going gets tough, the tough put the kettle on. Marla may have grown up in America, but after almost a decade in England, tea was one tradition she had well and truly taken to heart. Weddings permitting, the small staff of the chapel took a well earned break most afternoons to drink tea and swap gossip. They had been rather looking forward to adding cupcakes to that ritual, too.
Somehow, tea with a side order of formaldehyde didn’t hold quite the same appeal.
Gabriel Ryan stilled the growling engine of his Kawasaki Z1300, restoring the sleepy early morning peace to Beckleberry High Street. The pavements still glittered with the dawn frost of early spring, and his breath hung on the icy air as he slid his helmet off. He sat stock still for a couple of seconds and drank in the sight of his perfectly hung shop signs for the first time.
Gabriel Ryan, Funeral Director. One thought consumed all of the others in his head. Mine. It’s my name over the door.
‘Time to grow up, Gabe.’
His father’s last words had become his mantra over the last few months. If he’d ever needed to feel the warmth of his beloved Da’s approval, it was now. He kicked the bike stand down and fished around in the pocket of his battered leather jacket for the front door key. To his own front door. This was it. Elated and scared witless all at the same time, he felt for his mobile as it buzzed against his chest. He didn’t need to glance at the screen to know who would be on the other end of the line.
‘Hey, Rory.’ He slipped the key into the lock and turned it.
‘You there yet, little brother?’
At forty-five, Gabe’s eldest brother Rory’s voice sounded heart-wrenchingly similar to their Da’s. He’d appointed himself patriarch of the family after their father’s heart attack last summer – a role he took very seriously.
‘Sure am. Just arrived.’
Gabe cast a last glance up at his name as he passed underneath the sign and stepped inside.
‘And?’
He looked around at the haphazard clutter of stepladders and paint pots that littered the reception area.
‘And, yeah. It’s looking pretty good.’
‘Only Phil the Drill said it’s an almighty mess.’
Phil the Drill has a big mouth, Gabe thought, but refrained from saying it, because he knew that Rory meant well, and would no doubt relay everything he said back to their mother and three other brothers. He brushed off Rory’s concerns.
‘It’s nothing I can’t handle.’
Besides, it wasn’t a lie. He’d handle any amount of mess rather than go home and take his place in the family firm. He loved the bones of his family, but being back there had just been too hard on his heart since last summer. His dad was everywhere, and for Gabe, the only way to deal with his grief was to be somewhere else.
‘How’s Ma?’
Rory’s rich laugh rumbled down the line. ‘Same as ever. Bossy. Interfering. But she misses you, Gabriel.’
Guilt stabbed through him. ‘Tell her I’ll call her later.’
‘Don’t forget, okay?’
‘Course not.’
‘And Gabe …’
‘Yes?’
‘Good luck, little brother.’
Gabe clicked the phone shut and rested his helmet down by the door. He’d drifted from funeral home to funeral home since his father’s death, unable to settle but unwilling to go back to Ireland. His heart might belong in Dublin, but this was his home now.
It had all happened quite by accident really. He supposed some might have called it fate if they were given to believing in such things. Firstly, he’d turned thirty. His family had, of course, wanted to throw the customary huge bash at the club in Dublin, and Gabe had known perfectly well that once he was there they’d use every trick in the book to make him stay. He’d refused their pleas and opted to stay in England with his best mate Dan, making plans for a weekend where the sole intention was to drink until they couldn’t stand up anymore.
A weekend which, in turn, was, devastated beyond repair by the untimely death of Dan’s gregarious, life-loving grandmother. Gabe’s funeral-director instinct had kicked in hard as he’d leaned over to gently close Lizzie Robertson’s eyes for the last time. He’d poured out generous measures of Scotch for her family, and made the calls they were too shell shocked to handle themselves.
Much later, over midnight brandies, it had struck him exactly how far away the rural undertakers were. Dan’s family had waited a good few hours before anyone could reach them. Much longer than