Page 27 of Kylie

I laughed, then passed Haden off to my dad and went into the house. Sure enough, my brothers were all there, significant others, too, plus all the kids. Amongst them, I noticed Brantley and Reese, Kaden, Keegan, and Bristol, Mack and Jeff, as well as Joe and Melissa.

“Before you yell at us,” Zane said, his face sober, “we’re here for support. And because we wanted to be a part of it. We loved her, too. Thought it might be a nice celebration if we were all here for the tree plantin’.”

My throat tightened as I nodded. “Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Thanks for that.”

“Plus, you know how we all love a good party.” Zane smacked me on the back, probably a little harder than need be, but that was my kid brother for you.

I peered past Zane to my cousin Brantley, who was standing in the kitchen chatting with Kaden and Keegan. As though he felt eyes on him, Brantley looked up, met my gaze across the room. My first instinct was to pelt him with questions, find out where they were in the investigation, why so much time had passed and nothing was being done. It would’ve been easy to unleash on the man. Too easy.

But I wouldn’t. Not today of all days.

Which was why I offered a nod of my chin in greeting, received one in return before I turned and sought my husband in the room full of people. I found Gage sitting on the couch, Maddox on the floor at his feet. When he saw me, his eyes widened.

“I don’t know what happened,” he said, his voice a bit dramatic. “I got the tree, brought it here, and—” He waved at the chaos as though that said it all.

And maybe it did.

After all, this was what the Walkers did. We rallied for support, took care of one another. It was something I had relied on all my life, one of the things I knew my wife had loved about our life. We had this … so many people who cared.

“We’ve got food,” Kaleb announced. “Question is, do you want to eat before or after?”

I looked at Gage. “Up to you.”

“We should ask the kids, see what they think.”

“Good idea.” This was supposed to be a family thing.

I pulled Avery away from playing with Ethan’s triplets, then found Kate still sitting in the rocking chair. After I told them to stay put, I searched for Kade. It took a minute to wrangle him from where he was playing with Mason and Matthew. When asked about the tree, their unanimous decision was to plant it now.

“Where’re we puttin’ it?” Pop asked Kade.

The little boy shrugged his shoulders. “Where should we put it, Pop?”

“I think I’ve got the perfect spot.”

Pop carried Haden while Kate, Avery, and Kade trotted beside him down the steps and across the front yard. I grabbed Maddox while Gage helped Ethan and Beau by picking up Jack. The rest of the crew, adults and children, weren’t far behind us.

“What about right there?” Pop suggested, pointing to an empty spot a few yards to the left of the big oak tree.

“Yay!” Kade squealed and took off running, more kids following him.

“That way, Mother and I can watch over it every day.”

I felt my sinuses heat, eyes brimming. Because I didn’t trust my voice, I nodded my agreement.

The next hour was spent with everyone taking turns digging a hole, despite the fact we had the machinery to do it in far less time. No one was in a hurry, though, helping the kids scoop up dirt, toss it aside, each adult also taking a turn.

“How big is this tree?” I asked as I saw the hole continuing to get bigger and bigger.

“I figured we wanted somethin’ strong enough to weather anything.”

Just like Kylie, I thought to myself.

Once Gage was satisfied the hole was big enough, he disappeared, returning a few minutes later, driving Pop’s tractor, a trailer hitched to the back, and a good-sized magnolia tree with an enormous root ball strapped down.

It was when my brothers went to assist that Kate came over to hold my hand. I glanced down at my daughter, saw she had tears streaming down her pretty face. She was probably the only one of my kids who understood the real significance of this, and I hated that she did. I hated that we’d lost the most important person in our world.

But I hoped this would give us something to hold on to, something to remind us of her each and every day.