura pulled out a beautifully woven soft blanket. It was mainly a forest green, but other greens were woven in too. It was really pretty.

Her expression was wistful as she said, “We’ll give this to him too. It was his mother’s favorite blanket. There were so many times when I’d go visit and see Justin wrapped tightly in it as she held him. He loved to snuggle with it while she read to him.”

I carefully grabbed the blanket. It was super soft and warm. It did smell a little dusty, but we’d be able to air it out before giving it to him tonight. Just learning this little bit of information about Justin and his mom made me feel light and warm and happy.

“This is perfect,” I whispered, trying to imagine those precious moments of his with his mother. “I’ll get this wrapped up for you to give to him later.”

Aunt Laura was smiling at me again in that soft way of hers. When she realized I was staring at her, she cleared her throat and pointed at the box she had given me. “That’s full of family photos. So protect that with everything you got.”

“I’ll protect it with my life.”

She laughed. “You don’t need to go that far.”

I lightly rested my hand on the box, knowing exactly how important the contents were. “This box holds precious life. It’s worth it.”

Aunt Laura’s expression gentled. “You’re a good girl.”

“I’m only doing what needs to be done. There’s nothing special about it.”

She shook her head. “No. You’re going above and beyond. Not even we adults would have thought of this.”

Her compliment sent heat through my face. I had to look away from her, having trouble accepting her acknowledgement. “Justin told me his fear. I think it’s important to remember those gone.”

He had opened up to me, telling me he was scared of forgetting his mother and sister. His dad was the last person who held such intimate memories of his family and with his passing, took those precious moments with him. I understood his fear to a degree. Before meeting my dad again, I had nearly forgotten what he looked like. Sounded like. Smelled like. He had been steadily becoming a hazy existence to me as the years passed without him in it. It only came back when I saw him once more. But Justin wasn’t ever going to have that chance to see his family again.

Aunt Laura rested her hand on my shoulder, making me jump in surprise. I blinked through the tears that had suddenly blurred my vision. She watched me with that gentle, unwavering warmth of hers—so full of love and care—that I didn’t know how to accept it.

“Come on,” she said. “Let’s get these in the car and see what else we can dig out.”

We spent the next half an hour checking contents and wondering what else we could bring back with us. I found a box of drawings, some were made by his sister, others by him. Looking at them, I could tell right away that his sister had adored drawing.

Already, ideas were forming about what I could do with them.

“What do you think about this?” Aunt Laura asked, holding out what looked like a diary.

“Whose is it?” I asked.

“His mom’s. There are a few in here. I forgot she used to write in them so often.”

I swallowed hard. That was a deeply personal gift. One that may not necessarily be welcomed. There was no telling what she wrote, and I wasn’t about to look through them to check.

“I...I’m not sure,” I admitted.

“I agree.” She put them back in the box. “Well, I actually plan to hand the key over to him when he graduates this year. We can leave them here for that moment. I think it’ll be more fitting.”

I could only nod my agreement as she carefully put the diary back in the box she’d found them in and closed it. Instead of putting the box back, she tucked it under the table. It didn’t take much longer before we finished.

“I’ll drop everything off and then go get the boys,” Aunt Laura said.

“Okay. Thank you for letting me use this stuff.”

She leaned over and gave me a tight hug before getting in her car. After she dropped me off at my car, I headed to a craft store. Now that I saw what we had to work with, I knew what I needed to buy.

By the time I made it home, Bryan was already inside, trying to secure a whiteboard to the wall. His black hair was in disarray, something I rarely saw with him. He was always so put together. His glasses slipped down his face, and he pushed them back up quickly.

“Where’s Seth?” I asked.

“Store.” He glanced back at me briefly. “He realized your kitchen is empty again and he needed some stuff for whatever recipe he has in his head.”

“Do you need help?”

“No. Did you get a bunch of photos? I’ll scan them in so we can create the slideshow.” He hopped down and looked at the board. “Yes. Not crooked.”

I snorted. “Are you sure?”

He stepped farther back, staring at it, tilting his head side to side. “Yes. Stop making me second-guess myself, troublemaker.”

Since he’d caught me, I only grinned back as I laid out the photo albums and began sorting them. He joined, also looking at the photos.

Many were of Justin’s little sister being a silly goose. Even in the photos, I could feel her energy. She always held huge, teeth-flashing smiles in her photos along with twinkling eyes. She looked more like her mother with the straighter dark hair and lighter blue eyes, while Justin looked more like his dad.

“Here, add this one,” I said, passing a photo over to Bryan to scan. It was a photo of Justin and his dad. It looked like they had gone hiking and were at the top of a mountain, both of them grinning big and looking so happy. It was obvious this was before everything had happened, when everyone was still happy and loving.

Bryan frowned down at the photo. “I don’t get why we need to do this for that bastard.” He grumbled as he followed my directions.

“It isn’t about Justin’s dad. This is about his family. His family is gone now, and all he has left of them is his memories.”

Bryan only scowled as he passed back the photo and I tucked it back into the album. He had always been the most against Justin’s decisions. Bryan absolutely hated that Justin visited his dad in the hospital and stayed by his side until his death. And I knew Bryan was upset with me for supporting Justin. If Bryan had his way, he would have locked Justin away until his dad died in order to protect him from the toxic existence of his father.

“Do you remember anything about them?” I asked.

“Not really. We were pretty young, and I didn’t hang out with them as much back then. It was hard for me, my parents couldn’t care less about me playing with friends. Unless someone picked me up, I was stuck at home.” He paused and looked down at the photo of the entire family together. In a sad whisper, he said, “I do remember the funeral though.”

“Aunt Laura and George seem to remember them pretty well. They said they’ll be happy to tell stories.”

“They’ll have good stories, I’m sure. They never talked to Justin about it because they weren’t sure if he wanted them to, but I guess now’s as good a time as ever.”

“All right. Time is running out,” I said, starting to feel nervous that we weren’t going to finish in time. “I’m going to get these framed and on the wall.”

“Seth should be back soon to help, and I’ll be done in a couple more minutes. We’ll get this done in time.”

His comfort settled some of my nerves. I smiled at him.

“I believe you,” I said. I pulled out my phone and turned up the volume before playing one of my playlists. No Christmas music on it at all. Then we got to work as the time ticked away and Justin was set to show up in less than two hours.