I shook my head. “No. This isn’t real.”
Mom cocked her head in thought and then pointed down the rows of the gravestones. Tears glistened in her eyes. “It feels real.”
I followed her gaze.
A black gravestone with the engraving Charlotte Julianne Redford.
My lips felt numb. “It’s not real.”
The air shifted around me and Mom lowered herself beside me. She had flowers in her hand. She put a few on Andie’s grave and then a few on the one next to it. My eyes flew to the headstone.
Sophia Roberta Brown.
“Grandma?”
Mom nodded. “She understands me.”
“I don’t… I’m so confused.”
Misunderstanding me, Mom gave me a sympathetic smile. “We couldn’t lay you to rest together, sweetie. You and Andie. Not after everything. It would be hypocritical.”
“What?” I gasped. “We’re not dead! We’re not dead!”
Her face clouded over. “I’m sick of this. You have to face up to your mistakes.” She frowned. “What is that noise?”
What noise?
“Do you hear it?” She stood and stamped her foot. “This is a cemetery! What is with that incessant noise?”
“Mom?” I watched her stride away. “Mom?”
I stopped. I could hear it too now. I whirled around, looking for the source. Was that Bastille?
THIS IS THE RHYTHM OF THE NIGHT!
My eyes slammed open in the dark and I gasped for breath.
It took me a moment to come out of the dream and realize what had woken me up—the ringtone on my phone. Lunging across my bed, I whacked my hand off the corner of my bedside table before snatching the glowing phone. I squinted against the blur of sleep-fogged eyes and tensed at the caller ID.
Jake.
Why was Jake calling me at… five in the morning?
Too tired to fight, too unsettled to deal with whatever it was he was planning to throw at me after weeks of radio silence, I ignored his call and rolled back over.
Seconds after it stopped ringing, it started again.
Huffing, I grabbed it back up. This time it was Lowe.
Did Jake really think I was that stupid?
I slammed the phone down and closed my eyes.
It started ringing again.
“Jesus effing Christ,” I hissed and snatched up the phone, ready to decline the call when I noticed the caller ID now said Denver.
Worry instantly shot through me. Denver never called.