Chapter 8: Read It Out Loud

Lydia's POV

The church hall had eighty chairs set up at ten long tables with white paper cloths.

On an easel at the front stood a photo of Daniel's father in a frame wrapped with white lilies.

Kate had delivered those lilies herself on Saturday afternoon.

"I gave her a very honest price," she said, as we came in through the side door. "And I was there for the setup. Nobody notices the florist."

She had also been carrying a box of printed cards.

I had asked her to do it, and she hadn't asked why.

Ben came in behind us with his husband and a lemon cake, and both of them were smiling tightly.

I wore my navy work dress. June slept in the carrier against my chest.

The hall went quiet as we crossed it.

I felt eighty people look at me, and then at Ben's hair, and then at the floor.

"Lydia."

Daniel stood by the coffee urn in his only suit. He had clearly not slept since Saturday.

"You came," he said.

"I said I would."

His eyes dropped to my hand. My ring finger was bare.

He didn't say anything.

Judith swept toward us across the hall with her arms already open.

"Lydia, honey! And this must be the little one!"

She hugged me in front of everyone, hard, with her chin on my shoulder.

"I'm so glad you're being sensible," she whispered into my ear.

I stood stiff inside her arms and let her do it.

Then we sat. Kate and Ben and his husband took the end of the family table, and I took the chair beside the aisle.

The pastor said grace.

Everyone bowed their heads, and I watched Judith's hands on her plate.

Every place setting had a white card beside the fork.

Nobody had touched theirs yet.

The pastor said amen, and chairs scraped, and Judith rose with a glass of water in her hand.

"I want to thank everyone for coming to remember my husband," she said.