Page 17 of Just (Fake) Married
“What do you mean, no funeral?” she asked. “You’ve got to…bury him.”
“There’s some stipulation in the will. He’s being cremated, and then we find out what he wants when the will is read.”
“Wow. Your dad was a control freak to the very end.”
I laughed, because it was funny and true. And sad.
“How long are you home for?” she asked.
The wind blew east to west across the driveway, sending snow back up around us in a swirl.
“Just a few days. I have to get back to Seattle.”
“A doctor’s work is never done, I suppose,” she said.
She knew I was a doctor.
“I’m a surgeon, actually.” I said, like I wanted to impress her.
“Just like you said you would be,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. Entirely unimpressed. I was categorically impressive. I was performing surgeries only three or four other doctors in the world could perform. I’d saved countless lives.
And Harmony Calloway didn’t care. Why did I love that so much?
The alpacas were now shuffling back in the general direction of her property, and the dog and goose seemed to be herding them.
I stepped closer to her, and without her guard dog and goose there to protect her, her eyes went wide.
A reaction. Honest.
“Tell me why,” I said, pushing her again. Because it was still there, like a splinter I couldn’t get out of my brain. Why had we gone into the pantry? What had I said or done that was so bad she punched me? It was like a memory that was almost there, but not quite.
“Why, what?” She asked, playing dumb so badly I had to smile.
“The pantry.”
“It was a hundred years go!”
It was yesterday. Standing in front of her like this. Seeing her face and her eyes all lit up. That red hair tossed in the wind like it was alive.
“You hated me after that,” I reminded her.
“What makes you think I didn’t hate you before that?” she fired back.
“Just tell me what I did to deserve the punch. If it was something awful, I’ll apologize.”
“How about instead, you don’t get so drunk you don’t remember the awful things you do to women in pantries.”
“I can promise you, you’re the only woman I’ve ever been in a pantry with.”
“Goodbye, Ethan.” She turned her back on me and followed the animal menagerie back across the fence line.
“Just tell me!”
“Learn to live with disappointment!” she shouted back.
Yeah, I thought, watching her go until her red hair had vanished in the snowy landscape. I climbed back into my car to go up to the ranch, and my father’s control from beyond the grave.
When it came to Last Hope Gulch, I had already learned to live with disappointment.
