Six Moon Summer (#1) (Seasons of the Moon) by Reine SM

Author:Reine, SM [Reine, SM]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Red Iris Books
Published: 2012-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

The funeral service wasn’t for three more days.

Earlier in the summer, Rylie would have leaped at the chance to come back to the city. She had missed the art galleries, the theaters, and the parks. Now she didn’t even want to leave her room.

Rylie hated to admit it, but she missed Gray Mountain. The big city park wasn’t the same. The trees were too far apart. The bushes were too manicured. The brook really was a brook instead of a broad river. It babbled over smooth, colorful rocks instead of roaring over cliffs and crashing into boulders.

The wolf in her didn’t think much of the park, either. Rylie couldn’t keep herself from growling at a pigeon when it landed near her. A mother with a stroller hurried past, shooting her looks out of the corner of her eye.

Freak. She could almost hear Teri spitting the word at her.

Her room was like a cage, but it was better than the city.

Rylie avoided Jessica until the morning of the service. They had to ride to the cemetery together. They met at the car, and Jessica gave her a brief appraisal before getting in. “You look good,” she said.

“Thanks,” Rylie said, staring pointedly out the window.

“Has something changed? Are you wearing contacts now?”

“No.”

Her mom dropped the subject, and they went to the cemetery in silence.

The day was too sunny and windy to be properly mournful. Rylie stood by the grave while the pastor read his eulogy. He said that Rylie’s dad had been a wonderful influence in the community, and a loving family man, and something about ashes and dust and God. Rylie wondered what kind of terrible God would curse her and kill her dad in the same summer.

There weren’t many people at the service: Rylie and Jessica, Uncle Jack and his family, and a handful of employees. Rylie’s dad always had a big heart, but few friends.

She dropped a flower on his coffin as they lowered it into the ground. “Miss you,” she whispered. The wind rose a little higher and tore the scarf from her neck, sending it dancing through the air across the graveyard. Rylie didn’t bother chasing it.

“I’m so sorry for your loss,” said his executive assistant, Tracy, at the church after the service.

“Thanks,” Rylie said.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” mumbled another employee as he passed.

She wanted to crawl under the carpet and disappear. How many people were sorry for her loss? And how many of them really cared?

Everyone left the church. Rylie and her mom sat in one of the back pews. She toyed with a cracker off one of the platters the church bought for the reception. Rylie snapped off a corner and let the crumbs hit the church’s floor.

“He left you everything,” Jessica murmured. She dabbed at her eyes with the same tissue she had used for the last half hour. “At the final divorce hearing, he told me that he revised his will. Everything’s yours. His house. His belongings. His investments. Even his business, if you want it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.