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Providence, Wyoming.
This trail is dedicated to his life and memory.
“Oh, boys,” their mother whispered. “Oh, it’s so beautiful. Look at that.”
Alex looked, but all he saw was hypocrisy. They’d left off the part about him being the beloved lover of a married woman, not to mention that the Bishop family had turned its back on his young sons. But Shane seemed to like it just fine. He put his arm around their mom and they both stared at the plaque.
Alex just cleared his throat. “It’s nice. Thank you, Merry.”
She was grinning but had to wipe away a tear. “Your mom helped me come up with the inscription. We couldn’t fit everything she wanted, but I hope it’s all right.”
His mom had likely written three paragraphs.
Shane turned to pull Merry into a hug. “It’s beautiful,” he said. “And I’m so glad there’s something here to remember him after he spent so many years in that canyon.”
Alex looked up the trail to where it disappeared into a slash of broken rock and climbing trees.
“So awful,” their mom murmured. “Here all this time. Right here with us. I knew he’d never leave.”
Shane glanced over Merry’s head and met Alex’s eyes. “Have you been up there yet?”
“No,” Alex said. His skin prickled. He wanted to turn and leave.
“Come on. We’ll walk a little ways up.”
“We’d better not,” Alex said. “Mom doesn’t look up for it.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Merry volunteered. “The office has a space heater. We’ll sit and have a coffee and work out the last-minute details for tomorrow. You two go on.”
Well, shit.
He glanced toward the trail. “We should really help,” he insisted.
“Oh, sure,” Merry answered. “Because you boys will contribute a lot to how the chairs should be set out.”
Shane nudged his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s get out while the getting is good.”
Alex didn’t have any better arguments at that point. He supposed he could have just offered the truth, but he wasn’t sure what that was. Why didn’t he want to walk up the trail with his brother? His father’s body was long gone and Alex didn’t believe in ghosts.
So he shook off his hesitation and stepped onto the Wyatt Bishop Memorial Trail. It felt like any other trail, so he walked on.
After a few moments, he glanced back to see his mom and Merry walking through the town. “I wouldn’t think Mom would support any of this. Shouldn’t she be raging about how the money should belong to us? About how Gideon Bishop left this money to a ghost town just to spite her and shut her up and cover up the truth?”
Shane chuckled. “Yeah, there was plenty of that for a while. When I filed my lawsuit against the estate, she was over the moon. She wanted me to teach them a lesson. Shit, I guess that’s what I wanted, too, but I got over it. And she did, too.”
“Really?” he asked, shocked.
Shane flashed a smile. ?
??Okay, she had a little trouble getting over it.”
“A little?” Alex asked.
This time Shane burst into full-out laughter. “Yeah. A little. The same amount of ‘little’ trouble she has getting over everything.”
“Yeah. She’s stubborn. I’ll give her that.”
“When her psychiatrist suggested that we have a funeral or a memorial or something, Merry offered this trail, the plaque, and Mom jumped on it. I don’t know. It was like she wanted to let it go if someone would just acknowledge something.”
