too, and I even went with her sometimes.” Teresa began to wash the containers.
“Military wives are pretty good at this kind of thing, too.” Noah had barely gotten the words out of his mouth when his phone rang. He answered it, listened for a few seconds, thanked the caller, and shoved the phone back in his hip pocket. “That was the funeral home. Miss Janie is ready for the family to view.”
Teresa’s heart turned into a stone in her chest. Sure, she’d seen Miss Janie lying cold in her hospital bed the day before, and in her mind, she knew that her foster mother was dead. Her heart had refused to believe it, so she’d pretended that Miss Janie was just sleeping. Now she’d have to look at her in a casket, and that would make everything very real.
“Right now?” Kayla asked.
“Any time before five,” Noah answered.
“Go now,” Sam said. “Puttin’ it off makes it harder to deal with.”
“You’re coming with us, aren’t you?” Kayla asked.
“Nope,” he answered. “Needs to only be you three together for that. I’ll take care of this food while y’all are gone. I’m glad to be included in the family, but—”
“You are part of this family,” Noah butted in.
“Thank you, son.” Sam smiled. “But this is y’all’s time.”
Family.
That afternoon Teresa thought that was the most beautiful word in the whole world, and to think she’d wasted more than a decade trying to create something that had been waiting for her right here in Birthright.
The temperature flashing on the bank thermometer said that it was ninety-nine degrees, but when Kayla and the others walked into the funeral home, she felt like she’d gone from a hot oven right into the freezer. Chill bumps popped up on her arms as the lady greeted them.
“Hello, I’m Nadine. I’ll show you to Miss Janie’s room. She was a great lady. I remember her from my high school days when she was the school secretary. We always knew if we had a problem, we could take it to her and she’d help us if she could. You’d be her girls, right?” The woman talked as she led the way to a room off to the side.
To Kayla, it was a fancy place, with four pale-blue velvet chairs set in a semicircle in front of the casket. Miss Janie would have liked all the flowers and plants that surrounded her. She had liked puttering about with her roses, and always loved the wildflowers that sprang up in the springtime. Sunrays flowed through the window blinds, giving the room a warm feeling despite the chill from the air-conditioning vents above them. Several well-placed lights in the ceiling lit up the casket. Miss Janie wouldn’t like that. She’d rather be the person in the background, not the one under the spotlight. She had always preferred to be the one who stayed behind during a funeral and got the dinner ready to serve.
Noah slipped his arm around Teresa’s shoulders, and together they went to the end of the room, where the casket was located. That chemistry between them had gotten stronger. But Teresa would tell her all about it when she was ready.
Teresa stared down into the casket for a few minutes and then buried her face in Noah’s shoulder. He patted her on the back and led her to one of the chairs. Then he started across the room toward Kayla. “We need to tell her goodbye,” he whispered.
“I don’t know if I can,” she said.
Noah slipped an arm around her, and together they walked up to the casket. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes for a moment, and then looked at Miss Janie. All the strength she thought she had left drained from her when she realized the finality of death. In that split second she realized that her chance to tell Miss Janie everything she’d needed to say was gone. Everything would go unsaid forever now. Kayla’s knees went weak. The room began to spin, and everything went dark.
When she came to, her head was in Teresa’s lap, and Noah was fanning her with a brochure. “I’m all right,” she muttered as she tried to sit up, but their faces seemed to fade into a thick gray fog. She lay back down with a groan.
“Do we need to call the ambulance?” Teresa asked.
“No!” Kayla protested. “I’ve done this before when I haven’t eaten in a day or two. I’ll be fine when we get home and I can eat