study, shut the door, and slumped down in a chair. “I love my family, but I need a moment. Please sit down and let’s catch our breath.”
Jolene sat down next to her and crossed her legs at the ankles. She was reminded of how she’d sneaked away after her father’s funeral. All those people milling around. Her mother in tears. She’d felt the walls closing in on her and gone outside. Uncle Jasper had finally missed her and had come out to sit beside her. He didn’t say anything at all, but just held her hand for a long time.
Now it was her turn to be the one to comfort someone—a complete stranger, and yet grief is no respecter of persons. She reached across the distance and laid a hand on Carla’s arm. “Your eulogy was wonderful. So heartfelt and personal. More funerals should be like that,” Jolene said.
“Thank you so much. I want to say something to you, but I’m not even sure where to begin.” Carla fidgeted with the handkerchief in her hands.
“It’s only awkward if we make it that way, so let’s don’t,” Jolene said. There wasn’t going to be anything left of that hankie if Carla kept wringing it. “It’s okay. Tucker told me all about Melanie and how he and her father had made peace with each other the week before he died.”
Carla sucked in a lungful of air and let it out in a whoosh. “I felt like I’d lost two kids when Melanie died and Tucker didn’t come around anymore. I didn’t think he’d ever get over it, and I’m not so sure he would have without you in his life. I know it’s a crazy thing to ask under the circumstances, but I’d like for us to be friends. We, my sons and I, want Tucker back in our lives, and this is going to sound insane,” Carla whispered. “I had a dream last night. You’d think it would be about Luke, but it was about Melanie. I could see her sitting on her tombstone, wearing her wedding dress, of all things, and she told me that she had a new friend named Jolene that was going to help Tucker. Luke told me that you see things different when you’re lookin’ at death. I thought he was bat-crap crazy, but I’ve changed my mind since that dream. The last thing she said as she faded away, leaving just the tombstone, was that I’d like her new friend, too.” She took several sips of her tea.
A cold shiver chased down Jolene’s spine. Those two songs that were so unlike funeral music, hearing Tucker say that he was in love with her and saying it back to him, the way she’d felt when she awoke in the middle of the night to find him still in bed with her—it was all surreal, but not as much as Carla telling her about that dream. But then, looking back over the past month, not much hadn’t been slightly weird.
Carla went on. “I won’t smother you, I promise, but I do miss having a . . . well, maybe I should just say having a younger woman to go shopping with sometimes or out to lunch or maybe even just to talk to on the phone.”
Jolene flashed her brightest smile, and it was sincere. “I’d like that.”
“Let’s just sit here a few more minutes. I need the time,” Carla said with a weak smile.
“When you’re ready,” Jolene said. “Give me a call when things settle down.”
A gentle knock on the door was followed by Tucker’s face as he peeked inside the office. “I’m not rushin’ you, but we probably should be getting home.”
Jolene stood and then bent to hug Carla. “You don’t have to call before you come see me. Just drop in anytime.”
Tucker escorted her out of the house and into his truck, where he promptly removed his tie and tossed it over the seat. “Are you okay? What happened in there?”
She told him what had happened, and he leaned over the console and kissed her. It started out slow and sweet, but before long, his tongue was teasing her lips open. When he finally broke away, he was breathing hard. “You never cease to amaze me, woman.”
“Because I told your mother-in-law we could be friends? That’s as much to my benefit as to hers. I liked her honesty and the way she handled that funeral. We’ll be good friends. I can feel it in my