They drank beers for another two hours before Braden went up to bed. Cal went to Lane’s room and scooped up his sleeping nephew, who groused a bit and then settled on his chest and went back to sleep. Cal sat in the rocking chair in the nursery holding Lane for the rest of the night. But he couldn’t get any closer to making peace with Rose’s death or the fact that Amelia might leave again soon.
Chapter Nine
Wednesday morning dawned as the perfect spring day. It was clear and sunny, with no chance of crazy winds or rain. Cal was glad of it. Though a rainy day would have suited his mood better as they prepared to bury Rose, he knew that he wanted her day to suit her and she’d always been sunny…well most of the time.
They’d all called friends to come and help out with various aspects of the funeral. Finn had brought his head mechanic, Zim, back with him from the road. His NASCAR sponsor had given him the next week off, which was probably a good thing, not just for Finn but for everyone. Of the three of them, Finn was having the hardest time containing his temper.
Braden had asked Red and Red had driven out to the Delaney property last night. They’d spent the night drinking and telling stories about Rose, which had been nice. Cal had invited Wyatt Kelly to come over, but he was getting ready for the summer boot release and hadn’t been able to make it any earlier.
The doorbell rang, and Cal went to answer it. Wyatt had changed a lot since he’d gotten married. He was still a badass but there was something tame about him now. Cal had to admit there were times when he envied what his friend had found with Juliette. They were expecting a baby in about six months and domesticity suited him.
As soon as Wyatt could get away, he’d made his way to Last Stand. It was only about a twenty-minute drive and Cal didn’t have words when he opened the door and saw his friend standing there the day of the funeral.
“I brought you this. Nick won it off a Scot who was at Booze’s Place last weekend,” Wyatt said holding out a bottle of Glenlivet.
Cal took the Scotch. Wyatt gave him a bro hug, patting him on the back. “I’m here for as long as you need me. Juliette told me not to come home if you needed a night of drinking or fighting. I think I’m getting on her nerves.”
Cal smiled to himself. That sounded like Juliette. “Why are you getting on her nerves?”
“Well, you know she’s pregnant. But we just found out we’re having twins! And at her last doctor’s visit, she found out she had hypertension. In fact, I should probably text her and make sure she’s okay. I mean she was okay five minutes ago when I FaceTimed her to tell her I was here,” Wyatt said.
“Dude, if you text her again, you should probably make plans to stay in the guest house indefinitely.”
Wyatt laughed. “You’re right. So, what do you need?”
“Nothing. We’re going to the First Methodist church for the service and then we are going to bury her up on the hill by Mom and Dad.”
“Damn, man, you’ve had too many funerals in your life,” Wyatt said.
They heard a clip-clopping sound, and both turned to face the hallway where Lane came running toward them on his broomstick pony. His nephew hadn’t comprehended what was going on today and Cal thought that was a good thing. Lane pulled his horse up short and looked up at Wyatt.
“Who you?”
“I’m Wyatt,” Wyatt said, stooping down to Lane’s level. “I’m here to help celebrate your mommy today. I brought you something.”
Wyatt handed Lane a Kelly Boots box and his nephew set his broomstick horse aside and reached for the top of the box. Cal watched as Lane lifted the lid and pulled back the tissue the boots were wrapped in. He caught his breath as he saw the special design. Black boots with a pretty white climbing rose wrapping around a cowboy hat.
“Thanks,” Lane said, sitting down to put the boots on. Cal had to look away as he felt tears burning his eyes.
He wasn’t too proud to cry but this gesture from Wyatt meant more than Cal could take. “Made you and your brothers a pair each, too. They’re in the car.”
“Thanks, man. They’re something else,” Cal said, wiping his eyes.
“You need a minute? I’ve got this little cowboy,” Wyatt said.
Cal nodded and walked down the hall into his den. He closed the door of the room and leaned his head back against the door. He was torn in two by Rose’s death. There was a part of him that understood that it had been an accident, and then there was the darker part of his soul that was so afraid he’d driven her into carelessness by not being the big brother she’d needed him to be.
He heard the clip-clopping sound from Lane’s broomstick horse again and knew his nephew was back to playing. Cal should get back out there, making sure his brothers were getting ready. But he couldn’t make himself move.
There was a knock on the door and he scrubbed his hand over his eyes before opening it.
“Man, I can’t do this,” Finn said, coming inside. “Rose always helped me with my tie. But she’s not here.”
“I got this. I’ll do it for you,” Cal said. “How is it you don’t know how to tie a tie?”
“I was always in a car and racing. We don’t have to wear ties at all. And usually I keep it knotted and hanging in the closet but it got stuck on the hanger and…”
“You got pissed and ripped it off,” Cal said.
“Yeah. I can’t right now, Cal. Seriously, I don’t know what’s going on, but I have never felt this crazy inside before, not even when Mom died,” Finn said.
“You got this. You just need some time to process it. Getting the news the way you did…I’m sorry I had to call.”
“I would have kicked your ass if you hadn’t. Zim said you told him before the race ended,” Finn said, as Cal knotted his tie and then stepped back to straighten it.
