Page 89 of Legacy

“I just need a few moments to myself. Honestly, I’ll meet you back at the house.”

There wouldn’t be a full wake, as we were all meeting now, but some would visit my parents’ home, and I would go with them afterward. I just needed a few moments alone. I looked past my family to where Callum stood with his, and he gave me an imperceptible nod.

Perhaps I didn’t need to be truly alone.

I was tired of running, tired of secrets, but this exact moment wasn’t necessarily the best timing.

“If you’re sure,” Rune said, a frown on his face.

I squeezed their hands and then headed out of the cemetery, towards Main Street.

Tourists were still out and about, was well as local residents who hadn’t been able to take time off or didn’t know Gregory that well. People who hadn’t gone to the funeral or maybe hadn’t known it was even taking place today.

I nodded at a few of them, and those that I knew either gave me sad smile or reached out to squeeze my hand. Little things that reminded me of why I had moved to Ashford Creek.

Because even though they might not have known Gregory well or at all, they were still grieving for the loss of one of their own.

I turned the corner and took out my small set of keys, staring at them in my hand.

What was I supposed to do now? Take over all of Gregory’s clients? Figure out how to take care of the entire town when I couldn’t even take care of myself?

A large hand reached out and took the keys from my palm, and I let out a relieved sound, leaning against that strong chest of his.

“You know, I could have been anyone just then.”

I shook my head at Callum’s deep voice. “I always know it’s you.”

“I don’t know if I should be frightened or not,” he said softly as he moved me into the small office.

I let out a deep breath, the tears finally falling as soon as I crossed the threshold. Callum cursed under his breath and pulled me into his arms.

“It’s okay, baby. I’ve got you.”

“It’s not okay. He kept saying he was fine, even after all of his doctor’s visits with Kellan, and yet, he never told me. Never told me that he was sick.”

Callum kissed the top of my head and held me close as I cried into his chest, my tears dampening his shirt.

“He was in his seventies, darling. He was always going to have aches and pains. He wanted to be here because he thought of you as a daughter. Wanted to take care of you.”

“And I couldn’t take care of him.”

“He was so proud of you. He would always brag about you whenever he walked into the brewery, you know.”

I looked up at him then, frowning. “What?”

“He would come into the brewery once a week and have a single beer and brag about how he poached the smartest person from your entire university program to work in Ashford Creek.”

“You never told me that.”

He shrugged, pushing a piece of hair behind my ear. “I know a lot of things by working at the brewery or sometimes behind the bar at Summit Grill. He loved you.” Callum let out a breath. “Just like I remember him loving my mom. She was another daughter of his, one that he might not have been part of in terms of raising, but one he wanted to help see the world.”

My chest tightened, remembering what Callum had said.

Had his father actually killed his mother?

I didn’t know. This wasn’t the time to ask him, nor did I think he wanted to speak of it. But the town always gossiped about the Ashfords. About their secrets.

How could you not when one of the patriarch’s wives had died unexpectedly, and the other had run away, never to be seen again? And between each of the siblings having their own lore, you couldn’t help but think of the Ashfords and their legacy.