When Love Walked Away novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: July Again
The thermometer on the patio post said 116 again, one year and two days after.
I looked at it once, and I turned it to face the wall.
Tilly would have turned six that afternoon.
We went to the cemetery at four, when the sun had slipped behind the olive trees.
The stone had been set in October, small and gray, with a daisy cut into one corner.
Under her name it said, She counted.
Gabe carried the cake in a box on his knees the whole way, driving with one hand.
He had made it at two in the morning, in the shape of a yellow crane.
It had six candles and one small disaster at the tip of the arm.
"It leans," he said, when we parked.
"It's perfect."
"It leans to the left."
"She would have said it needed a hat."
He laughed, and then he didn't, and he put his hand flat on the back of my neck.
Not many people came.
The women from Desert Line stood together in the shade, in sundresses, holding paper plates.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of When Love Walked Away are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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