“Yeah. I figured he would know when I should call you back,” Cal said. Zim was like part of their family, and Cal knew Finn would need a friend once he got the news.
“He did. Shit, Cal. What are we going to do without our Rose?” Finn said.
“We’re going to take one day at time,” Cal said, focusing now on his brothers and not on his own grief. He clapped his hand on Finn’s shoulder and led him out of the house to the big limo they’d rented for the day.
*
Amelia hadn’t planned to attend Rose Delaney’s funeral. She wasn’t sure that Cal would want to see her there but her parents had insisted. The First Methodist church, where the funeral would be held, was close to her parents’ house and her mom had offered to hold the wake at their home after the service, since she thought the Delaney boys might not want to host it at their place. They’d taken her up on the offer.
Watching her mom and Memaw work together to get the Corbyn mansion ready for the wake made Amelia realize again how much she’d missed out by refusing to talk about the past. She still hadn’t really gotten the closure she needed within herself. Once she’d heard her mom’s story, there was no way she could be anything but sympathetic to what Lilly Corbyn had gone through. In her shoes, Amelia acknowledged she would have done the same thing.
“Come help me get the pans of food out of my van,” Delilah said. Her sister had on her chef’s whites but full makeup and her hair was done.
“Okay,” Amelia said.
“Thanks,” Delilah said as they started carrying the food into the house through the kitchen door. “What’s up with you and Mom? You were staring at her when I walked in.”
“Nothing. I mean, we talked the other night and I was just…wishing I hadn’t been so stubborn and wasted so many years. Also, when I look at her sometimes it’s hard to remember she’s sick.”
“I know what you mean. I asked Dad if he thought it might be all in her head and he about bit mine off. But she’s in such good shape. She always has been. It’s not right that she has something wrong with her,” Delilah said.
“I know, Dee. I wish they could identify it so we’d be able to fight it. Or at least know what it was she was fight
ing.”
“Me too,” her sister said.
They put the last of the food on the counter and then were shooed out of the kitchen by the staff her mom had hired for the day. They had come over from Whiskey River and had served at her parents’ parties before, according to Emma.
Amelia followed Delilah upstairs into her old bedroom where her sister was getting changed. She drifted into the playroom, which had been turned into a game room when they were teens and in the last few years had become a sitting room for overnight guests. She sat on the love seat that she had fond memories of squeezing onto with her sisters and both her parents for story time as a young girl.
She just stared down at the couch. For a long time, she’d hated those memories of her childhood but now she felt fonder about them. She heard someone behind her and turned to see her dad standing in the doorway.
“You okay?”
“Yeah. Just thinking about how we used to all squeeze on here,” she said.
“Those are some of my favorite memories,” he said.
“Mine too,” she admitted. “You know Mom and I talked the other night. I’d love to hear your side of things.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, coming further into the room. He was dressed in a black three-piece suit and tie. His long leonine mane of hair had been slicked back and he was clean-shaven. She knew her dad thought some stubble was okay for the weekend but not the workweek and certainly not for weddings or funerals.
“Just…don’t be offended please. But…did you resent me? Did you wish I wasn’t a part of Mom?” she asked. She knew what her mother had said but that was her mom’s perspective on Jasper. He might have felt differently and since she knew more of the story now, she wondered if he’d really felt the way that her mom had told her.
“Never. I never resented you,” he said, coming further into the room. “I’m not going to pretend that it was easy to hear she was pregnant with another man’s baby. But most of that was jealousy. I wanted her baby to be my baby. So, when Jax bowed out of her life, I was more than happy to take his place. I loved your mom from our very first date. And you were a part of that. You’ve been in our lives the entire time, Amelia. How could I not love you?”
She walked over to him and he hugged her close. “I didn’t want to push you to find your way back because that would have done nothing but make you resentful.”
“I know. I’m so stubborn.”
“It’s one of the worst Corbyn traits,” he said.
“It is,” she said feeling a little bit better that no matter what genetics might say, she was a Corbyn. A part of her had always known that, but she’d been afraid that her dad might not feel that way.
That was the most crippling part of fear, she thought. She hadn’t asked her father how he felt before this moment because until she’d heard her mom’s story, she was afraid that Jasper had been simply being nice to her all of her life. He was a generous man who always put others first, so it would have made sense. But hugging him close now, she knew that he was her father and that no one could take that away from her.
*
Cal wasn’t sure how it happened but he, Wyatt and Braden were all playing poker with Memaw Corbyn after everyone else had cleared out of the Corbyn house. The funeral had been lovely or so he’d been told by everyone in town. He and his brothers had endured more sorrow than a body should have to, according to Mrs. Pullman, and the Ledgermans had offered their teenaged twins to babysit Lane.
It had been a long day, stretching his tolerance for people to the limits. But somehow, sitting in the game room with Memaw Corbyn, drinking her homemade moonshine and watching her try to con Wyatt, was making up for it. Braden, who had downed two glasses of moonshine, was sort of swaying a bit in his chair. Jasper came in, saw Braden and steered him to one of the large leather couches in the sitting area of the room before taking his place at the table.
“Mom, are you playing nice?”
