“Okay,” Dustin forced out. “Okay.”
Cathy looked from him to Greg. “You’re going today?”
“Yes.”
She gave one sharp nod. “Don’t you dare die at your brother’s grave. I will never forgive you.”
“I’m not going to die.”
“Promise me.”
Dustin held his mother's gaze. She was dry-eyed and iron-jawed, but terrified. For the first time in three years, she didn't bother to hide it.
But this was what Dustin had wanted, no? To see her. To know she was in there, under the calm, under the clipped sentences and the unshakable calm.
He just hadn't wanted it to cost this much.
“I promise,” he said.
Cathy looked at him for a long moment.
Then she picked up her fork and went back to her eggs.
The conversation was over. She’dgiven him what he needed, and now she was putting herself back together the only way she knew how.
By continuing.
By eating breakfast like the world hadn’t just tilted.
Dustin picked up his own fork. The eggs were cold.
He ate them anyway.
There was nothing left to say over breakfast, so they finished in silence.
Dustin, his mother, and the reaper at their kitchen table.
CHAPTER 34
The cemetery was on the east side of town, past the elementary school and the church Cathy used to take them to on Easter and Christmas.
Dustin drove. Greg sat in the passenger seat with his clipboard in his lap. He wasn't saying anything.
Dustin appreciated the quiet.
He didn't appreciate much else about this drive.
In the three years since his brother's death, he'd never visited his grave. Why would he? If Tyler's spirit somehow lingered in this world, he wouldn't be hanging out at the cemetery.
He would be where the action was. He'd stick around Dustin.
But if he did, Dustin would not feel so alone. This was how he knew that Tyler's spirit wasn't anywhere, not with him, and most certainly not at his gravesite.
Dustin parked near the iron gate of the cemetery and killed the engine. The headlights died and the dark rushed in.
They sat in the truck.
Through the windshield Dustin could see the shapes of headstones, pale against the dark grass, catching the faint light from a moon that was almost full.
