Page 108 of Best Frenemies

I expect her to yell or smack him right in the kisser at the very least, but before she can even raise an arm to dole a blow, she’s staring behind me right along with him.

I turn around, anger and indignation instantly taking a back seat to confusion, only to find the one man in the universe who continually shows up where I’m not expecting him—my baby daddy, Mack Houston.

He looks painfully beautiful as he strides out onto the deck in jeans and a white T-shirt and his red Chuck Taylors. His gorgeous hair blows in the wind, and a part of me feels like he’s some kind of mirage my brain has conjured up from all the stress and emotion I’ve endured over the past forty-eight hours.

“Who is that?” Gran asks from behind me, her voice almost inexplicably loud.

“It’s Mack, Mom,” my dad explains at a normal volume. “Katy’s boyfriend.”

Boyfriend?

My head jerks back to my family at the misnomer, and Gran is all smiles as she greets him excitedly. “Oh! Hi, honey. I’m so happy you made it.”

So happy youmade it? Was she expecting him or something? What the hell is going on here?

“And I’m happy I get to be here,” Mack says as he steps up to give my sweet gran a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“My Harry would’ve loved to have met you,” she says and squeezes the urn tightly to her chest.

“He certainly would’ve, Mom,” my dad agrees, wrapping his arms around my mom’s shoulders. All I can do is stand there, slack-jawed, silently wondering if all these pregnancy hormones that are running rampant inside my body have given me brain damage.

Because unless I’ve been in aWhile You Were Sleeping-style coma for a couple of days, Mack showing up at this family dumping of a charred relative should be surprising someone other than me.

“Harry, my love…” My gran turns back toward the water. “Now that the whole family is here, it’s time, honey. It’s time to say goodbye.”

Thewholefamily?Jerry Springer on a Sunday afternoon, did I miss a paternity test announcement?Since when is Mack a member of the Daytons?

It’s on the tip of my tongue to question it, but when my gran starts speaking again, Mack moves closer…and I have to admit, it feels good.

“You were my everything for sixty years,” she says through a trembling voice, her love for my granddad so obvious, all of us can feel it.

Mack’s at my side now, and I can’t stop myself from looking up and into his eyes.

“What are you doing here?” I whisper, even though I shouldn’t be busy with anything but my gran right now.

“I didn’t want to be anywhere else, babe, besides right here, with you, on this very important day.” He just smiles down at me and puts his arm around my shoulders, tucking me close to his side and kissing the top of my head.

It’s like yesterday’s fight didn’t even happen, and I don’t know how to comprehend it. Everything about today feels veryFreaky Friday, and I look nothing like Lindsay Lohan or Jamie Lee Curtis.

Still, Mack’s presence is a comfort. That part is undeniable.

A rush of unexpected tears forms in my eyes. I have no control over them as they spill down my cheeks, and my gran’s following words don’t do anything but create more.

“Harry, I love you,” she says as she opens the urn. “I’ll always love you. This isn’t goodbye forever, honey. It’s just goodbye for now. I’ll see you on the other side.”

I’m a mess at this point, basically sobbing, as my little gran starts to lift the urn toward the water.

“Ma’am!” a loud voice booms from behind us. “Put the urn down!”

All five of us, including Gran, look away from the water and toward the security guard who’s now jogging toward us.

“Ma’am, you can’t do that yet! We have to be three miles away from the coast!”

Gran isn’t having it, though. “No!” she shouts and turns back toward the water with the urn. “This is the exact spot where I met my Harry! It has to be here!”

“No! Don’t do it! Put the urn down!” the security guard shouts, but Gran is already letting my granddad’s ashes fly into the air. They leave the urn in a brilliant heap as they head off the deck and onto the water below.

“That is illegal!” the security guard shouts as he reaches my gran and tries to remove the urn from her hands.

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