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Three months later
Cass looked over as someone new arrived at the end of the row.Instant tears flooded her eyes, an event that happened often these days.“Momma,” she said.“Daddy.”She got to her feet and moved past the empty seats she’d been saving in the row to hug her parents.
They both held her tightly, and Momma said, “This is great, Cass.Everyone’s graduated now.”They’d often joked that Conrad, Cass’s youngest child, might not make it to graduation.He had the saltiest personality out of her three children, and he was the only boy.Cass had struggled to raise him during his early teens—all the way to sixteen, in fact.At that age, a switch had been flipped, and he’d gotten better.Regrown his brain.Something.
Since West’s death three months ago, Conrad had retreated a bit.Cass couldn’t blame him.She herself had done plenty of pulling away from plenty of things as she tried to figure out how to be only half of a whole.How to be who she was without West.How to parent singly.How to go to lunch alone.How to order food for just one.Two, if Conrad elected to come home.
He sometimes needed to be out of the house, where everything still reeked and reminded everyone who came through the door of West.
West, West, West.
He still existed everywhere, even though he wasn’t physically on the earth anymore.
“Thank you for coming,” she said, finally releasing her mother.
“Of course,” she said.“We wouldn’t be anywhere else today.”
Cass turned to face the other people who’d come to watch Conrad’s high school graduation.She hadn’t invited all of them, but they’d shown up anyway, and Cass couldn’t say she was upset about it.
Bea stepped past her to hug Cass’s mom and dad, her face full of bright smiles.She was always so kind and so accepting, and Cass had tried to be more like her.In the end, she hadn’t been able to do it.She was who she was, though that morphed on a daily basis.
Bessie, Sage, and Joy edged by her to say hello to her parents, but Lauren stayed next to Cass.“You never did say if you wanted to go to Colorado with me.”
Cass watched the floor in the arena below.She’d chosen a row about halfway up, so she could see everything.She didn’t want to miss one moment of her baby’s life, because she felt like she needed to drink up twice as many details.Some for her, and some for West.
“I don’t know,” Cass said.
“You’ve been saying you need a break, Mom,” Sariah said.
“Yeah, I know.”Cass sighed and looked over to her oldest.Sariah and Jane were twins, with Sariah being born six minutes before her more free-spirited sister.Out of all of Cass’s children, Sariah was the most like her.“Then you got engaged, and I really want to be here to help you plan things.”
Planning was Cass’s specialty.She loved everything about bringing tens, dozens, or hundreds of pieces together to create something really amazing.A luncheon.A Supper Club.A graduation party.
A funeral.
Or a wedding, she thought.She smiled at Sariah and reached for her hand.
“So you’re going to blame your summer stress on me?”Sariah teased.She shook her head, and they all laughed.Cass’s didn’t last as long as the others, and then her mom and dad wanted to see the girls.
They’d met Sariah’s fiancé, Robbie, and as they all settled down and took their seats, Cass found herself right in the middle of all of the people she loved most.They’d all come here today for Conrad.
No.The word entered her mind in a near shout.Not for Conrad.
The people sitting in the row that day for what would surely be a boring high school graduation ceremony had come to support her.
Her.
Those blasted tears came again, and Cass sniffled.Bea reached over and took her hand.Squeezing, she said, “You should come to the island for a week after this.Conrad’s going on that trip with Jane.Sariah won’t plan much without you since the wedding isn’t until October.”
She finally looked away from the stage below, her bright blue eyes practically burning with fire.“We have three bedrooms, and one is practically begging you to redesign it.”
Pure love streamed through Cass.“I’ll think about it.”
“Why wouldn’t you come?”Bea asked.
Cass threw a glance to Lauren, seated on the other side of Bea.“I don’t want to hurt Lauren’s feelings.She asked me to go on her company retreat with her.”
Bea looked at Lauren, who nodded.“It’s fine, Cass.I’ll be working the whole time anyway.A week on the beach with Bea and Grant sounds far better than being stuck in a lodge in Colorado, alone.”
