The connection held while the town sat in respectful, warm silence. “Sorry, I can’t say more, but again. Thank you.”
The screens moved and changed back to the current stage, where Dean walked to the microphone.
He was composed in the way that men who had survived enormous loss sometimes achieved composure, not by pushing the feeling down but by having lived alongside it long enough that they’d learned how to carry it standing up straight.
The lake was still in the morning light. The trees held their quiet. Somewhere above the treeline, a bird called once and fell silent.
Willa felt the tears arrive and let them come. She’d stopped apologizing for them years ago. They weren’t weakness. They were love that had nowhere else to go.
Margo, who was sitting beside her, reached out and took her hand. Together, they listened to Dean with tears rolling down their cheeks. Willa looked out over the crowd, and there was not a dry eye there.
Zane had the last words, and finally the formal part of the ceremony ended with the soft sound of a recording playing through the speakers, a piece of music Shaun had loved, and the town sat with it for a while before people began, gently and gradually, rising. Margo’s refreshment table was surrounded within minutes.
Willa took a moment to compose herself as she stood off to the side, smiling when it was called for as people walked past and spoke to her. Finally, Ace made his way toward her, put his armaround her shoulder, and pulled her toward him. Willa leaned into his warmth and strength as they leaned on each other, remembering Shaun.
A gentle breeze surrounded them out of nowhere and softly caressed Willa’s cheek as it whispered to her:It’s time to let go, princess. I will always love you.Willa closed her eyes.I will always love you, my darling Shaun.The breeze lingered for a moment longer before dancing off through the trees. Ace gave a little shudder, and Willa smiled into his chest, realizing Ace had felt it too.
15
ACE
The breeze had come from nowhere.
Ace stood at the edge of the gathering with the warmth of it still on his skin and tried to convince himself that he’d imagined what he’d heard inside it. The campground was full of people and sound and the particular emotional weight of a memorial that had finally, after ten years, arrived at something resembling the truth. It was entirely possible that an overworked, sleep-deprived mind in an emotionally charged environment could produce exactly the kind of auditory experience he’d just had.
He’d heard it, though.
As clearly as he’d heard it on the island in the cave, in the dark, with the storm pressing at the limestone outside.
Look after them and love them for me.
Ace pressed his jaw together and looked out over the lake. The water was still and bright in the morning light, its surface holding the sky’s reflection with the particular, indifferent beauty of nature on days that were anything but indifferent to the people standing beside it.
He shook his head once. He was losing his mind. That was the only reasonable explanation.
“Are you okay?” Ace whispered to Willa, who was still close beside him.
Willa stepped back slightly and looked up at him. Her eyes were wet, but her expression had settled into something quieter than it had been during the ceremony. “I’m a little better,” she admitted. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m okay,” Ace told her honestly. “This day is always bittersweet. It reminds me how much I miss him.”
“I know,” Willa murmured.
She stepped back just in time as Grace, Andy, and Becky descended on them from the direction of the chairs, all three of them converging at once in the instinctive way of children who needed to be close to their mother after something hard. The group hug that followed was unplanned and slightly chaotic, and included Ace without anyone making a decision about it, which was exactly how the best ones always happened.
When they untangled, Ace looked at each of them in turn.
“How are you guys doing?” he asked.
“Sad,” Grace answered first. She breathed out slowly. “It’s always a sad day.” Her eyes moved toward the memorial stone and then back. “I feel like each year another part of his memory fades a little.”
“Oh, honey.” Willa reached up and cupped Grace’s face in both hands. “That’s not what’s happening. You’re just learning to carry it differently. Your dad will always live in your heart. That never fades.”
Grace nodded, pressing her lips together.
“I think Dad is going to rest a lot easier now,” Andy said quietly. He looked at the stone for a moment. “Knowing that Gilbert Fry has been exonerated and that Director Dillinger knows who was really behind everything.” His eyes came back to Ace with a flash of worry underneath them. “Does the director think they’re still somewhere nearby? Here in Sandpiper Shores?”
“No, bud,” Ace replied, keeping his voice easy and calm. “They’re long gone. The moment they realized the director and your grandmother had figured it out, they left. They’re not going to come back here.”
