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“Come on, sweetie,” Casey said. He took the box from her and she left the trailer, pausing when she caught sight of Parker and Shawn. They were standing next to their truck.
Shawn opened his arms and she walked into them, loving his warmth as he surrounded her.
“It’s going to be okay, Poppy. We’re all going to help you get through this. You’re not alone.”
She nodded. It didn’t matter what anyone said.
Parker opened the truck door and climbed in. Shawn helped her inside as Casey took the driver’s side. Shawn climbed in beside her. It was squashed, but it felt right to be there with them.
She took the box from Parker and held her mother’s life stuff in her hands. There was no easy way to deal with what had happened. The cancer in her mother’s breasts had spread, and that had numbered the years left of her life.
They had done everything they could to help her, but in the end she’d died, and now all that was left was Poppy.
None of the Smith brothers talked as they drove into town. She was thankful for their comforting warmth, which distracted her enough so that tears didn’t fall.
When they got to the parking lot of the charity shop her mother had picked, Shawn climbed out and took her hand, helping her.
She thanked him and, without looking back, took the box of her mother’s possessions inside.
Her mother had volunteered at the shop every Sunday. Throughout the week, she worked at the diner as a waitress. They’d never had a lot in life, but they had each other, and she loved that.
Entering the shop, she spotted Mrs. Bunt, who ran the shop.
“Poppy, it’s so good to see you.”
Walking up to the desk, she placed her mother’s belongings on the counter. “Hello, Mrs. Bunt. I’m sorry it took so long for me to bring this.”
“Nonsense, child. The fact you’ve even brought this now amazes me.”
Tears filled her eyes and her throat felt thick. A wave of sadness engulfed her, and she looked down at her shoes, seeing the dirt from the soggy grass around her trailer from the rain last night. When she got home she’d have to remove her shoes, as otherwise she’d be scrubbing at the carpet.
Her mother had always been a stickler for cleanliness. A trailer they may live in, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be clean. She remembered her mother scrubbing the dirt from her face after playing with Shawn when she was a kid.
“I know she’d have wanted you to have it, and I didn’t want to keep it from you. She wouldn’t have liked that.”
“I miss your mother so very much,” Mrs. Bunt said.
“Me, too.”
Mrs. Bunt reached out, holding Poppy’s hands. “It’ll get better. You’ll see. It’ll shock you at first, and you’ll feel guilty, but one day soon you’ll be able to think of her and smile.”
Mrs. Bunt had lost her husband several years ago.
“Thank you.”
“Anytime. You are always welcome here.”
Her mother had always been a bit of an outsider, but Mrs. Bunt had accepted her when many wouldn’t have.
“Thank you,” she said again. There really wasn’t anything else to say. “Is the position still available on Sunday?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’d like to take my mother’s place if that is okay. I can clean and help keep the shop in order. I can do whatever my mother did.”
“Then I’ll see you Sunday,” Mrs. Bunt said.
She nodded, and was about to say thank you, but she kept it to herself this time.
****
Shawn waited for Poppy to leave the store. He had his arms folded and was waiting for her to return. His two brothers were the same, leaning up against the truck. They ignored the women giving them the eye.
One moment they had that look which begged them all to fuck them. Then in the next, they were judging them. He didn’t like the two-faced bitches, and never would. There was only one person he knew who had never judged him, and that was Poppy.
“Why did she have to give her mother’s stuff away?” Parker asked.
“It was her mother’s dying wish. She wanted her to see Mrs. Bunt as well,” Casey said.
“She’s going to take the Sunday job there,” Shawn said. His brothers turned toward him and he held his hands up. “Don’t look at me. I spoke to Cathy about it, and she believed it’d be good for her daughter. It would help with closure or something like that. I agree.”
Poppy had always been close to her mother, always. They were best friends as well as mother and daughter. The past three years had been tough on Poppy. Between working at the ranch with his mother and taking care of her mother, she’d been stretched thin.
“I want you to make sure my daughter has fun. Don’t let her wallow in this sadness. She’s going to be sad, and at times the pain is going to feel like it’s never ending, but there will be an end. You, Casey, and Parker, you need to make sure she remembers that she’s a woman, and what life can be like.”
