Chapter 9
LUCY, TWENTY-FOUR, REECE, TWENTY-FIVE
Lucy nervously stepped into the small funeral parlor; for a second she thought she was in the wrong place.
A quick glance to her right showed the unassuming, handwritten sign telling people why they were here.
Right place.
But so few people.
Her chest hurt.
Nobody turned to look at her as she walked in, everyone lost in the somberness of the occasion.
She spotted the backs of four heads, all in a row, all familiar. Lucy bit her lip, realizing belatedly that she should have told them that she was coming.
Not that they’d be unhappy to see her, but this was no time or place for surprises.
It wasn’t like she’d meant to make a grand entrance or anything, it’s just…her family hadn’t even asked if she was coming. Like it hadn’t occurred to them that she would make the time.
The realization was more jarring than she wanted to admit, even to herself. Then again, it’s not like she’d given them reason to think otherwise.
She certainly hadn’t given him reason to think otherwise.
Lucy came even with the row of chairs where her family was sitting. Her dad was on the end, glancing up at her distractedly, then doing a double take when he recognized her.
Her mom and siblings did the same, smiles mingling with the sadness in their eyes.
She touched her dad’s shoulder, intending to scoot past him to go sit in the empty seat by Brandi, but even as she started to move in that direction, her eyes scanned the room for the reason she’d come.
He was all by himself.
Why wasn’t anyone with him?
Reece sat by himself in the front row, empty seats on either side of him. An older couple sat behind him—his aunt and uncle, if she was remembering correctly—but she’d never seen someone so utterly alone.
Lucy’s mom read her thoughts. “He wanted some space,” she whispered quietly.
Bullshit, Lucy thought.
Not that she’d say it to her mother. But why did everyone insist on believing Reece when he put on his brave face?
Why did nobody see that I want to be alone was his code for letting everyone off the hook? Why did nobody understand that he didn’t want to be alone, he just expected it?
He wouldn’t want to see her. She knew that.
Heck, she wasn’t sure she wanted to see him. Not after everything that had gone down between them.
The last time they’d spoken was over a year ago at a dreadful Thanksgiving dinner where they’d both put on a painful show for her family, pretending they hadn’t broken each other’s hearts.
No, scratch that. It was her heart that was broken. She wasn’t sure he had one where she was concerned.
But that didn’t change the fact that Reece’s father had just died, and he was all by himself.
Before she could think better of it, she moved toward him, scanning the room as she did so.
There were fewer than thirty people in attendance for Jeff Sullivan’s funeral.