His Wedding Date (The Second Chance Love Series, Book 2) by Hill Teresa

Author:Hill, Teresa [Hill, Teresa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: ePublishing Works!
Published: 2013-10-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

The funeral was on Friday, and half the town showed up. Charlie had lived nearly his whole life there. He was well known and well liked. He'd be missed, Shelly knew, though she found no comfort in that thought.

Missed or not, he was gone. One more person had vanished from her life.

Charlie's wife didn't attend the service. Marion's doctor didn't think she would understand what was going on, anyway, although she did sense that something was wrong.

Shelly stood at the grave site under the funeral-home canopy, staring at the gleaming coffin draped in pale yellow roses, and she felt as if she'd been here a million times before.

She only vaguely remembered the days immediately following her mother's death from ovarian cancer, but her father's funeral six years before was still vivid in her mind.

She wondered how many more times in her life she'd stand at a grave just like this and say goodbye to someone. And then she realized that right now she didn't have anyone left to lose, at least not anyone who was that close to her.

She closed her eyes tightly as she bowed her head and said a quick prayer of her own.

The ceremony was over. It had been for some time, and all the other mourners had drifted toward their cars and started to leave.

Shelly could see the grave diggers standing in the distance, waiting to finish their job once the coffin was lowered into that gaping hole. She clutched the rose she'd taken from the spray of flowers lying on the coffin. She gripped the flower so hard that one of the thorns bit into her fingertip, drawing a tiny drop of blood.

It made her a little dizzy to look at it.

Brian stepped in, taking the flower from her fingers and wiping a drop of blood from her hand.

She'd known he was there, waiting for her. She had felt the impatience in him as he tried to give her some time alone. He seemed to realize that she desperately wanted to keep her distance from him, and he'd tried to respect her wishes. But she had felt his eyes on her back as she'd stood there.

He'd been beside her during the ceremony, and she couldn't say how she knew, but she was sure he had been fighting a battle with himself to keep from touching her.

She was grateful he'd fought it and won for as long as he had. She felt as fragile as the soft white rose he was holding for her.

She had thought the awkwardness between them would diminish with time. Instead, it had grown, especially since the other night, when she'd all but told him that she'd never been able to forget him, even though he'd never been more to her than a good friend. She'd known it would be like this between them once he knew. That was why she'd fought so long and so hard to hide it from him.

She pulled her hand from his then, satisfied that it wasn't bleeding anymore, and shoved it into the pocket of her jacket.

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