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There was a line to pay respects, and Milo waited, hands shoved in pockets. Normally he avoided this part, but he owed it to Mrs. Garrick to say his final goodbye.
Five minutes later, he walked away, his heavy heart feeling a bit lighter. She looked good, and he was happy for the final moment he had.
Silently, he’d promised to watch over the girls, and that was exactly what he was heading to do. He hadn’t seen them return since Harper and Livy ran after Isla, and he needed to make sure they were okay. He headed outside and spotted Harper immediately.
It didn’t matter where they were; he could always find her as if his internal radar had her programmed in as home.
The girls sat on the hood of his car. Harper and Liv had their arms around Isla who had tears streaming down her face. Normally he’d hightail it the hell out of there, but he promised Mrs. Garrick he’d watch after Isla. He couldn’t break his promise the first time he was put to the test.
“Why the long faces?” he said as he approached. “You’d think someone died or something.”
Harper shook her head at his bad attempt at a joke, Olivia’s eyes widened and narrowed in on him, but Isla… Isla laughed. It rumbled out of her like a bark and fell into a sweet symphony of uncontrollable giggles.
The joke was horrible, he knew that, and he expected Harper and Livy’s reactions, but he also knew that Isla needed someone to lighten the mood, no matter how inappropriate it was.
Her giggles finally stopped, and she smiled. “Thank you, Mi. I needed that, and I’m sure my grandma is cracking up, too, wherever she is.”
“Why don’t we get out of here?” Milo suggested.
“My family won’t be happy if I take off.”
“You’ll be back. There’s another hour and a half left of this, and let’s be honest… Your grandmother would hate it. People staring at her, crying over her life when they should be celebrating it. Let’s go celebrate it like she’d want.”
Isla’s lips pressed together then swished back and forth. “Let’s go.” She hopped off the hood of the car and got right into the backseat. Harper and Livy followed suit, and Milo got in the driver’s seat. Harper took the passenger seat.
He took her hand and squeezed, meeting her eyes, needing to know that she was okay. She gave him a single nod, and he started the engine, getting the hell out of there.
He imagined if Mrs. Garrick’s spirit was somehow there, she’d have gotten in the car with them, ready for whatever Milo had planned. There was only one acceptable place to go, though. He turned on the road that would bring him to the ocean.
It took only ten minutes to get there, park the car, and head out to the beach. Isla and Liv walked ahead, and Harper fell back, sliding her hand into his, intertwining their fingers. It was the comfort he needed. “You always know the right thing to do,” she said. “She’d been crying from the minute she ran out until the minute you walked up to us. And all it took was you saying one thing, and the tears stopped.” Harper came to a halt, her hold on him tightening, her eyes meeting his. Her hair glistened beneath the sun, tossed by the wind across her face. She tucked the unruly strands behind her ear, and a halfhearted smile toyed at the corner of her mouth. “Thank you.”
“For what? For always saying something inappropriate?”
A slight laugh rumbled up her throat. “No, for being you.”
Milo wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to him, relishing in the silky warmth of her arm against his hand.
“You guys coming?” Isla’s voice echoed across the beach, her black dress a drastic contrast to the blue skies around her.
Harper tugged on Milo’s arm, and they took off toward their friends. Isla had taken her shoes off and was kicking her way through the washed-up water. Laughs billowed from her, and Milo took a moment to glance up to the now cloudless sky, knowing Mrs. Garrick was looking down on them and voicing her approval at him.
Legs wet, feet covered in sand, the group plopped down on the dry sand, looking out at the ocean. The laughs had faded, the pain and heartache flittering in and out like the wind.
“This sucks,” Isla said. “I tried to prepare for it, but can you ever really prepare for something like this?”
“No,” Milo said. “You can’t.”
“It just hurts so much, and I feel like it’ll never stop.”
Harper tossed her arm around Isla and rubbed her shoulder.
Milo took a deep breath, eyes focusing on the swells of the water. “Life is beautiful, but it can also be impossibly cruel, taking away the people we love and making us live on without them. That’s why we need to focus on those beautiful moments. Remember them, cultivate them, and hold onto them. Don’t think about the pain and heartache; think about all the times your grandma made you smile, made you laugh, made your time with her a moment worth remembering.
“For me, it was the little things like the way she had with words. Her wit was admirable, and she never stopped short of delivering you the hard, honest truth. She did it with sincerity, though. I don’t think that woman had a mean bone in her entire body.”
Isla smiled. “She didn’t.”
“Your grandma is the sand beneath your toes, the seagull in the sky, the waves crashing into the shore. Her memory lives on in all of these things, and whenever you’re feeling sad or miss her, come here. This was always her favorite place, and you’ll feel closest to her here.”
