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Her voice trails off, and she lowers her eyes before looking at me again.

“You were there?”

I nod. “Of course I was. He was my brother.”

Nora nods and turns toward the lake.

“I’m sorry I ran,” I whisper.

She looks at me, a small, sad smile on her lips.

“I wanted to run out of that church the entire time. I think I broke the skin on my palms with my nails because I was clenching my fists so tightly.”

A tear slips down her cheek.

“It felt so… weird.”

“It did.”

“His favorite songs were there, his picture, all his loved ones, and I was wearing the damned dress, but he wasn’t there.”

More tears start to fall, and I let her remember.

“I hated it. Not because it wasn’t beautiful. He planned the whole damn thing.” She wipes at her cheeks. “I hated it because it was the first time I wanted to hold his hand at a function and I… couldn’t.”

I stay quiet, watching as she tries to wipe away the tears with the back of her hand. I reach for one of the paper napkins and hand it to her.

“Thanks.”

I shrug.

For a while, neither of us says anything. Nora sits with her legs stretched out in front of her, looking over the lake, and I leave her to her thoughts.

Then she takes a deep breath.

“This is where I want to do it.”

I look at her. “What?”

She keeps her eyes on the water.

“I brought his ashes.”

I go still.

“He wanted me to divide them into four.”

Her fingers start picking at the edge of the blanket.

“One part is already in Chicago, near the tree where we first kissed.”

A small smile pulls at her lips. “He thought it was romantic to be part of that place forever, but the day we scattered his ashes there, that tree had so many mosquitoes around it that I ended up with my arms and legs covered in bites.” She shakes her head, smiling. “I swear I could hear the bastard laughing.”

We both laugh, but hers fades quickly.

“He asked me to bring one part here.”

Her eyes move over the lake, the trees and the old rope hanging above the water.