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“I’m headed back to the firehouse to get out of this suit and let Mack come over here.”
“Okay,” Blake said. “Can I call you later or will you be with Pepper?”
Grant didn’t know where he would be. After spending nearly every moment of the previous week together, their return to work and new relationship navigation had everything up in the air. “I don’t know. Just call. If I can’t answer,” he said with a smile, “I won’t.”
“I think Reverend Yates just broke a record for the shortest service in history.”
Pepper turned to Ivy and tried not to smile. It didn’t seem appropriate since the pallbearers were carrying Estelle’s casket past them and out to the hearse. Aside from that, she was happy that Ivy was still in Rosewood and was able to attend this with her. She wasn’t ready to sit next to her family and pretend like things hadn’t changed. There was no way she could sit with her parents and her brother and not spend every moment thinking about what her mother had told her.
Norman Chamberlain was sitting a few pews ahead of them with Helen, Simon, Maddie, and Hazel. She could only see the back of his head, but his cruel expression as he turned away and the conversation she’d had with her mother came easily to mind.
She’d lain in bed Sunday night, not enjoying her fully functional bedroom but mentally envisioning the whole argument her mother had with him. She could picture the smug look on his face as he offered her mother a check and told her and their unborn child to get lost.
At the moment, she had a hard time looking at any of the Chamberlains without dark thoughts clouding her mind. Even Blake and Grant, two Chamberlains she’d learned to not only tolerate but like, were hard for her to talk to. Suddenly being around the man she’d gotten close to the last few weeks had become infinitely more difficult. Grant valued honesty over all else, but she couldn’t tell him about this. She couldn’t tell Ivy.
She couldn’t even tell Logan.
Reverend Yates asked the congregation to join him in singing Estelle’s favorite hymn, “How Great Thou Art,” as the family shuffled sadly out of the chapel. Robin was tearful, clutching a tissue to her face. Her brother, Tom, held his toddler with a stoic expression. They went out and loaded into the limousine.
“Yep,” Ivy said as the hymn ended and everyone stood to leave. “Twenty-three minutes.”
“He’s probably hungry.” Pepper looked down at her watch. It was just after five in the evening. By the time the graveside service was over, it would be time for R
everend Yates to eat, take his pills, and head home to watch his favorite game shows before bed. Just knowing there was a feast of massive proportions in the little church by the cemetery was enough to make most southern men talk a little bit faster than usual.
“I’m hungry, too. I didn’t eat all day in anticipation of the macaroni and cheese,” Pepper said as they shuffled out of the funeral home with the rest of the congregation. She slipped on her lined raincoat and popped open her umbrella the minute they cleared the protective awning. The herd moved out and across the street, gathering around the tent that protected the gravesite and the family from the elements.
It was a miserable day for a funeral. It had rained on and off for the last few days with temperatures never getting out of the high forties. The sky was a blanket of gray, with the sun nowhere in sight. There was only a light breeze, but it was still enough to fling icy raindrops sideways and for the chill to sink in.
Once everyone arrived and the family was seated, Reverend Yates started the service again. Considering it was dinnertime and the weather was poor, the pastor wasn’t likely to get a good sermon rolling.
As he spoke, Pepper’s gaze strayed over the crowd. Her parents and brother were standing off to her left. Her father probably wasn’t strong enough to come to something like this, especially in this weather, but he was also stubborn. Logan was holding their father’s elbow with a tight grip to ensure he didn’t lose his footing on the lawn.
Just beyond them were the Chamberlains. Pepper wondered if Logan knew they were standing right behind him. He wasn’t uncouth enough to say something at a funeral, but she knew there had to be animosity growing between them since he opened his practice. He’d probably like to know if the old snake was nearby.
When Reverend Yates asked everyone to bow their head in prayer, she noticed that both Logan and Norman dipped their heads in just the same way. Their profiles were damn-near identical when you looked at them side by side. They had the same blue eyes, the same narrow nose, the same heavy brow, the same strong, square jaw. They were even almost the same height, with Logan just barely taller.
She’d never noticed it before, but her brother had almost never been in the same room as Norman. Curious, her gaze flicked over to Blake where he stood beside Ivy. Comparing the two men, there was a resemblance there as well. Blake and Logan had the same hair color; a light brown with blond highlights from the sun. Norman’s hair was more gray than brown now, but his hair was just as thick with a hairline that had only slipped a few centimeters back from where it fell on Blake.
Pepper felt her stomach turn. She searched Logan’s face, desperate to find differences between the two men. The full lips, the small, rounded ears . . . those were features Pepper shared with her brother. Features they shared with their mother.
Glancing at their father, Vince, she tried to find resemblances there. Her father was shorter than Logan, with a slighter build.
His nose was broad, his hair a darker brown.
The more she studied, the more painfully obvious it became that Logan looked very little like their father. Nothing at all like him, actually.
Her mother said she did what she had to do when Norman turned her away. Pepper had thought maybe she had given up the baby or terminated the pregnancy. It never once occurred to her that her mother had kept the baby and raised it as another man’s child.
“Amen,” everyone said aloud, reminding Pepper that she’d forgotten to pray.
Her mind was someplace else. The truth was all too obvious now. Logan was Norman Chamberlain’s son. She was certain of it. The bigger question in her mind was if her father knew. Did her mother throw herself in desperation at any man she could, pass off the child as his, and convince him to marry her? Daddy loved both her and Logan so much. It would kill him to know his son wasn’t his own blood. Could her mother really have lied to everyone like that?
Someone starting singing “Amazing Grace.” Pepper had a vague recollection of the voice in the background, but that was all. All she could see was her daddy holding on to his son’s arm with misty tears in his eyes.
Shaking her head, Pepper turned and her gaze locked with her mother’s. Without the slightest gesture or word, she saw her mother stiffen and visibly pale. Pepper nodded. She wanted her mother to know that she knew the truth.
Please, she mouthed silently.
