Parting Chances (Fighting Chance #1) (27 page)

“But what about all the people who only
knew
her, but probably wouldn’t be in our freaking address book? Are they not allowed to grieve too?” I knew for a fact that this town loved my mom. They had come together multiple times in the past to raise money for medical bills. I’m sure they weren’t in the address book so probably didn’t receive any invitations. And it wasn’t like my mom to make people upset.

“They can come. This was more of the out-of-town people. But the invitation is open for anyone. The town knows she passed; news spreads quickly, especially when the neighbors saw the coroner's vehicle parked out front. We’ve already received a casserole and a pie in the last three hours, and the phone had been ringing non-stop up until you got here.”

Of course she had planned everything out, down to the last detail. I wanted to yell at her for being so organized, and not letting us have to deal with the struggle of putting everything together. But I couldn’t because she had thought about us too. She was giving us all the time to mourn her, without having to add more grief onto the pile by dealing with funeral arrangements.

“I want to be mad at her for planning all this out while she was alive. For thinking about her death long enough that she had time to do this, but I can’t. I can’t be mad because this is who she is…was. A compassionate woman, who hated inconveniencing anyone.” I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped. “Even in death, she’s still that woman.”

Dad gave out a laugh with me, but it was short lived as the silence of the house settled over us again.

I finally took off my coat and leaned back into my dad. “Are we going to be okay?” I knew he didn’t have an answer for that, but I needed some reassurance.

He wrapped his arm around me and gave me a squeeze. “We’re going to be okay,” he whispered.

“Hi, there. Thank you for coming.” I shook the hundredth hand today as I stood next to Dad in the entryway of the house.

“Honey, you know you don’t have to stand here with me. Go mingle. Go find your friends. Go eat something,” Dad said as he shook another person’s hand as they entered the house. I wasn’t sure if our house could hold much more people. I knew the town loved my mom, but this was slightly insane. I suppose the only thing to be grateful for was that it was a balmy fifty degrees outside, so people were able to overflow onto the deck or into the garage without freezing their butts off.

I didn’t know what friends he was talking about, though. Kyler and Noah were in Florida, and I had pushed Eli away. The
friends
he must have been mentioning were high school acquaintances who only came today because they were home for winter break and their parents probably made them pay their respects. I hadn’t talked to any of them since we had graduated, aside from the few parties we had attended on breaks during the first year of college. But since then, it was all acquaintances on Facebook. Definitely not friends.

“I think I’m going to take a breather,” I said and pointed down the hall to my room. Dad nodded and gave me a little push in the direction before turning back to a couple who had just entered the house. The hallway was empty of visitors, and I was able to make it to the end of the hall quickly. I turned into the room on the left, instead of into my bedroom.

I was expecting their room to be empty, but Caleb sat on the edge of bed, staring at a picture. His eyes shot up when he heard the door click shut.

“Hey,” he said as he rubbed at his eyes.

“Hi.” I settled next to him, my arm pressed tightly against his. The picture he was holding was one from the pre-cancer days. I was six, and he was seven. We sat in front of the Christmas tree, eyeing the presents excitedly. Our parents stood to the side, watching us. Dad’s smile was totally and completely directed toward Mom. He always did only have eyes for her. Mom’s eyes gleamed as she looked at us. It was clear she loved every moment of being our Mom.

“We were lucky to have her,” I whispered.

“Yeah.” His voice cracked. “We really were.” He slipped his arm around my shoulder and hugged me close.

“Where’s Emma?”

“She’s so much better at dealing with people than I am. If I hear one more, ‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ I’m going to crack.” His fingers flicked on my shoulder, almost like he wanted to punch something.

“So you left her to deal with them?”

“She told me to take a breather. I probably should go back out there, though.” He nodded to the door but didn’t make a move.

Yeah, there was no denying Caleb and I were siblings. We both needed a breather, and the first spot we thought to take it was in our parents’ room.

“Are we going to be okay?” My voice quivered over the words. I needed the strength of my superhero big brother right now. I needed him to tell me things would be just fine.

“Doesn’t feel like it right now.”

“No, those are definitely not the words I was looking for.” I elbowed him lightly in the stomach, which only produced a small chuckle from him.

“I know. I’m sorry.” He pulled me close again. Whether for my comfort or his own, I wasn’t sure. But it felt safe in my brother’s arms. We held each other for a few minutes, silently remembering our mom. He pulled away first and stood.

“I should get out there and find Em.” He laced his fingers through mine and squeezed. “We
are
going to be okay, Hales. Promise.” With that, he left.

I thumbed away the tears on my cheeks and looked around the room. I hadn’t been in here since I had said goodbye to Mom. It looked like it had for most of my life. The bed was neatly made, the curtains pulled back, letting the light shine in. The bookcase was moved back near the window by the chair that Meg had occupied for the last month. Every trace of medical equipment was gone. Dad had told me they had done it right after Mom passed. Meg had called her team, and they had everything loaded into a hospice van within an hour.

I skimmed my finger across the top of the dresser Mom and Dad shared. All her things were still on top, nice and neat. I lifted her bottle of perfume to my nose and breathed in deep. Her scent overpowered me, making me feel almost as if she was still in the room. There were so many traces of her still in this room; I knew I didn’t want to be here when Dad would have to do the dreaded task of boxing everything up. But I set the perfume bottle to the side, knowing it was coming home with me.

