Chapter 24: Bluebonnets Again

The bluebonnets were thicker than the first time.

A week of rain had pushed them up through the grass until the whole field was blue to the fence line.

Ronan parked the truck on the gravel and carried a paper sack to the one oak tree and sat down in its shade.

I walked into the flowers alone.

The tin was empty in my jacket pocket, and I held it anyway.

"Hi," I said to the field.

The wind moved over the flowers, and nothing answered, and that was all right.

"They said it out loud, Cara. In a room full of people. They said your name and what you were."

I crouched and put my palm flat on the dirt.

"There's a fund with your name on it now. Joanie runs the first list herself, and nobody gets to hide a match again."

I didn't say the rest.

I didn't say that I was not sorry, or that I was tired, or that I missed her so much I could feel it in my teeth.

She would have known.

I went back to the oak and sat down beside Ronan, and he handed me the paper sack.

It was warm.

"What's this?"

"Item two."

I looked inside.

There were four breakfast tacos wrapped in foil, and a napkin, and a little plastic cup of salsa.

I had shown him the list at the hotel, on my phone, a hundred and four lines in Cara's loopy handwriting.

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