Page 8 of The Life We Left Behind

CHAPTER THREE

DELANEY

Present Day

It had been a long, restless night filled with memories, regrets, and not much sleep. There was so much to do now. So much I’d never even realized. Not only was there the funeral to sort out, but I’d need to get in contact with the family lawyers. The estate would need to be dealt with, which would include the James’ family land and my childhood home. What was I supposed to do about that? And all the animals, the farm. Where was I even supposed to start?

“Delaney!” Blake’s voice snapped behind me, and I spun in my seat in alarm as my heart raced.

“What the heck! You scared the crap out of me. Don’t sneak around like that!”

“I’ve been standing here saying your name for like two minutes,” she told me quietly.

Wow, my situation had to be bad if Blake was looking at me like that.

“I’m sorry. I was just…trying to figure out what I was supposed to do next.” I sighed and slumped down onto the bed.This was not how I’d seen this week turning out when I’d started it, but it was the constant emotional rollercoaster of this whole situation that was throwing me through a loop. I hated feeling this out of control. “There’s just so much and…”

Blake came to sit beside me, gently taking my hand in hers. “It’s okay to feel overwhelmed. Tell me what’s got you zoning out, and I’ll see if I can help.”

“I don’t know where to start. No one tells you how to do this stuff. When Aunt Adelaide died, Dad handled everything. I’m the only one left now to do this stuff, and I’m barely functioning as an adult as it is.”

The sorrow was closing in around me again, and with it was a healthy dose of self-pity.

“Are you kidding me?” Blake scoffed. “Barely an adult? You’re a kick-ass mom, and you’ve raised an amazing kid all on your own. You can do this. I know it hurts right now, and it’s probably going to hurt for a while, but first we get through the funeral, and then we deal with the fallout, okay? You’ve got the funeral home who will guide you through all that stuff, and then the lawyer will help you with the rest. Your dad left you the tools you needed, and I know you can do this.”

She was right. I wasn’t in this alone. Even after he’d died, my father was still protecting me. Still fixing all my problems. This would be the last one, though. After this, it would just be me and Cade, and I felt sorry for the kid if I was supposed to be the reigning adult member of our family.

“You’re right,” I admitted. I physically shook myself and then stood up, ready to get myself together. “First, get through this. Then a whole hell of a lot of therapy,” I joked.

Well, sort of.

“Let’s get some coffee in you and then brainstorm. Is the squirt still asleep?”

“You know he wakes up at five a.m., right? Like every day. Of course, he’s not asleep.”

Blake shivered in horror. She wasn’t a morning person by any degree, and given she was living what she called the Renaissance period of her life, she apparently had no reason to be. Blake was one of the most talented artists I’d ever met. I met her in school once I moved to the city to live with my aunt. She’d been the only kid at school who didn’t judge me for being pregnant. I’d finished up the last few months of the school year before I had Cade, and she stood by me for the next two years of whispered judgment in the corridors there. She’d been by my side every step of the way. We even went to NYU together, her studying art and me majoring in marketing.

Something about us just clicked, and we had a friendship I’d never experienced with anyone else before.

I’d stood by her side when her parents had tried to push her into doing something ‘useful’ with her life and when she’d walked away from them because she knew art was the only passion she’d ever had. And she’d been my rock when Aunt Adelaide had passed away.

We’d weathered the storm that was life together, and there was no one else I’d want by my side. There was literally nothing I wouldn’t do for her, and I knew she felt exactly the same.

I’d barely pulled myself together before Blake was pressing a cup of coffee into my hands, as was apparently now her usual habit. She sat down beside me, pulling up her knees and tucking her feet beneath her.

“I don’t have any coffee,” I realized as I stared down at the mug. “I ran out yesterday.”

For some reason, this was all my mind could concentrate on right now.

“I went to the bakery and grabbed these and some breakfast. I figured the last thing you’d want to do right now was eat, so I was planning on tempting you with sugary treats.”

She really was the best person on this planet.

I took a sip of blistering hot liquid and sighed as the caffeine went to work.

“Okay, logistics. Are you okay staying here with Cade for a couple of days? I’ve got some calls to make this morning and a meeting with his school this afternoon when I’ll pick up his work. But I need to be at the funeral home tomorrow pretty early, so I’m going to pick up a rental car and drive up to Willowbrook after Cade goes to bed.”

I grabbed the notebook from the coffee table in front of me and flicked it to the page I’d been writing on last night as I was trying to organize myself.

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