LITMIR.BIZ

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who was there to take care of transporting the casket, had chosen not to come in for the service but was waiting outside.

      Nobody had loved Roger Runyan. Most people hadn’t even liked him. Even before that awful summer, he’d been sullen, standoffish and made it plain that he liked others as little as they liked him.

      He may have begun attending church after Laurel left Lucius, but it seemed that nothing else about him had changed.

      The organ notes slowly faded, and Beau gave her one of his unbearably kind looks. He opened his Bible and began to read.

      Laurel closed her eyes and prayed for forgiveness. She’d loved her father, even if he hadn’t loved her.

      So what was wrong with her that she couldn’t cry for him, now?

      For a moment—a weak moment—she almost wished she’d asked Martin to come. Despite the way she’d left him only a few weeks earlier, he would have been here for her.

      Which would have been as wrong as going through with the wedding.

      A rustle sounded behind her and she glanced over her shoulder, starting as two people slid into the pew.

      Evie and Stu Golightly.

      She would have recognized them anywhere.

      Evie, with her short, fluffy blond hair and blue eyes, and Stu, with his brown hair and eyes. He was Shane’s twin, but the resemblance between them was limited to their size and facial structure.

      Evie sat forward, closing her hand over Laurel’s shoulder. “I had to find a sitter for my kids,” she whispered, “or we’d have been here on time.” She squeezed her hand a little, then sat back and pulled a hymnal from the rack on the back of Laurel’s pew and dropped it on her brother’s lap.

      “I didn’t expect anyone,” Laurel whispered, feeling numb. This had to be Beau’s doing.

      Evie’s smile was sympathetic and very much like her father’s. “Maybe not, but here we are.”

      Beau continued reading, his voice beautiful and soothing and after a moment Laurel gathered herself enough to turn back around in her seat. Then the organist played again. The small congregation rose and sang the two hymns that Roger had requested. And that was it.

      The end.

      There was to be no graveside service, in accordance with Roger’s wishes, and Laurel rose as Beau stepped down from the pulpit and approached her. “Thank you.” She held out her hands to him.

      He took them and gave her a hug. “Your father would be very proud of you, Laurel.”

      Behind them, the funeral director and his associates were efficiently removing the casket. Laurel watched them for a moment. There was an awful, hollow feeling inside her, and it surpassed the emotional black hole that had prompted her to call off her wedding. “Proud? I can’t imagine why.”

      “Remember? He told me you were a teacher. That you have a master’s degree in education from the University of Colorado, even. He was proud,” Beau assured. “Now, there’s a table waiting for us over at the Luscious. Evie, Stu, you’ll join us.”

      Neither seemed inclined to argue. Evie tucked her arm through Laurel’s as they headed out of the church. Within minutes their small caravan arrived at the café and, just as Beau promised, there was a table waiting.

      The waitress had barely delivered their water glasses and menus when Evie sat forward. “You know, Laurel, the school here has been short staffed for over a year.”

      “Geez, Evie,” Stu groused a little. He didn’t bother with a menu. “Give her a chance to settle in first.” He focused on Laurel. “How long do you have that rental car for?”

      “Er, through the weekend.”

      “Well, you let me know if you’re gonna be in the market for buying something more long term. I’ll make sure you get a good deal.”

      Her mouth dried a little. She had a car back in Colorado. It was still parked at the apartment complex, where the rest of her worldly goods were stored in a locked garage. None of it would be moved to Martin’s as they planned to do once they returned from their honeymoon. “Thank you,” she said. She didn’t know how to tell them that the permanency of her stay in Lucius was still undetermined.

      “Stu knows what’s under the hood of all the used cars around here,” Evie said. “It’s one of his few skills.”

      Stu shot her a look. “I’ll remember that when you need your engine rebuilt.”

      Evie grinned.

      The tears that had been painfully absent earlier now seemed to clog Laurel’s throat. She looked down at the menu, blinking hard. Why was it that she could cry just because this family behaved so normally? Because they just let her be, didn’t seem to expect her to break down and didn’t seem shocked that she hadn’t.

      Around her, the café was alive with conversations, the clatter of dishes, the aroma of coffee and grilling hamburgers. And after a minute she could actually absorb the words that she was staring at.

      The menu, aside from a few modern additions like grilled-chicken wraps and low-carb hamburger buns, held few changes. “Is the fried chicken here still good?”

      “Better ’n ever,” Beau assured. “Oh, good. There’s Shane. I was hoping he’d be able to join us.”

      Laurel’s water glass tipped precariously when she knocked into it with her menu, but Stu stretched out a long arm, capably catching it before it spilled.

      “Sorry I couldn’t make the service,” Shane murmured as he took the seat beside her. Beneath the square table, his thigh brushed against hers as he returned the few hails sent his way from other diners. “Stuck in court.”

      “I, um, I didn’t expect anyone at all,” she admitted, carefully shifting away. She felt a little steadier if she focused on the other members of Shane’s family. “It was just…so…nice of you to be there.”

      Evie smiled. “If we’re nice enough, maybe you’ll decide to stay in Lucius and look into a teaching position. Julie goes into third grade in the fall and I really, really don’t want her to have to have Mrs. Cuthwater as a teacher.”

      “Mrs. Cuthwater still teaches?” Laurel remembered the woman. Any child who passed third grade was left with the desperate fear of not sitting up straight enough or of slanting their cursive writing the wrong way.

      “She substitutes,” Shane supplied. “Out of necessity.”

      “See?” Evie leaned forward, her blue eyes merry. “Think of my sweet, innocent baby, Laurel.”

      “I could be worse than Mrs. Cuthwater,” Laurel warned.

      Evie, Stu and Beau all chuckled at the prospect, and Laurel felt her tension begin to leave again. The waitress came by and they ordered.

      “I probably should thank you,” she told Shane after the waitress departed. “For the plywood. I assume that was you.” Before evening had fallen on that day, an enormous sheet of wood had been laid across the steps, creating a rough but sturdy ramp. It had been a nice gesture, though it had rankled her that he’d done it without consulting her.

      “What plywood?” Beau asked.

      Shane plucked the lemon out of his iced tea and dropped it into hers, as if it were perfectly natural for him to do so. As if he remembered, from those few weeks they’d once spent together, just how dearly she loved lemon in her tea. “To cover the steps at the house before she breaks a leg going through them.” His voice was flat.

      Laurel’s cheeks went even hotter at the tsks that statement elicited. Nobody questioned, of course, which house, as if Roger Runyan’s house was the only one in all of Lucius that could be in such disrepair.

      “It’s not that bad,” she defended.

      “Maybe

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