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Suddenly, she found herself being walked inside. Kirsten was waiting just outside the door and gave her a relieved look before nodding at Ammo.

When they got to their seats, there was a bit of a kerfuffle over who was going to sit next to her.

Finally, she sat with Ammo on one side and Kirsten on the other.

The people whose names she didn’t even know were sitting behind her.

“Are they friends of yours?” she asked Ammo.

“Zander is. He’s the big blond guy. My boss. He knew Charlie too. The pregnant woman is his wife, Keira. And I work with the other two. Honey and Webb.”

“It was nice of them to come.”

“Don’t say that just yet. You might come to regret it.”

The funeral started. The celebrant talked about Charlie’s early life, his time in the Navy, and then his return to Greasy Knob. Then he asked if anyone would like to speak about Charlie. Reaching into her pocket, Aimee grabbed her speech. She’d tried to write down a few nice things about Charlie.

But before she could move, Kelly-Anne McComb stepped up to the coffin and stood there with her hand on it, staring down at Charlie.

What the hell did she think she was doing?

Aimee stiffened as Kelly-Anne turned to her, a look of maliciousness on her face, and she put her hand on her belly.

Oh, no. No.

Charlie wouldn’t have done that to her. He couldn’t have.

“Aimee? What is it?” Ammo asked.

And she suddenly realized she was making a low, whining noise.

“Charlie was my lover.” Kelly-Anne’s voice rang out in the chapel as everyone grew silent. “I loved him so much. But he’s not completely lost to us since I’m now carrying his baby.”

16

There was a moment of silence before everything exploded.

People started talking, and she could almost feel their glee as they digested the nugget that Kelly-Anne had just dropped.

Aimee knew that she’d deliberately waited until Charlie’s funeral to do this. Until she had everyone’s attention on her. There was no way that she could have done it quietly, in private.

No, she wouldn’t have given Aimee that courtesy.

Aimee didn’t know her well, but from what she did know, Kelly-Anne loved to be the center of attention. That was part of the reason she’d done this at this moment. Also, she really seemed to hate Aimee.

If Aimee saw her out and about, Kelly-Anne would sneer at her or whisper about her to her friends, and they’d all start cackling, like the bunch of bitches that they were.

Was there a collective name for a bunch of bitches?

Harpies? Shrews?

She’d never been certain why Kelly-Anne seemed to dislike her, not until she’d mentioned it to Charlie one day. He’d gotten a bit of a strange look on his face.

Apparently, Kelly-Anne and Charlie had dated back in high school. She’d been the head cheerleader. He’d been on the football team. So of course it was a storybook romance.

Everyone had expected them to end up together. Instead, Charlie had enlisted in the Navy.

And when he’d returned to Greasy Knob, Aimee had been with him. She wasn’t certain if Kelly-Anne had just expected to take things up where they’d left off years earlier. That was something she should have spoken to Charlie about.