I moved to her side of the bed and sat down, lifting her pillow to my face. It smelled of lavender and vanilla, which was the scent of their laundry soap. Of course Dad would have washed the sheets. Who would want to sleep on the sheets where someone died? Plus, Mom had that sterile hospital smell to her in this last month, so it wasn’t as if the pillow would have smelled like I remembered her. I was tempted to spritz some of her perfume but thought that might be too much for my dad.

After placing the pillow back on the bed, I kicked off my heels and lay back, staring up at the ceiling. My “breather” was taking longer than I had thought it would. I’m sure there were people out there that wanted to express their condolences to me, or worse, tell me some memory of my mom that they’d never forget. There were only so many, “She was such a lovely woman. I remember when she…” stories I could take today.

There was a soft knock on the bedroom door, and I squeezed my eyelids tight. Someone had seen me come in and was going to ask if I was okay. I just knew it. I held my breath and didn’t answer as the knock came again, hoping whoever it was would think they were mistaken at seeing me enter the room. The knocking stopped, and I peeked through my eyelashes to the door, noticing the knob turn.

Dang.

The door opened and the two people I least expected to see were standing there.

“Kyler? Noah? What are you doing here?” I breathed.

“Figured you’d be hiding,” Kyler said as she tugged Noah into the room and closed the door behind them. She eyed the bed next to me, lifting her brow slightly with an unspoken question. It wasn’t the first time the three of us had been in my parents’ bed together. Whenever Mom was in the hospital when I was younger, I’d always end up here, with Kyler and Noah at my side.

I patted the bed, and Kyler crawled into bed next to me, Noah getting in next to her. She slipped her hand in mine and gave it a squeeze but said nothing. It was so nice being around people who knew me. Who knew when I needed to talk about something and when I just needed silent comfort. These two had been with me through everything that had happened in my life and always knew exactly what to do. But I was still confused.

“Seriously, aren’t you supposed to be in Florida? How did you even know?” I had made a point to
not
call them so they wouldn’t have to cut their vacation short. I guess I got that from my mom, not wanting to inconvenience anyone.

“Okay, first of all, we won’t even discuss why
you
didn’t call us and tell us. Because we know you, and we know why you didn’t,” Noah scolded me.

“And secondly, don’t you think our parents wouldn’t have called us? They’ve been friends with your parents for ages,” Kyler finished off.

Oh, right, how had I forgotten about that? “But still, that doesn’t answer why you’re here. You should be in Florida for another week and a half.”

“Hales, really?” Noah scoffed.

“You think we’d rather be on vacation, than here with you? Right now? When you need us?” Kyler once again finished what Noah was thinking.

“I just…” I shrugged. “We knew this was coming, so I guess it’s not that big of a shock.”

“Haley, we are your best friends. Your mom just passed away. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, you need us,” Kyler said and bumped my shoulder with hers.

“And you need us now, so we’re here,” Noah added.

“So when did your parents call you?”

“Well, they called us yesterday morning—” Noah began.

“But it was Eli who called us Monday night,” Kyler finished, cutting Noah off.

Oh, Eli. Of course.

“What time Monday night?” I was curious.

“After he dropped you off. He said he was on his way to a hotel.” This came from Noah. I didn’t need to turn my head to know that Kyler was glaring at me.

“Hotel?” I asked, confused.

“Yeah, Hales. After you kicked him out, said you never wanted to see him again, and broke his heart, he
still
didn’t want to leave you. So he got a room at a hotel. We met up with him this morning. We told him to come here, but he figured you didn’t want to see him. He finally went home after we reassured him we’d take care of you and get you back home.” Kyler’s voice rose. She was mad at me, and she had every right to be. Eli had been nothing but nice to me from the freaking day I met him, and when my life got too hard for me, I took it out on him. He didn’t deserve it, and I didn’t deserve him. But clearly he still cared, and that just made my heart ache more.

“He probably hates me now,” I mumbled.

“What part of what I said makes you think he hates you? He
stayed
even after you told him you didn't want him here.”

I’m pretty sure Kyler rolled her eyes as she said it to me.

“I think how he feels about you is the complete opposite of hate,” she went on. “That boy lo—”

“Stop. Just stop. I don’t want to, nor
can
I hear that right now.” That time, I did pull the inner seven-year-old out and plugged my fingers into my ears.

“Mature, Hales.” Kyler’s muffled voice made it to my ears.

“What? Just because I am
so
not ready for that conversation? Can we just please change the subject?”

“What’s that?” Kyler changed the subject quicker than I thought she would, and I turned my head to see what she was looking at. Her eyes were zeroed in on my neck. My hand quickly went up to cover the necklace that I had returned there this morning. “No, wait, is that a…Wonder Woman charm?” Kyler picked it up and looked at it closely. “It is!” she laughed. “Where did you get this from?”

“Eli,” I whispered. I still wasn’t sure why I put it on again, but when I saw it sitting on the dresser this morning, the need to wear it was so strong. And truth be told, it may have even brought me comfort throughout the day.

“Eli gave this to you? For Christmas?” Kyler asked. I nodded, tucking that charm back under my shirt. “Why Wonder Woman?”