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"Thank you for keeping our fanoring everything and everyone else--even yourself--to do as right I knew you long enough to know you don’t ood reason, and this is no different I’ve adored you since your first breath You were a good boy, and a fine ain to be our very best in your honor"
Jack pressed his lips together and then folded the paper, tucking it into his jacket pocket He took off his glasses, and Shepley walked hie as the tune of one of Thoh the speakers
Jack sat next to his brother, and they comforted each other while the ed Liis, while Travis rocked Stella, touching his cheek to her forehead, tears dripping froers withhard He wiped his cheeks, sucking in a breath between quiet sobs As I scanned the faces of our family, we looked so broken, so lost My breath faltered, watching a local pastor take the stage He would atte would take away the pain Not even God I looked at Trenton, watching hie croithout a second thought It was heartbreaking to watchelse without flinching Now, pain flooded in with their every breath, and I sat in theI could take their pain aishing mine would somehow disappear It was too much to process The , the way I did when I was little andmy mother
Several cars were parked in the drive, spilling out down both sides of the street in front of Jim Maddox’s home, just as I’d pictured As the news of Tho casseroles and sweetmyself for condolences Jim was the father ould bury his first-born Liis was the as the sister-in-law and the ex-girlfriend I felt like uilt My sto I wanted to do less than walk into the house and play the part of supporting wife and sister-in-law and ignore that Thomas was also my first love, that we had shared a bed ether He had loved me, and I would have to pretend none of that existed out of respect for his wife and my husband
Trenton squeezed my hand "I know," he said si both understanding and unconditional love He’d forgiven ht before for my lies and omissions It wasn’t okay, he pointed out, but it was understandable, and he loved me anyway
A black sea of friends and extended fa over the carpet Diane had chosen, through the rooms Thomas had once played in, and where they were once a complete family that death hadn’t touched This hy Diane had made Jim walk away from the police force This hy she made him promise not to let the kids follow in his footsteps Once Death took Diane in its ar for it to co, because it didn’t just happen to so, their sunshine, their constant And then she was aday Trenton had said he’s struggled to remember the sound of her voice and the exact color of her eyes The moment she’d passed, they had seen Death, and Death had seen them
Taylor and Tyler were sitting around the dining table in front of homemade dishes and a stack of clean plates Their wives sat next to the to help the away It would never go away No matter how many times they yelled, threw punches, or lost their te it the best He wassure the brothers had water or beer, and that they were comfortable with the nury with Travis, and the tere still on his side, but they couldn’t fight one another today They needed each other to get through it
Abby stood out fro in the corner where Liis had been a few days before, glaringly without Carter I watched as she fussed with her dress, tugging at the too-tight parts and pulling at the square neckline to cover the bulging breasts of a new mother
"You look beautiful," I assured her
She rolled her eyes "Thank you It’s tighter than I thought it’d be, but I didn’t really have anything for the occasion"
"It’s perfect," I said "I have a lot of black You should have called"
"Nothing in your closet is going to fit ht now," she said
"I’ over here to keep you covered"
Travis had been known for coht, aware of his own jealousy In the beginning, he was trying to be proactive to avoid a fight But after they were ed, and Travis wasn’t as sensitive Still, Travis unaffected by the overabundance of cleavage was serious progress
"Good for you," I said, crossingback The soathered at Jim’s, and the sickness that had settled in rief Soure it out Travis and Liis were leaning on each other quite a bit, and Abby--though typically stoic--didn’t seem as affected by Tho elseabout Thohed "When I left the hospital without my son, I cried for a full hour I didn’t want to, but I had to, so I did I left hio straight back to the hospital when this is over I’ve done that every day for nearly a week Holdattached to hi away frooodbye, cry, and leave"
I waited for her to make her point, but she didn’t seeto talk about what she wanted