It was a respect thing.
I tore my attention from Jose when a shout from one of the small side rooms of the chapel broke through the clatter of people’s murmurs as they greeted one another and carried out their small talk. Funerals were a social gathering when your town didn’t even have a movie theater.
Jose blocked the door, and I gave him a quick goodbye before skirting past him and making my way to the direction of the disturbance. I opened the door on the far side of the church and found two women on either side of Katy. Her red and splotchy skin stood as evidence she’d spent the morning crying. She wore a lilac dress, which fell just below her knees and held a tissue in one hand. Tabitha had an arm wrapped around her shoulder and held her tightly as they rocked together.
I slipped further into the room and half shut the door behind me, leaving an inch or two open. It smelled like tears and old wood. The space reminded me of my childhood and the memories created in this small building. Half of our town’s history happened in this old church.
The two women looked to my direction but ignored me. Katy blew her nose on the tissue and shook her head. “This is wrong, Tabitha. She wanted lilacs and colors. Everyone is in black. It’s so depressing.”
I ignored my black suit to focus on Tabitha’s dark dress as she grimaced with Katy’s words.
“Katy, it’ll be okay. What’s important is how many people are here for your grandma. The town loved her.”
Her use of the word love might have been a bit too much to be technically correct, but the time wasn’t right for a jab at the Kadish family.
Katy looked up with an annoyed expression at Tabitha, but then she drew her gaze my way and it turned to one of disgust. Every horrible thing Katy ever said about me showed in her expression. Every feeling she hated the Kensington family for was on display at the moment as she stared at me while I hovered by the partially open door.
“You!” she yelled, pointing a finger at me and standing. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to pay my respects, like everyone else.”
She shook her head fiercely, and it appeared as if her tears dried in an instant. “You shouldn’t even be here. Nanna hated you. Why did you come here now?”
She approached, and I stepped back, opening the door slightly wider. “Katy, now isn’t the time.” She could yell and rail at me all she wanted later, but this wasn’t the time or place to do such a thing. Not in front of the town. Whatever she did would never be forgotten. Whatever ridiculous thing she wanted to say needed to wait until later. We needed to put the past behind us, and this could be the time to do it, but not with a room full of spectators.
Katy seethed and stuck her hands out, pushing me on the chest so hard I took an involuntary step out of the room.
“Get out!” she screamed, drawing the attention of every person in the church. “I don’t want you here.”
Tabitha came up behind her and put a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “Katy,” she said, trying and failing to be a voice of reason.
Katy jerked out of her hold. “No one wants you here! Nobody ever wants you.”
I’d seen Katy’s anger in the past. She hissed and her face turned red. She’d yelled at me before, called me names, and even made threats. I never saw Katy as upset as she was in that moment. It was like looking at a different person. Someone I’d never met. Someone I didn’t want to met ever again.
A few people behind me murmured, and I caught my name in the whispers. “Katy, if you do this right now, I’m done,” I said trying to keep my words between the two of us.
Katy’s hard finger hit me in the chest and her eyes blazed as she screamed, “Get out!”
At that point we’d drawn the attention of everyone in the church. Even though I wanted to yell plenty of things back—words I once held inside because I always hoped one day Katy and I would meet in the middle—but now I realized it would never happen. I wanted to call her every name she’d ever called me for revenge. To make her heart hurt too.
But it would do no good. Katy was hurting, and even though we were finished and there would never be a future for us, I’d go knowing I tried. I’d been the bigger person and tried my hardest. Even though my heart cracked in the moment. I’d never forget the anger and pain in her eyes as she yelled at me. The memories would haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. Katy should have been mine, but she belonged to everyone else.
Still her words and actions stung as did the murmurs of the townspeople I’d helped more than once. Embarrassment coated my steps as I stormed out of the chapel. How dare they? After everything I’d done for this place. The money, the time, my life. They’d taken it and for what? Gossip and chatter when I left a room. No one appreciated what we did here. It’s why my parents left and now why I planned to as well.
“Pierce,” Anessa called as I stomped past her in the parking lot, but I didn’t stop. Katy and I were finished. I’d reached the breaking point. Enough was enough. It took over two decades and more arguments than I could remember, but she finally sucked the last remnants of life out of me.
Katy Kadish won. She could have Pelican Bay.
19
Katy
The temperature dropped. It was like the world heard my grandmother had died and said fuck it. Winter was on the way quickly and if I didn’t trim the trees in the front of my home before winter, it’d be spring before they were ready again. I refused to spend another minute staring at the overgrown gangly tree shrub thing Pierce’s landscaping crew planted in the yard three years ago. No one asked my permission. No one even cared if I liked trees or shrubs or green things.
Just like with my grandmother’s funeral, nobody cared what I wanted. Or what Nanna wanted. There were white calla lilies, and everyone wore black. My mother and father picked depressing music, and the whole town came. It was disgusting. Half those people didn’t even like my grandmother.
Especially Pierce.
