“Of course. Sorry, Tria. I was just—”
“I know,” I interrupt, still staring out the window as we close in on our childhood home. There are already numerous cars outside. Mom is probably an absolute wreck.
“Why didn’t someone call me sooner?” I ask as we near the house.
Rain hated him, yet she found out before I did. It’s like I’m always the last on the list, even when my father dies. It’s truly impossible for one person to always be so overlooked.
“No one wanted to tell you over the phone, since you actually cared about him.”
She sounds sympathetic, and there’s pity lacing her tone—pity I don’t want or need. Everyone praises her for being strong. She is. She truly and honestly is. I refuse to be the weak one that everyone has to pet while they rave about her being so strong.
Sucking in all my unshed tears and wiping away the few strays, I open the door as soon as we park. Rain has to run to catch up with me, and she laces her fingers with mine as we head toward the door.
“I’m here, Tria. I’m here for you and Eleanor.”
Maybe Kode is right. She really is perfect. Can’t blame him for taking notice, because right now she’s keeping me from falling apart.
“Thanks, Rain. That means a lot.”
The tears bang at the backs of my eyelids, but I restrain them. My phone chirps, and I release her hand as we walk in, so I can check the message.
Sex Master: I’m here for you.
Breathing out in relief, I stare at the screen for five long minutes. I’ll wait until I’m not on the verge of a sobbing breakdown before calling or responding. Right now, he’d see how weak I really am, and that’s something I’d like to keep hidden.
Chapter 23
KODE
“Have you talked to her?” Dale asks while sitting down beside me in the back of the enormous church. It wasn’t too long ago we were here for Thomas Colton.
With the amount of people here, the chapels just don’t have the necessary seating. But this massive church was built with the town, so it has become the rock for a lot of people in times like this.
“Not much. She’s been staying with Eleanor for the past couple of days, and she hasn’t really been in a talking mood.”
I try not to let anyone see how fucking stressed out I am. Tria is shutting me out, and I don’t know whether to let her or stop her. I’ve always sucked at this sort of thing, and since she’s been at her Mom’s, I haven’t really had the chance to see her. I should be doing something, but I’m clueless as to what.
This is yet another suit I won’t be able to wear again. Once they’ve been tainted by a funeral, they go into the discard pile. I don’t want those memories burned into the threads I wear. Especially this one.
Rain and Dane walk in from a door at the front of the church, emerging from a private room where the immediate family has been stashed. He’s holding her hand, and she’s looking over her shoulder at Eleanor who is clutching the hands of both of her sisters. Her eyes are rimmed red, swollen, and full of tears. I guess she hated him a lot less than she loved him.
But my eyes move away from her when I see the girl with her head bowed, her face clean with no tears. She’s staring at her hands as she walks behind everyone, not bothering to make eye contact with a single person.
My eyes never stray, and she sits beside one of her aunts near the front as the minister moves behind the podium to speak. Seeing her look so broken and alone is too much.
“Fuck this,” I mumble before getting up.
With long strides, I abandon my cousins and round the back of the church to move toward the girl who has no one holding her hand right now—the girl too afraid to cry on someone’s shoulder.
Eyes fall on me from all around as I move into the pew, and Tria’s tired gaze meets mine. Her hazel eyes go wide in her face, but then her look softens as I sit beside her and put my arm around her shoulders, pulling her to me before kissing her softly on her head.
It’s like something inside her snaps, and she buries her face in my chest as her body starts shaking. Silent sobs wrack her body, and I pull her to be almost in my lap, wrapping her up in both arms as the minister continues to praise the life of the man who destroyed his family.
“I’ve got you, Tria,” I whisper softly.
She fists a handful of my shirt as she weeps against me, and I continue to rub soothing patterns on her back. Eleanor looks over with glassy eyes, noticing her child’s pain for what seems to be the first time, and her tears start falling harder before she mouths, “thank you,” to me.
But when my gaze meets a set of cold green eyes, I realize this day is going to get dramatic. Dane is staring at me with a murderous glare and a clenched jaw, looking every bit ready to punch me in the face.