Page 38 of Last Rites

Dani waved back, smiling, and pointed to the little girl’s helmet.

The mother jogged ahead to see what was wrong, then burst out laughing. She stopped the little girl long enough to straighten the helmet and tighten the strap, then gave Dani a thumbs-up as they continued down the sidewalk.

Dani glanced at her phone to check the time, then looked up the street all the way to the main road. The van should be appearing any time now.

She thought of Aaron and the family he was bringing to her house. It was such an unexpected and generous gesture that she didn’t quite know how to take it other than with the obvious gratitude she felt.

A screech sounded high above her head. She looked up. A huge hawk was circling the skies above her, likely looking for dinner in the fields beyond the housing addition.

“Hide, little babies, hide. There be a dragon,” she whispered.

And then she heard a big truck downshifting and looked back up the street. It was the moving van! Shewalked out into the yard to wave them down and was watching the driver backing the moving van up into the driveway when a gray Ford Bronco drove past the house.

Dani paid no attention to the vehicle, but the driver of the Bronco was paying all kinds of attention to her. It was Alex Bing, and his decision to follow the movers had just paid off.

“Hell yeah!” he muttered.

Now all he needed was to find a place to regroup and figure out what came next.

Dani had no idea her past was coming back to haunt her. She was focused on the movers and watching the truck doors opening and a portable ramp coming down. The crew boss introduced himself; then Dani did a quick walk-through to show them where things went, then sent a text to Aaron.

Movers are here.

Within a couple of minutes, she got a reply.

Gathering up the family.

After that, all she had to do was stand in the hallway and direct traffic. It took a little over an hour and a half to get everything into the house, set up the bed andmattress, and then do another walk-through to make sure they had not damaged what had been delivered. After that, it was all about the paperwork, payment, and signing off on their delivery.

Dani watched them drive away and then went back inside, plopped down in her favorite easy chair for a moment, reclaiming her things in this space.

She was trying not to make a big deal out of seeing Aaron again and was a little overwhelmed to be meeting his family in such a mess. However, if the mess wasn’t here, she wouldn’t be meeting them, so there was that. Still, she wasn’t going to sit and wait. She wanted to find the boxes with all her sheets and towels, then make her bed and have towels and washcloths for her nighttime shower.

Her television was sitting on the stand in her living room, waiting to be hooked up to the cable access TV, and her desk was in the spare bedroom, which was going to be her office. She had everything she needed for Wi-Fi and Internet, but it needed to be hooked up, too.

She headed for her bedroom, hoping the movers had put the right boxes in the right rooms, but to her dismay, the first one she saw in her bedroom was marked KITCHEN.

“Shoot,” she muttered, shoved it aside, and kept digging until she found some marked BEDROOMand began opening them, only to find shoes and purses. She shoved it into the closet and kept looking. Finally, she found the box of bed linens and took out a set of sheetsand a couple of pillowcases and laid them on her bed, then began looking for a larger box with her bedspread and pillows.

She found that box in the office and dragged it across the hall. She’d never been so happy to make a bed in her life. She had the fitted sheet on and was about to unfold the top one when her doorbell rang.

They’re here!

She glanced at herself in the mirror on her dresser, then rolled her eyes. She was already a mess, but it didn’t matter. She headed for the door and opened it wide.

“We’re here,” Aaron said, and handed her an arrangement of flowers in a clear pink vase. “Happy housewarming from all of us.”

“They’re beautiful!” Dani said, and held them against her chest and stepped aside. “Come in,” then glanced nervously at the slim middle-aged woman with graying hair and a sweet smile, and the towering crew of men behind her wearing different versions of the same face.

“Dani, I’m Shirley Pope. Welcome to Jubilee.”

And then the men began walking in behind her.

“Hello, Dani, I’m Sean. Really nice to meet you,” he said, then shifted the big box he was carrying. “We brought food.”

“Hi Dani, I’m Wiley. It’s a pleasure. I brought soft drinks.”

“Hi, Dani. I’m Brendan, but everyone calls me B.J.” And he was smiling as if he were holding the last piece of a puzzle. “I know you! I mean, I didn’t know yourname, but I’ve seen you at Aunt Annie’s bakery. I work there. Aunt Annie sent a box of cookies.”

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