Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 102079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
I wanted to negotiate a new deal.
“I needed to speak,” I murmured before forcing my gaze back to my mom.
Her expression bled with sympathy and remorse, and then she shifted her attention to Isaac. “Thank you for helping Sarah.” She reached for his hand and squeezed it. “You’ve turned into a good man, Isaac.”
He didn’t help me; he saved me. But I was glad she thought he was a good man, even if I knew it would only be a matter of time before she changed her mind.
“Of course.” Isaac shrugged it off.
However, Eve’s gaze flitted between us. She was only two years younger than me. Eve dreamed of knights in shining armor, turning eighteen and feeling a new sense of freedom, and losing her virginity. Even if there had been nothing going on between Isaac and me, Eve’s mind would have concocted something. So I played it safe and didn’t make eye contact with her.
Isaac wasn’t as astute. When my mom and Gabby turned to watch the hearse pull away, Isaac headed toward his family’s car, but not before resting his hand on my lower back, then taking a half step and letting his fingers graze the palm of my hand.
Eve’s gaze lifted from my hand to my face. But this time, I didn’t look away. And I didn’t say a word. She knew that was the secret I was asking her to keep. And she couldn’t have looked more shocked.
We drove to the cemetery just outside of Devil’s Head. It seemed impossible that my body could leak any more tears, but there was something about that last goodbye.
That hole in the ground.
The short prayer and scripture.
“For everything there is a season … a time to be born, and a time to die … a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”
I was so tired of crying, but the tears just kept coming, and my mom continued to hand me tissues that quickly disintegrated. Someone touched my shoulder, and I turned.
Wesley Cory handed me a crisp white, neatly folded hanky. It was the first time I’d made eye contact with him that day. A deep sadness lived in his eyes. That day, I hadn’t once thought about his affair until he couldn’t look at me. Surely, he had to know my mind wasn’t on his indiscretions.
Matt leaned closer to his dad and started to whisper, “She doesn’t want a hank—”
“Thank you,” I said softly, accepting the hanky and pressing it to my eyes as I turned back toward Heather.
The rest of the day passed in a slow blur. I felt like my brain was shutting down from overload. People talked to me at the luncheon, and I think I smiled and nodded, offered and accepted condolences. Basically, I did everything on autopilot, so there was little certainty.
No one questioned Isaac carrying me out of the church, not even Matt or my dad. I was the only one (except Eve) who thought of it as an intimate gesture only someone who loved me would do.
After we returned home, my family headed into the house to change their clothes while I sat on the tree swing behind our house. I used to love swinging on it when we moved there five years earlier after living in a three-bedroom house in town.
“You were with Isaac,” Eve said behind me.
I kept swinging.
“Sarah, he’s your boyfriend’s brother.”
Still, I kept swinging, staring at the puffy white clouds.
“Everyone thinks you and Matt are getting married.”
I couldn’t remember who was the first person to jump to that conclusion; I just remember it wasn’t actually Matt or me, but everyone accepted it as the truth. Eventually, we talked about life after high school, like marriage was a forgone conclusion. Maybe we should have said something earlier, like, “We’re young. Who knows what the future holds.”
I stopped pumping my legs, and as my swing came to a slow sway, Eve stepped in front of me, plucking my shoes from the ground. “Vi said that Isaac left town over the Fourth, and that’s why he couldn't help look for you—because everyone was looking for you. But nobody considered that you might be with him. And why would they? He’s your boyfriend’s brother.”
I stared at my feet and the tiny run in my pantyhose.
“If I’m wrong about Isaac,” she continued, “then we know, at the very least, he’s an admirable guy. If I’m right, then what he did today was the most romantic thing I have ever seen. You stood in front of everyone and told them about Heather offering to carry you and how you will carry her. Then Isaac literally stood up, ignoring what anyone thought, and he did that.”
Had I not known better, I would have thought Heather was whispering to Eve. Everything she said sounded just like Heather.