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Using the excuse of needing to check on Emma—who, once I spilled the news about Mack’s pretty newfriend, would interrogate him ten times worse than me—I made my way back to my house, while Mack invited Harper to join him inside his.
After searching for Emma on the main floor, to no avail I bounded up the stairs.
She was sitting in my office, staring at the photo of Aubrey and me…the last one ever taken before my sister died. Easing in beside my girl, I peered at the picture, too. As the familiar fingers of pain and regret squeezed my heart, I stroked my hand down Emma’s arm.
“Whatcha doing, baby?” I whispered.
“Wishing I’d been able to tell Aubrey goodbye.”
“You weren’t at the funeral?”
I’d been so focused on hunting down the fucker who’d killed her; I barely remembered Aubrey’s funeral. I knew the church had been packed, overflowing even. The only person…the only face I remembered seeing that day was my mom’s. Her haunted expression, pale skin, and the unmitigated pain shimmering in her red, swollen, and tear-filled eyes was forever branded in my brain.
“No.” Emma sniffed and swiped a tear from her cheek. “Before the news about Aubrey hit the airwaves or internet, my father called and asked if I knew her. When I’d stopped crying long enough to tell him she was my roommate, he sent thepoliceto my dorm room. They wouldn’t even let me pack my things, they just escorted me to their squad car and drove me back home.”
Though I knew her mother and father were making a genuine effort to be the parents she’d always needed them to be, it didn’t stop me from wanting to knock them both on their asses for everything they’d stolen from Emma.
“They wouldn’t let me fly here to attend Aubrey’s funeral. Hell, they wouldn’t even let me go back to my dorm. I had to finish my courses and get my degree online.”
Without a word, I gathered Emma into my arms and cradled her to my chest before easing into the chair. Tracing my finger over Aubrey’s smiling face in the photo, I pressed a kiss to Emma’s forehead.
“I know it’s not the same, but if you’d like, I’ll take you to the cemetery so you can tell Aubrey goodbye.”
“Oh, Grant,” she moaned and nodded. As another tear slid down her face, Emma threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly.
After she dried her eyes and slipped on her sandals, we strolled out the front door.
“Whose car isthat?” Emma asked, eyes wide and pointing to the Porsche.
“Oh, hell, I almost forgot.” I grinned, helping her into the truck. “I’ll fill you in on the way.”
After telling her about Mack’s new doctorfriend, Emma pelted me with questions—most I couldn’t answer yet—from the ranch, to the florist shop, and all the way to the cemetery. When I pulled to a stop and parked near a massive shady oak, her excitement over Mack possibly finding love evaporated.
Clutching the flowers, Emma solemnly accepted my hand as I helped her from the truck. I slung my arm around her waist, and we silently walked to the row of headstones beneath the tree. After lifting two of the three bouquets of flowers from her hand, I left Emma standing at Aubrey’s grave, staring at her headstone.
I placed a bundle of flowers on my mom and dad’s headstones, then sat on the grass between them and did what I always did…talked to them.
“Her name is Emma. She was Aubrey’s roommate back in Columbia. Yeah,” I nodded. Feeling Emma’s eyes on me, I kept right on going. “The rich one Aubrey always talked about. We’re getting married next spring. No, I haven’t gotten the ring yet, Dad…it’s on my to-do list.” I chuckled, knowing that would have been the first question out of his mouth. “And, no, Mom, I haven’t knocked her up…yet.”
Emma gasped. I turned and flashed her a grin as her cheeks grew pink.
“What?” I asked, trying not to laugh. “A lot’s happened since I last came to visit them. I need to fill them in.”
Emma chuckled and shook her head. When she plopped down to the grass beside Aubrey’s grave and began talking to my sister, tears stung my eyes.
“I know you know I’ve met your brother. I’m pretty sureyouhad something to do with him rescuing me from that damn tornado. A tornado? Really, Bree…you couldn’t have made it a hailstorm or a blizzard? You had to go all out and drop down a damn twister?” Emma chuckled, then somberly reached out and traced her fingers over the letters of Aubrey’s name on the headstone. “Thank you, Bree. Thank you for sending him to me, or me to him, or however you made it happen. I’ve never been this happy in my whole life. Well…except that time you verbally emasculated Martin Monroe for shoving me against the wall and sticking his tongue down my throat at that stupid frat party.” Emma giggled.
Watching her from the corner of my eye, I brushed the fallen leaves and grass clipping from my parent’s headstones and smiled.
“I miss you so much, boo. You were the best friend I ever had.”
A sob tore from Emma’s throat. Instead of rushing to her side, to hold and comfort her, I remained sitting on the grass, and gave her the freedom to purge her grief.
“If I’d known the night you left our room was gonna be the last time I ever saw you, I would have gone to the library with you, or blocked the door, so you’d still b-be…h-ere now,” Emma wailed, then curled in on herself and sobbed her heart out.
Though it ripped me to shreds, I let her cry until her tears ran dry. Then I helped her place the flowers on Aubrey’s headstone before I scooped Emma into my arms and carried her back to the truck. She didn’t say a word all the way home, simply held my hand and rested her head on my shoulder.
She was tapped out…emotionally, physically, and mentally depleted. But I knew how to fill her up again.
