Everlasting - Christine Michelle Page 0,42

other half.”

“I’m sorry you’ve lost yours too, kiddo. We’ll get him back. I promise you that your happy ending is still in the making.”

“I know, I feel it.” We were both silent for a time before she spoke again. “What’s all that?”

“Letters I wrote her from time to time.”

Ever moved closer and looked at the items on the tabletop. “This has my name on it. Did you write to us too?”

“What? No. I mean, I did, but those aren’t the ones I left.”

Ever picked up some envelopes and shuffled through them. “They’re addressed to me, Anna, you, and…” she sucked in a breath as she read something on the front of the last envelope. “Toby,” she finally managed to choke out before Ever glanced up at me with a question in her eyes. “Why would she leave a letter for Toby?”

“Maybe she wrote it a long time ago?”

“I don’t think so. This seems pretty fresh, and look,” she pointed to the box of envelopes and the letter pad sitting just under the chair. “Do you think she knew?”

I shook my head. There was no way Lucy knew her life was coming to an end when she hadn’t tried to call anyone to say goodbye or to come help her. “No, I don’t think so.”

I don’t think I can read this just yet to find out,” Ever admitted.

“Me either. I’m sure Luce wouldn’t mind us getting to them in our own time.” That made my daughter smile.

“No, that actually sounds just like her. I can hear her telling us to get to them whenever our hearts are ready.”

“That’s what we’ll do then.”

Chapter 20

Buried

Ever

When the plans were made to put Momma-Luce in the ground, I made sure dad included Toby. She was being laid to rest in the plot beside his, and I didn’t want the workers to accidentally cover his space and leave him out. That sounded silly, but it was just something I needed to have done. He was still our family, and if the only way he could be represented there was with a cold, hard stone memorializing his life, then that was what was going to happen.

That was how I found myself staring at Toby’s headstone while some man droned on about life and heaven receiving an angel. Blah, blah, blabbity blah. That asshole didn’t know my mother. He could fuck right off. Numbness had set in between the time I held my father next to my mom’s corpse and, I didn’t know how to cry and get it all out. I just felt like there was this block on my emotions and no matter what I tried, I couldn’t get around it. Instead, I stood there, holding onto my daughters. One of their little hands was wrapped up in each of mine and I stared off toward my brother, eyes never focusing on any one aspect of his grave for long. Just taking in the fact that it was there. He was there. He would look out for her. That did it.

It started as a burning sensation in my nose and behind my eyes, then the next thing I knew, I felt a drop of something land on my hand.

“Momma, you’re getting my hand wet,” Amber complained.

“Sorry, baby girl,” I told her as I let go of her hand long enough to swipe away the tears that were falling. Not once did my eyes stray from my brother’s grave as I did though. There was something… A little glint caught my eye. Something shiny was sitting on top of his stone and I couldn’t make out what it could be from where I was standing. No one would understand if I just wandered off during the never-ending speech this windbag was giving.

“Who hired this guy? He just drones on and on,” I mumbled. At least, I thought I mumbled it. Then everything went deathly still. Imagine that, in a graveyard, in the middle of a funeral. I had blabbed my complaints out loud. But the next thing I knew J-Bird was howling with laughter.

“Shit!” He hissed out through his laughter. “I thought I was the only one ready to stab that fucker in the neck to get him to shut up.”

“No, man! I was waiting to see how many more graves we would need to dig because he was about to run some people out of their natural lifeline,” Joker teased. Anna snorted out a laugh and snot bubbled up from her nose from where she’d been