Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69772 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 349(@200wpm)___ 279(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Well, she didn’t ask, but it was clear that she needed the space to work.
I gave it to her, and wondered idly what my next steps were.
Ultimately, I decided that no one needed to know.
No one but the hospice nurse who’d pronounced her dead, my brother, and me.
My parents didn’t need to know, and we wouldn’t be telling them.
They’d made their choice when they’d taken off and had no plans to come back.
I couldn’t even tell Ande or Quinn.
Granted, Ande would want to know, but she had her own shit to deal with right now, thanks to some awful things going on in her life, and I didn’t want her family thinking that I brought her into my own personal hell.
Quinn?
Well, I wouldn’t tell Quinn because I knew he wouldn’t come.
This wasn’t the same as Addison’s funeral.
No, this was my Nonna. And to come to this funeral, he would have to see my brother, and that was the last thing I wanted to deal with.
On one hand, he might show up, and then I’d have to deal with Costas and him in the same room. On the other hand, he might not show up, and that would only break what little was left of my heart.
“What are your thoughts on a funeral?” I asked my brother.
The Justice of the Peace was called over an hour ago and had yet to arrive.
“I think we should just embalm her and bury her,” he admitted. “I don’t really have the spare cash to pop out a seven-thousand-dollar funeral.”
I didn’t either.
Not after paying for all of this out of pocket the last six months.
What savings I had was all but gone.
I hadn’t been working, either, leaving me with practically nothing to my name.
I did have a couple of jobs lined up. One at Angel Flight right in the middle of Dallas, flying helicopters for the flight medic service here. And one, surprisingly, with Keene’s brother-in-law, Winston.
The two men had formed a sort of black ops team that handled the rescuing of sex trafficked children.
It was a worthy cause that I’d been more than happy to sign on for.
I’d already gone on two such missions as we’d helped save three children from the clutches of sick and depraved men. However, Nonna had taken a turn for the worse lately, and I’d slightly backed off of anything that would take me away from her for more than a couple of hours.
Costas, on the other hand, probably had plenty of money. He just didn’t want to waste it on this, the tight wad.
Then again, maybe I didn’t want his dirty money paying for my Nonna’s funeral.
Nonna hated that he was in the gang.
She hated that he wasted his life away stealing and hurting people.
Even more, she already wouldn’t allow Costas to pay for her medical treatment. What would make me think she would want his money for her funeral arrangements?
“I think we’ll do that,” I said quietly, watching my Nonna’s body, half expecting to see her chest rise and fall.
It didn’t.
It took the Justice of the Peace twenty more minutes to get there, but eventually he did, and I was surprised to see that it was one of Quinn’s friends from school, Fletcher Daniels.
“Fletch,” I said upon seeing him, a small smile gracing my mouth. “I didn’t know you’d moved back.”
As soon as he’d graduated college, he’d moved to Georgetown to pursue his degree, and I hadn’t realized he’d come back to Dallas.
“Been back a few years now,” he said. “Been busy, though.” He flicked his hand at his badge.
“I imagine,” I mused. “My grandmother is inside.”
“I’m sorry,” he said as he followed me in. “She was on hospice?”
The nurse took over then, explaining everything.
Five minutes later, Nonna was officially pronounced dead, and the funeral home was called to take her body.
“If you’re curious about a more direct route,” Fletch said when he saw me wincing at the funeral home’s pricing. “You can go direct to the crematorium.”
I looked at him in surprise. “We can?”
“Grandma didn’t want to be burned,” Costas interrupted.
I shot him a glare. “Grandma also wouldn’t want to put me into financial debt because I couldn’t afford to pay for her burial costs.”
Fletch handed me a card and I took it.
“Thank you,” I said quietly.
“They’ll hook you up,” he said. “And do it for a fraction of the price, while also cutting out the middleman.”
Then he left, and I saw him pulling out his phone almost immediately.
Turning away from the front door that was closing on his back, I turned to my brother.
“We have to do something,” I said. “And I just called three homes. They all want over four grand to do this, and it’s not even holding a funeral, Cos.”
Costas turned away. “It’s not what she wanted.”
I clenched my hands and said, “We can’t always get what we want, can we?”