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I let it trail off, knowing he’d get it.
“You’re not alone in this world,” Garrett said. “You lost your twin, but you still have every single one of us.”
And every single one of them had dangerous jobs.
Would I lose them, too?
I’d already almost lost Garrett.
“Thank you,” I whispered, even though the words felt like I was trying to speak through sawdust-covered vocal cords.
“Where’d your man go?” Garrett asked.
I gave him the condensed version of why Keene was gone.
“That’s… sick,” Garrett settled on. “I don’t even know what to say to that. Did he win?”
“I guess as much as you can win when it comes to someone telling you that they’re trying to charge you for elder abuse,” I admitted. “He doesn’t have any charges against him. But everyone in the area thinks he’s an awful person because he refused to help her.”
“He owes no one an explanation,” Garrett said. “Not me. Not Mom and Dad. Not the residents of Florida.”
I just loved my brother.
“Where’s Quinn?” I asked.
“He caught a call right before he was about to head this way,” Garrett said.
We drove to the funeral home, my eyes catching on Shayne’s old truck parked next to Quinn’s truck.
I couldn’t stop the small smile at the thought of them realizing they’d parked next to each other when we all left.
I walked inside arm and arm with Garrett, my heart in my throat as I walked up to the front of the room.
Garrett let me go when I pulled the box of ashes from my massive purse and placed them on the pedestal.
My mom sniffled, and I looked over at her to see her standing there without her walker.
“Where is your walker?” I asked.
She patted her thigh. “I’ve been in pain so long that this is nothing.”
I smiled sadly at her.
The thought of her in that much pain was like a stab to the heart.
“That’s good, Mom,” I said as I walked to her and leaned my head against her shoulder.
She pulled me into her arms, and then we were both crying.
God, would it ever get easier?
All I had to do was lean against my mom, and I was crying like my world was falling apart.
And maybe it was.
Maybe it’d be like this for a really long time.
I was twisted and turned, and I wasn’t sure which one of my brothers had me, but I let them take me to the pew at the front.
