Page 100 of Finding Forever

Beth looked at her. “We’re carrying two flashlights and a rose.”

“Very poorly equipped grave robbers, then.”

A noise exploded from behind a nearby headstone.

Kayla grabbed Beth.

Beth yelped and nearly dropped her flashlight. Something black and white shot across the path.

Kayla screamed and the creature disappeared beneath a hedge.

Beth followed it with her flashlight. “I think it was a large cat.”

Kayla’s hand was pressed against her chest. “I knew that.”

Beth caught her breath as her heart slowed back down. “I’ve never heard you scream like that.”

“I thought a zombie was about to attack us,” Kayla said as the beam of her flashlight did another circuit around the headstones. “I shouldn’t have binge-watched an apocalypse series on Netflix.”

Beth started laughing. Within seconds, Kayla joined her.

Their laughter seemed ridiculously loud in the quiet cemetery, which only made it worse. Beth wiped beneath her eyes. “Come on. Before the police arrest us.”

“For grave robbing?”

Beth shook her head. “For disturbing the peace.”

They continued along the path. As soon as Jessie’s headstone appeared in the beam of Beth’s flashlight, their laughter faded.

Kayla slowed.

Beth did, too. Six years. Sometimes it seemed impossible that Jessie had been gone that long. Other times, it felt like an entire lifetime had passed since he’d come through their front door or he’d reached for her hand.

Kayla crouched beside the headstone and brushed away a few leaves. “Hi, Dad.”

Beth swallowed.

Kayla reached inside her jacket and took out a pink rose. It was from her bouquet. She laid the flower carefully against the stone and, for a moment, she said nothing.

Then she touched her fingertips to her father’s name. “I’m getting married tomorrow, Dad.”

Beth blinked against the sudden sting in her eyes.

“I wish you were here,” Kayla continued. “I wish you could meet Tyler properly. You’d like him. Although Uncle Ryan says you’d grill him about looking after me.”

Beth watched silently as Kayla took a handful of tissues out of her pocket and blew her nose.

“Mom and Uncle Ryan are walking me down the aisle. The flowers are beautiful, and Mom made the cake, so you already know it’s perfect.”

Beth pressed her lips together to stop them trembling. She moved closer to Kayla and slipped an arm around her shoulders.

Kayla’s voice grew softer. “I’m happy, Dad. Really happy.”

They stayed that way for a while, a mother and daughter standing beneath the stars, thinking about a man they’d both loved.

Beth looked at Jessie’s name. “I wish you were here, too,” she whispered. The words hurt, but not like they once had. Her grief had changed over the years. It hadn’t disappeared, and Beth no longer expected it to. Jessie had been too important for that.

But loving him didn’t mean the rest of her life had ended when his did. That realization would have once frightened her. Tonight, it brought an unexpected sense of peace.