“Your speech was very touching, sweetie,” my mom said when everyone got up and started huddling together in small groups. “And the flowers are amazing.”
I couldn’t take credit for that, so I just smiled.
After hugging everyone, wiping more tears, encouraging everyone to take flowers, and thanking the venue’s manager, we all went outside.
“Was that Oliver Madden I saw entering late?” June whispered to me when our mom and Tammy had turned to talk to other people.
“Yes. And the flowers were from him.”
She pierced me with her gaze. “I assume that’s the friend you stayed with in Wayford?”
“He wasn’t there most of the time. I had a catering gig with Amy Locke at his house and … he just recently returned to Wayford.”
“Who’s in Wayford?” My mom pivoted toward us again, catching the tail end. “Forget that, are you staying with June?” she asked, looking at me.
“How did you—”
The apologetic frown on June’s face answered me.
“Just for a few weeks. I’m between apartments,” I replied.
“That’s what June said. What aren’t you telling me, January Raine?” Mom tilted her head down and looked up at me, though we were the same height. I felt rebuked.
“That it’s not the first time I’ve moved houses, so everything is fine, and that Will has a serious girlfriend, and he’s thinking of proposing to her,” I half-lied and diverted the topic to something I knew would get her attention.
“Oh, Will!” Tammy squeaked loudly next to our mother.
“Shh, it’s still a funeral, September Raine,” Mom rebuffed.
“Haven’t been Raine since I was around Will’s age, but never mind,” Tammy muttered.
“Wish they were here. You must miss them terribly, especially in times like this. We should video call them,” Tammy said. Though she looked more like me, as she grew older, she became a blend between me and June, with my hair color, a mid-sized figure, and facial features that made it clear she was our sister.
“I don’t want to do it right now.” I gestured toward the funeral home interior behind us.
“What would Vi say?” Tammy gave me a little, encouraging smile. “She’d want them here, if not for her, then for you.”
Sighing, I video-called the group chat. “They might be in class now. I’m not even sure they will …” I managed to say before Will answered the call and Lennox pushed his head next to him.
“Hey, Mom, we were about to call you,” Lennox said.
“Hey, boys. How’s Colorado? Your mother here needs a hug from you. All of us could hug her, and it still wouldn’t be the same,” Tammy said.
“Hey, Tammy. Mom, we’re sorry we couldn’t be there,” Will and Lennox spoke together. They weren’t identical twins; Will looked more like me, and Lennox more like his dad, but they had been synched all their lives and were as close as you could expect twins to be. When Lennox had come out to us as gay at sixteen, Will had taken charge of introducing him to guys he thought could “gel with him.”
“Thanks, boys. I know you’re here in your hearts.”
Tammy patted my forearm and went over to talk to people she knew from town, thus giving me privacy to speak with my kids.
“We’ll give you a real hug in …” Will said, and Lennox began drumming in the air suspensefully, “two days!” Will completed.
I swallowed. “That would be wonderful, but I have to tell you something first.”
“She’s renting a cabana in a fancy beach house in Wayford!” June appeared next to me, leaning her head against mine and getting into the camera’s frame. “The market in Riviera is kinda busy at the moment, and a pool house there is as comfortable and costs about the same as a big condo here. She wanted to surprise you.”
I looked at my sister.
She shrugged, her lips curling and her forehead creasing in an obliviousyou can thank me later.
