She sat with her mother in the front row, looking small and weary. Her eyes were hidden behind dark glasses, and she wore a black short-sleeved fitted dress.
He hadn't seen much of her the last few days, but Ethan had told him that while her mother had seemed to take the loss of her husband hard the day he died, the following one she had reverted to the woman she’d always been.
That momentary weakness was forgotten, and she had spent the days since atoning. She'd ordered her daughter about. Demanding this and that, until Ethan had told Brad that he'd heard from Branna, who'd heard from Jake's mom, that Macy had told her mother she was using her father's death to stage a three-ring circus with the name Delany Reynolds up in lights.
They had yelled at each other, and Macy had left, and from what Brad understood, this was the first time they had been together since that day.
He sat with the others at the rear and watched Macy get out of her chair. When she did, Billy, who was sitting on the end, looked down the aisle and saw him. Without asking, he simply hopped off his seat and ran.
Brad caught him as he launched himself at him, lifted him, and resettled him on his lap. Little arms wrapped around his neck.
“You doing okay there, big fella?”
“I'm sad ’cause Granddad’s gone and Mom’s crying.”
“You need to be upset about that, Billy, but you also need to remember that Granddad was in pain, and now he's not, so what happened is the best thing for him. It's just the people he left behind who are suffering now, okay.”
Ethan shot Brad a look, and then nodded, which he hoped meant he'd said the right things.
“’Kay.”
He held the boy as Macy adjusted the microphone. She then unfolded a piece of paper. Her hands shook, but she squared her shoulders and spoke.
That's it, sweetheart, you can do it.
“My dad was my hero.”
She had everyone crying from the first word. Her voice shook, and she stopped a few times to sniff, but she kept on going until the end. He wanted to go to her, put his arm around her, and just stand there at her side until she was done.
“Billy loved his grandfather very much, and I would be grateful if you all told him lots of stories about the man we all loved. Thank you for coming to farewell Harvey Reynolds, and please stay and spend some time talking about him over a cup of his favorite tea.”
She crunched the note in her hand, looked down the aisle to where he sat with Billy, and then went to sit beside her mother again.
“Hand me a tissue, will you, Annabelle.” Ethan's voice sounded thick with tears.
“And me,” Brad added.
The coffin was carried by Cubby, Ethan, Jake, Buster, Noah, and Newman, because Macy had insisted upon it, and in this it seemed she had won the battle with her mother. They walked through town slowly, with everyone following. Tourists lowered their heads out of respect.
Macy's mother had her friends flanking her, and Branna, Willow, and Annabelle surrounded Macy. Brad carried Billy behind them.
He stood beside the grave with Billy in his arms. Beside him now stood Mikey Tucker, who held one of Billy’s hands in his.
“That's Jilly's grave,” Billy whispered as he pointed to another grave a few feet away. “She was murdered.”
He didn't know how to answer that, or who Jilly was, so he simply nodded.
The day was long, and Billy hung with him and the others while Macy stood with her mother, although Delany Reynolds barely acknowledged her.
He could see the strain on her face and it grew more pronounced with every smile she forced. After the day her father died, he hadn’t seen her break down again, but he had the feeling it was coming.
Macy draggedherself off the sofa to answer the door. She was a big mass of hurt; there was no other way to explain it. Her head ached from crying, her body felt weary, and she just wanted to curl back onto the couch and sleep.
“I'll get it, Mom.”
“I got it, honey, you go on back and watch your program.”
She'd kept it together for him, her son. She'd laughed, cooked his meals, played with him on the floor, and even taken him and Razzle outside to water their new flowers. But she felt like she was walking through a dense fog.
