Isla hugged her friend.“Thank you for everything.”
“I’ll be thinking of you today.Let me know how it goes.”
“I will.”
“You should go before the babies wake up and want Mommy.”
“We’re going,” Isla said as she reached for her purse, which was hanging on a hook by the door.
“Julian,” Mrs.V said.
“Yes, ma’am?”
“Take good care of my girl today.”
“I will.I promise.”
“Don’t worry about rushing home.We’ll be just fine.”
Isla hugged her again.“Love you.”
“Love you more, sweet girl.You’ll be in my thoughts and prayers today.”
“Thank you.”
Julian put his hand on her lower back to usher her out the door into warm, bright Southern California sunshine that was almost offensive on a day of mourning.She would’ve expected dark clouds and a stormy sky on such a day.The heat of Julian’s hand was comforting but also disconcerting because all she wanted to do was ask him to take her back to his place, where she could forget all the sad stuff.
But that wasn’t an option today.
He held the door for her, waited until she was settled and then closed it.
After he got into the driver’s side, he asked her for the address of the funeral home and punched it into the vehicle’s GPS.The map showed a ninety-minute ride through Calabasas, Thousand Oaks and Ventura before hooking north on the Pacific Coast Highway.
Unlike their previous rides together, he didn’t reach for her hand the minute they were underway, and the sense of loss was profound.Their easy rapport was gone, too, as if neither of them knew what to say to the other after what they’d decided.She wanted to ask him if he ached the way she did, but she couldn’t bring herself to pose the question.
He kept his gaze straight ahead, but a muscle twitching in his cheek was new and might be a sign of internal struggle.
“Are you okay?”she finally asked when she couldn’t stand the tension any longer.
“I’ve been better.”
“Did you have a crazy workday?”
“No more than usual.”
“Oh.”Did she have any right to ask other questions?“I hate this.”
He glanced at her.“What?”
“That it’s weird between us now.”
“I hate it, too.”
She waited for him to say more, but what could he say?What could either of them say that would change their reality?
They drove in silence for a long time before he said, “I miss you desperately, and you’re right next to me.”
Isla reached across the center console for his hand and held on tight as tears stung her eyes.She fought them back so she wouldn’t be red and puffy when they arrived at the funeral home.But she wanted to wail from the pain of it all, mixed in as it was with the sudden loss of Gabriel.