“I’m playing to win,” Memaw Corbyn said. “Besides, this is Booze Kelly’s son. He knows his way around a poker table.”
“Mother.”
“Don’t be a stick in the mud, Jasper. These boys need to have some fun today,” she said.
“Yes, ma’am. Deal me in, then,” he said. “I’m not about to leave you to your own devices.”
She chuckled but dealt him in. They were playing Texas Hold ’Em. Cal had a handful of crap each time and he’d suspected that Memaw was cheating but there was no way she’d be able to cobble together such bad hands that many times in a row. He folded and stood up, moving over to check on Braden who was gently snoring.
He heard someone behind him and noticed Jasper had left the table as well. “Figured I should leave the sharks to fight it out.”
Cal laughed. “Yeah, they both seem to be playing at a different level.”
“Indeed. You got a minute? I know today’s not the day to talk business but I need to find out what you want to do about the loan that TJ initiated.”
Damn. He’d forgotten about that. TJ’s funeral tomorrow was being held over in Austin, since that’s where his family was originally from, and Cal had promised Lancey Maverick they’d come and help her bury her brother. She didn’t have much other family besides TJ and a couple of aunts who lived in Houston.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Cal said.
“Let’s go into my office,” he said leading the way.
Cal noticed that Amelia was sitting near Finn and Zim, talking to them. She glanced up when he walked by and then blushed and looked away. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been driving away from him, hell-bent for leather.
Damn, his life was a mess. The only woman who he couldn’t forget kept leaving him. That had to mean something totally messed up. Amelia had shaped the way he looked at relationships. He wasn’t blaming her. In fact, she’d sort of reinforced what he already believed about his own cursed ancestry. Even Rose couldn’t escape it.
“You okay, son?”
“Yes, sir. What do you need to know about the loan?”
“Lancey Maverick called the bank the other day. She wanted to find out if her brother had finished signing the paperwork. She has put in for an early release from the Marines and she thought she’d take over the mortgage on the shop. I told her I needed to check with his partner first,” Jasper said. “Do you want a drink?”
After the moonshine, he didn’t think he should have anything else. Drinking took the edge off his grief for a little while but then it turned his thoughts dark. He knew it was time to stop. “Coffee would be great.”
“I’d like one, too,” he said. “I never got to show you the plans that TJ had submitted for the loan. They’re in this folder. Why don’t you take a look while I get the coffee?”
Cal took the folder from Jasper and sat down on one of the armed wing chairs and opened it up. The first thing that struck him was that TJ had taken his time with the plans. His handwriting was neat and he addressed every concern. In one section, he was brutally honest, mentioning that he wanted Cal to be his partner so that if he screwed up, Rose and Lane would be protected.
Damn.
He shook his head. This was something that he couldn’t deal with today. Or ever. He wanted to just leave Last Stand and keep driving until he was in a big city somewhere, where no one knew him and he wouldn’t have to face this.
But that wasn’t realistic. He had to act like the eldest Delaney. He needed to make sure that TJ’s dream lived for Lane. Lane would know that his father had been determined to make sure he had a future.
By the time Jasper came back, he had a better idea of the man that TJ had slowly been becoming. Some of the stuff in his five-year plan was taken from a textbook from a business class that he was taking in college. Cal only knew that because TJ put it in his notes.
For the first time, he realized what Rose had seen in her young man. Why hadn’t he been able to see it before it was too late? Maybe if he’d been more accepting…?
But t
here was no going back. He just had to make sure that Lane was given all the love and support he would have had from TJ and Rose. And he’d also make sure Lane knew the kind of parents he’d had.
He thought about Amelia then and her parental situation. It made it easier for him to understand the way she’d left him but the impact of those actions still lingered. Understanding it didn’t really mean a damned thing. He needed to figure out how to move past her. Unfortunately, she’d always been the only woman he’d ever really wanted.
Chapter Ten
The Saturday of the Bluebonnet Festival dawned bright and sunny. Amelia hadn’t seen Cal all week. She and her family had attended the funeral for Rose but he and his brothers were with their friends afterward and she had the feeling that drinking and talking was what he needed so she’d left him alone.
Emma was working a booth for the Friends of the Library and had invited her—well, more like told her—to work a shift. She noticed a line around the Outlaw Tequila booth and saw they had set up a huge OUTLAW TEQUILA WANTED poster and had a photographer taking souvenir pictures. The line was long, and she couldn’t help but notice a lot of kids were in the line with their parents. Braden and Cal were working the booth, talking to patrons as she walked by, and a woman she didn’t recognize handed her an Outlaw Tequila bandana, which she took but kept on walking.
She tied it around her neck like a kerchief as she took her spot in the Friends of the Library booth. The house she’d purchased had been sold as an estate sale and she’d found tons of boxes of books in the attic. She’d sorted through five of them so far and had donated the ones she didn’t want to keep in her personal collection.
“Hiya,” Emma said as she finished up a sale. “I thought you were going to ignore my text.”
“Never. I wasn’t doing anything except trying to stay away from the funnel cakes. They are my weakness.”
“You could have one,” Emma said gently. “You’re not modeling anymore. I mean…well, you know what I mean.”
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