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I nodded.
She swept her hand in a low arc. “Then please, show yourself down. I’d help make sure you got there all right, but I did this last night, and I don’t really want to walk if I don’t have to.”
She held out her foot, and it was then that I saw the large walking cast that went from foot to just below her knee.
“Oh, ouch.” I winced. “Broken?”
“Very,” she confirmed. “But such is my life. I’m so clumsy.”
I shook my head. “I feel ya. I am, too.”
The woman smiled. “My name is Nancy. It’s nice to meet you…”
She left the statement hanging, and I grinned and filled in the blank for her.
“Jubilee,” I said, holding out my hand.
She shook it. “Excellent. I love that name.”
I blushed lightly. “Thank you.”
Five minutes later, I was pushing through the door that led to the downstairs level where all the magic happened.
I found my aunt bent over a woman, mid-fifties, with a caved-in skull.
She looked up as I entered, and a look of relief crossed her face.
“You made it!” she cried. “Thank God!”
Snorting, I tossed my bag in the corner and tried to control the blush that rose over my face.
“Yeah,” I said to the wall. “Sorry I’m late.”
“Not late,” she said. “Right on time. I just finished with that one on table four. If you want to start the process on cooler three, that’d be super. Channing’s expected in about an hour. She just had to go to a recital for her youngest, first. Then she’ll be here.”
Channing was Brittany’s Turner.
Where Turner did the makeup on my clients, Channing worked miracles with Brittany’s.
I hadn’t seen her in quite a long time, at least a couple of years.
“Okay, great.” I turned to cooler number three and started doing my thing, pulling out the body and getting it situated on the table where I would start the process of embalming. “What happened to the family?”
“Bad car wreck,” she muttered darkly. “Couple of kids were out drinking and joyriding when they hit this family’s car. The car was totaled. Honestly, they should’ve done a closed casket. You haven’t even seen the dad yet…but it’s bad. I’m going to have to get creative with him.”
I winced. “What about the kids? Did they survive?”
“Yes,” she said. “But they’ll both be in jail for a long time. That, and I’m fairly sure that both of them will never walk again. One had almost a complete spinal severance while the other only had a partial. Needless to say, they weren’t one of the lucky ones.”
The next couple of hours went fast. Channing, at some point, had joined us and got to work right alongside us.
At some point, my uncle Cabe had called and gathered our orders for lunch, and it was late afternoon when we all stopped and took a break to eat.
I threw myself into my uncle’s arms the moment he set the food and drinks down on the table and his arms were free.
He hugged me to him and squeezed me tightly.
“God, you’ve gotten more beautiful,” he teased.
I rolled my eyes.
“I look a hot mess,” I countered. “I rode all the way here on the back of a motorcycle, and I haven’t had a chance to get my hair tamed and under control.”
He messed up my hair, causing some of the tendrils of hair to fall loose out of my ponytail.
“Always loved your aunt’s wild hair,” he said. “I’m jealous our girl didn’t get her hair. Your hair.”
I smiled warmly at my uncle.
He never missed a chance to tell my aunt how much her hair was loved. Hell, he even extended that to my mother and me when he saw us.
My mother, my aunt and I were all very much the same, at least looks wise.
“And how is my cousin?” I asked, taking the French fries that my aunt handed me, as well as the burger that Channing held out.
Brittany and Cabe had adopted a troubled teen about six years ago, and it was amazing to see how far she’d come.
“A pain in my ass,” Uncle Cabe replied. “Her and her friend, the girl you saw out in the front?”
Nancy.
“Yeah,” I said, popping a few fries in my mouth.
“They went out last night and got themselves in a spot of trouble. Nancy got a broken foot for her trouble, and my girl found out the hard way that you can’t outrun a pissed off drunk. Got herself slapped.”
“Oh, shit,” I muttered. “Bet her clients loved that.”
“Yeah,” Brittany said, annoyance tinging her voice. “I lost my shit when I saw her face last night. It looks even worse this morning.”
I could imagine.
“Wasn’t she out with her boyfriend?” I asked. “He just let that happen?”
“No more boyfriend,” Cabe grumbled. “She got a shot of that loser and decided that life was better without having a douchebag to date. He probably wouldn’t have done anything anyway. He’s a pussy.”
