My hands begin to tremble, and I stuff them into my pockets. If only I could stop the cold sweat from beading along my hairline.
Hayley heaves her suitcase from the trunk and sets it down on the driveway. “Where do you think you’re going to stay?”
“The farmhouse.” My parents own a wedding venue outside of town with a beautiful, sprawling farmhouse on the property.
Hayley presses a button on the trunk, and it slowly eases back into place. “You can’t. It’s being rented all week for some family reunion. And there are weddings, like, every other day until November.”
Well, isn’t that fantastic?
The wheels on her bag are loud as hell as she breezes past me.
The door opens right when Hayley reaches the first step. My legs lock up, and I freeze in the middle of the driveway. Alex and Iris rush out and throw their arms around our youngest sister. Surprisingly, all their broken sobs don’t make me want to cry. Seeing my sisters with tears in their eyes makes me want to fight the whole fucking world.
But you can’t fight death and hope to win.
* * *
“You have to do it,Dyl. None of us will be able to get through a single sentence without breaking down. Please.”
A man doesn’t stand a chance against three King women on a good day. When they’re all teary-eyed and sniffling? There isn’t a hope in hell.
Do I want to do my parents’ eulogy?
Hell no.
Am I going to do it anyway?
Of course. Because having some asshole truck driver slam into my dad’s car at seventy miles an hour has left me as the only man alive in the King family.
Not to mention that I’m the oldest by eleven months, so shirking this duty isn’t in the cards. I’ll have to find some way to breathe through the gripping tightness. It’s either that or make a fool out of myself in front of everyone.
“Fine.”
Three pairs of arms come around me, pulling me into yet another hug. I’ve held it together through two viewings and the shitload of people who’ve come over to Mom and Dad’s to “pay their respects,” but this speech might be what finally breaks me. My eyes burn, but I refuse to let any tears leak out. I need to be strong for my sisters.
“Mommy?”
The small voice at the door breaks up the sob-fest.
Iris dabs at her eyes with a balled-up handkerchief that used to belong to our dad. By the time she kneels to wrap her arms around her daughter, she’s smiling again. The smile may be brittle, but at least it’s there. “My little sunshine. You don’t know how much Mommy needed this hug.”
“Pappy always said my hugs were magical.”
So much for not fucking crying.
“They really are,” Iris whispers.
Ella blinks up at me from over her shoulder. “You want a hug too, Uncle Pickle?”
Oh, yeah. That’s me. Uncle Pickle. Don’t ask.
“Only if it’s a really, really big one. Bigger than the one you gave your mommy because you secretly love me more.” I bend to scoop up my giggling niece, her tiny arms squeezing my neck. I’m jealous of Iris, with her husband and daughter to distract her from the shittiness of this situation. Any time I’m alone, I start thinking about all the stuff that Dad and I had planned on doing but never got the chance. Like taking that cross-country trip on our bikes. Or heading out to the salt flats for a race. Then there’s the McAllen International Carfest. Should’ve fucking gone.
When Ella says it’s Alex’s turn for a healing hug, I set my niece down and excuse myself. I find a quiet corner in the choir room at the back of the church to type out a few notes on my phone while my sisters speak in low tones about the dinner that’s happening after this back at Mom and Dad’s. Thankfully, only a handful of close friends and family are invited. All I have to do is make it through the funeral, burial, and then dinner.
With any luck, after we meet with the lawyers for the reading of the will, I’ll be on the first flight back to Austin.
A short while later, the pastor quietly steps in and tells us it’s time. When he asks who’s doing the eulogy, I reluctantly raise my hand. We get into a line and file down a dark hallway and out to the vestibule. Somber music filters through the speakers as the door opens, and Hayley leads the way into the packed sanctuary.
