“Excuse me.” The shrill voice had my head snapping up. The timbre of Annabelle’s voice had always held an edge of meanness, but I’d overlooked and excused it. The truth was, she was a miserable and cruel woman.

I met her gaze, no longer a scared little girl she could push around. “Can I help you?”

Pink tinged Annabelle’s cheeks. “We are about to do the burial. That is family only. You need to leave.”

Caelyn sucked in a sharp breath, and Bell muttered a curse. I didn’t look away from the woman in front of me. The one with evil in her eyes. “You must have an incredibly sad life.”

“Excuse me?” The pink in Annabelle’s cheeks turned to red and spread down her neck.

“Mother, why don’t you go see if the minister needs anything.” Grant steered Annabelle towards Pastor Andrews before turning back to me. “My family is in mourning. The last thing my mother needs is you being cruel.”

Bell let out a scoff. “Please, that woman has ice running through her veins.”

Grant’s jaw worked back and forth. “I can see the company you keep hasn’t improved.”

I wasn’t going to give him the pleasure of a scene. I refused. Every word I gave him, every hint of emotion, was just one more piece he’d have of me. And Grant didn’t deserve a single one. I turned to my friends. “Ladies, how about some ice cream cake? Two scoops cookies and cream on the beach?”

Bell grinned. “That sounds like the perfect way to celebrate Harriet. She hated all this stuffy formal event crud anyway.”

I chuckled, and it felt so damn good. “Let’s go.”

Grant’s mouth opened and closed like a fish’s, so unused to being dismissed. I turned on my heel and started across the cemetery towards the parking lot, where the rest of our crew waited.

Bell and Caelyn hurried to catch up, Caelyn slipping her arm through mine. “I really want to castrate him with a rusty spork.”

We all dissolved into laughter, the kind that had tears streaming down our faces and our bellies aching. The type that would make Harriet smile if she could see us, even if it was at the expense of her grandson’s balls.

11

Crosby

“Has Bell seen much of Kenna lately?” I did my best to throw the question out casually, but from the look Ford gave me, I wasn’t very successful. I might never be an Oscar-winning actor, but it didn’t matter at the end of the day. I was worried.