Page 210 of Waiting For A Girl Like You
The wind blew a little harder, spreading her hair from her face, and when she caught that familiar floral scent that always seemed to come in moments like this, Jamison closed her eyes and allowed herself to believe in the magic of Laura Jean.
“I won’t ever know anything about babies, Mama. Not my own, at least.”
She suddenly felt small and let the words tumble from her, wanting her mother to understand what she was going through. “It hurts, but I’m okay. Liam and I will be okay. I won’t take anything for granted. There won’t be a second of my life with him where I won’t appreciate all I have and what we’ll build together.”
“What is going on?” Simone’s sharp tone had Jamison popping up to stand. “Y’all can’t wait two seconds for us to bring a shovel?”
Liam and Carter had started digging near the bench with their hands, convinced they’d found the right spot, but Simone didn’t appear impressed with their work when she and Bernie came through the entrance.
Abe rolled in behind them, the hum of his motorized chair faint beneath the rustling trees. He often worked alone in the graveyard and knew every corner of it better than anyone. “I have equipment for this,” he said dryly. “And don’t you touch those flower beds, Liam.”
Flower beds.
Jamison’s head turned, her gaze taking in the entire rear of the graveyard. “Shadows in the flower beds,” she murmured. “That’s what he meant.”
She waved to get Liam’s attention and pointed toward the flower beds Abe had designed at the end of each section of headstones. Layer after layer, the neat rows were laid out to guide visitors through.
And from the bench, the trees overhead cast long shadows across them.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”
Liam sat down on the bench, his legs spread as he postured himself as Michael would. It never failed to amaze her how observant he was around people, picking up on the small nuances that crafted personality and behavior.
“What is Liam doing?” Selah whispered to their father when they arrived with Lenora and Xavier.
“I have no idea,” their father replied. “Abe’s remodel is fantastic, but this place is still a maze of the unknown. Half the tombstones and markers don’t have names on them.”
“Liam, give me some guidance here.” Izzy rushed up the incline with Will in tow and headed to the opposite side of the graveyard. “Are we looking for something in particular?”
Will went over to sit with Liam, the two of them in quiet conversation for a moment. “Look for a grave marked with the name Grace. It’s impossible even to entertain this idea, but Sinclair said the lovers who remain in the river. According to Carter’s great-uncle, two people drowned in the bayou. One of them was named Grace.”
“Carter’s uncle?” Simone’s brows snapped together. “Someone better start explaining.”
Jamison did her best to run through the whole thing. Rowan and Annabeth joined them halfway through, both looking rumpled as if they’d been taking a mid-morning nap. “And now we think the journals might be buried out here.”
“This is insane,” Annabeth muttered. “But okay, let’s do this.”
Xavier held up a tiny plastic beach shovel. “I’m gonna help dig!”
“Give Uncle Liam a sec, X-man,” Lenora said. “Watch him work it out first. It’s creepy, but it’s kind of cool to see the Cohens do their thing.”
“It is creepy, but my boys know what they’re doing.” Bernie stood with Simone, the two women seeking the small shot of sunshine breaking through the trees. “If those journals are here, they’ll find them.”
Will spoke quietly to Liam, who nodded. “I agree with that, but how?”
“Sometimes, the truth is bigger than us,” Will replied. “And we have to learn to go with it.”
Staring off at the rear corner of the graveyard, where the incline began to drop and slide into the bayou, Liam’s dark eyes narrowed on something. “Hey, X-man, pass me that shovel.”
Happily, Xavier obliged, and Liam continued to stare at the spot, his head tilting to the side. “Jamison, those two stones back there on the ground. Right by your left? What do they say?”
She hurried to the two stones close to the fence line. “Nothing. They’re unmarked like half the graves here.”
But she saw it then. The two markers. They were perfectly lined up together.
“Wait, these stones are… even? I guess that’s the best way to say it. They’re not haphazardly in a spot like the rest of the older stones.”
Liam jogged over with Xavier’s shovel. “This is it.”
