Page 2 of Dump and Chase

I grasped his hand to squeeze, but he had other ideas. He pulled me into a tight hug, tighter than I’d expected. I thought he’d let go right away, but he nestled his cheek against mine, and whispered, “Thank you for coming. It’s so nice to see you,” into my ear. He smelled good, like soap, aftershave, and the soft sent of his cedarwood cologne. Why was I even thinking like this at a funeral?

Even worse, after all this time, his deep voice had every inch of me tingling. I had to get my shit together. “It’s nice seeing you too.”

We broke the embrace so I could give Ethan’s mom a hug, too, and then I finally found Wolseley and Jill. They were a few rows back, huddled together and chatting about something. I took a seat next to them and waited. I wasn’t sure for what. I stole a few glances at Ethan, and I had to stop doing that before people noticed, especially my friends.

“How are you doing?” Jill asked quietly. “Was it weird seeing him?”

“A bit, but I expected that.”

“That was quite the hug,” Wolseley added. She was always the flighty one of our group. She couldn’t keep anything to herself, and was a wild free spirit who sometimes needed to be tamed. If she thought there was a chance of Ethan and me getting back together, she’d push hard for it. She was all about happily ever afters.

“You guys, his dad died. Can we cut him some slack and stop reading into this?”

“You know who isn’t here?” Jill said, sweeping her long blonde locks over her shoulder. “His girlfriend.”

I wasn’t going to react. I didn’t want anyone to assume how that might affect me becauseIwasn’t even sure how it did. The fact that he had a girlfriend stung, that was for sure. I didn’t want to imagine it, but it would be crazy to think he hadn’t moved on. I’d dated, hooked up with a few guys, how could I expect him to not to do the same?

Wolseley leaned in closer now, tucking a strand of her bleached blonde hair behind her ear. The rest of her hair was purple this month. “I know we said we wouldn’t talk to you about this, but we can’t wait. Sorry,” she said to me before focusing back on Jill. “Ava told me he didn’t even ask her to come here for the funeral. Isn’t that weird?”

They didn’t know Ethan at all. I wasn’t surprised by this. Everything was always arm’s length with him, and that included keeping his girlfriend away from his father’s funeral.

“I don’t know,” Jill said, shaking her head. “You can’t tell me you’ve been dating someone a year and you don’t ask her to come with you to this?”

A year? Those words kept bouncing around in my head. The longest I’d dated anyone after Ethan had been four months. But he’d already been with someone that long?

“Maybe they aren’t serious.”

Jill pffted. “Ava made it sound like it’s serious. They went to Europe last month. Some trip to Paris after his season ended.”

She got him to go to Paris? No, this conversation had to stop. “Enough, okay? Let’s show some respect. You shouldn’t be gossiping at a funeral.”

That seemed to shut them up. When the funeral began, Wolseley sobbed throughout the whole service. She was also the weepy one. She cried if an animal died in a movie, and she used to cry if you looked at her the wrong way, or if she thought you were making fun of her. As she got older, she’d toughened up a bit, but funerals were her Achilles’ heel.

Jill and I sat stoically, but I teared up a bit when Ava and Ethan did the eulogy together, sharing stories about their dad. I was so proud of both of them for getting through it. They were certainly tougher than I was. Then the small church choir sang “Ave Maria,” and I was done. That song made me cry no matter what the event. Jill was handing me tissues before the choir had finished the first line. Damn, I hated funerals.

“We’re all going to the wake, right?” Wolseley asked, wiping her damp gray eyes. “Please tell me we don’t need to go to the cemetery. I don’t think I could handle it.”

“Ava said family only. They didn’t want an entourage,” Jill said.

At one time I would have been included in that the family. Now I was just another friend … but only barely.

“Why don’t we head over to the reception now. What else are we going to do?” I asked.

“Good idea,” Wolseley said. “I want to try the food.”

The Grants had booked a place just outside town. It served two purposes: it was private, and fewer people would likely show up. There had easily been five hundred people packed into the church, and thinning out that crowd was the goal. No one wanted to entertain all those people.

I took my car and Wolseley and Jill went together in Jill’s car. I couldn’t stop thinking about Ethan’s new girlfriend. A whole year. I wondered what she looked like. Odds were that she was blonde. I was pretty sure he had a thing for blondes. Probably petite too. He liked to have stimulating conversations, so she could probably do that otherwise he wouldn’t have hung around that long.

No, I wouldn’t google her, and I wouldn’t scour his IG either. For my own sanity, I had to forget about her and once this day was over, forget about Ethan Grant too.

ChapterTwo

Ethan

Seeing Tangi again took my breath away. Had three years passed? How many times had I come home for a quick visit and secretly hoped I would run into her even though I’d made Ava promise not to tell her, or Jill and Wolseley, I was in town? If one found out, the rest would know, just like the Three Musketeers. I was a coward. Seeing her would have made me feel things I didn’t want to feel. It would have reminded me what an idiot I’d been for letting her walk out of my life.

But there was no avoiding her now. I knew she’d come to the funeral. She’d loved Dad, and he’d loved her like another daughter. Seeing her was a punch in the gut. She was just as gorgeous as the day I’d set eyes on her back in high school. She’d been seventeen then, and Ava had invited her over after school. I knew in an instant that I wanted to go out with her, and within weeks, to my sister’s dismay, I’d asked Tangi out on a date.

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