Chapter 5: Honored in Person

We buried nothing, because there was nothing to bury, so the mass was short.

Twenty-two people came to the church where Nonna had gone every Sunday for sixty years.

My regulars from the bakery took the second pew with their hats in their hands.

The fire captain who found me stood at the back in a clean uniform.

The urn sat on a small table by the altar with a white cloth under it.

I wore Nonna's black cardigan over my dress, and I couldn't button it with my bandages.

Mitchell wasn't there.

Odette was in the front pew.

She had come alone, in a charcoal dress, with Biscuit's leash hooked over her wrist and her face already wet.

Her phone buzzed against the pew twice, and she covered it with her hand.

I sat three seats away from her and watched her cry through the entire Our Father.

It bothered me that her grief looked real.

At the Gospel, somebody slid into the pew beside me.

Alec smelled of cold air and cedar.

He sat close enough that his sleeve touched my arm and didn't move it.

"Someone used her key card to pull my flight logs," he whispered. "All of them. Last night."

"Does she know you know?"

"No. I won't say anything to her."

"Good."

"I'm just here."

I let myself lean into his sleeve, as little as I could.

It was the only thing in that church that held still.

When the priest finished the blessing, I rose and walked to the urn alone.

I put my wrapped hand flat on the lid.

*Eighty on Saturday, Nonna,* I said inside my head. *You're getting your vineyards.*

Then I turned around and went down the aisle with the urn against my ribs, because I wasn't going to let anybody else carry her.

Outside, the sun was too bright.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Husband Sent the Helicopter to Save a Dog, So I Signed from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.