At 26 I was expecting to plan my graduation, instead, I sat at the kitchen table planning a funeral. God only knew where my Mom was, she was running the gamut of emotions from anger to soul-deep sadness. She had loved my dad, but not the ranch, and just this morning found out that, while she had a huge life insurance policy and stock in the ranch, I was to inherit.
She\u2019d planned on selling, I knew this because she screamed it at me. I had started the paperwork to buy her shares. That had at least stopped her screaming.
It killed me inside to have my dad gone just 4 days, with the funeral tomorrow, and She\u2019s already screaming about who got what and what was hers.
I felt the hand on my shoulder and looked over at Jack. The tears came then, slow, rolling down my cheeks as I sat in silence. The newspaper article was by my left hand. The headline was only partially obscured by the envelope the will had been in .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cCommunity Pillar killed by Drunk Driver\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEvie\u2019s asleep,\u201d Michael said as he sat down beside her. \u201cHere,\u201d he said, and pushed a glass of wine into her hand. \u201cJ Lohr \u201d he said.
\u201cI shouldn\u2019t\u201d Kivi mumbled, trying so hard to stay contained that she trembled slightly. She couldn\u2019t let go yet, not yet. After the funeral, after she\u2019d bought the ranch from her mom, after\u2026
\u201cYou should\u201d Both he and Jack said in unison.
\u201cFine.\u201d She sighed and took the glass.
\u201cYou\u2019re as stubborn as a mule. Take a goddamned drink and relax before you explode.\u201d Someone said it, she wasn\u2019t sure who.
\u201cMy mother is a cabbage\u201d I said, and then sucked down half the glass. \u201cThere, I said it. I hope it\u2019s grief making her act this way and she\u2019ll come around. I Hope for Evie\u2019s sake she doesn\u2019t turn into the person she\u2019s been for the last few days\u201d
\u201cCaoihme!\u201d Jack exclaimed \u201cYour mouth, do you kiss your mother with it?\u201d
\u201cNot anymore\u201d I quipped and sniffed. The tears had dried up with the edge of anger that boiled under the surface.
\u201cDon\u2019t say that\u201d Michael said softly and Kivi looked at him. He\u2019d lost his mom a long time ago, but the lack was still there in his eyes. My mom had stepped in and he loved her.
\u201cNo, you\u2019re right. I shouldn\u2019t say shit like that. I beg your pardon\u201d I was mostly talking to Jack but glanced at Michael. He nodded softly, he knew it was for him too.
We three sat there at the table in companionable silence. We didn\u2019t need words, family didn\u2019t need words.
I picked up the article to read it again and Michael took it away from me with a small shake of his head.
So, I sipped the wine and stared into the dead fireplace.
\u201cI\u2019m gonna go down to the barn,\u201d I said, standing up. \u201cMaybe take a midnight ride.\u201d
Michael got up to go with me.
\u201cI\u2019m fine by myself.\u201d I shot at the pair, \u201cI just need the comfort of the saddle under my ass and the view between the ears of a horse.\u201d
\u201cI\u2019m sure you are fine by yourself, but everyone is grieving\u201d Michael spoke as he handed me my hat and gloves. I stopped and looked at him. He was my oldest friend. We\u2019d been through our whole lives side by side. His dad had been the foreman on the ranch for as long as I\u2019d been alive. Jack was such a fixture that I really had no idea how he even came to be here, though I\u2019d always suspected it had to do with Michael\u2019s mom.
\u201cShe\u2019ll come around, Kivi,\u201d he said as they walked down the hill \u201cThis place was never her place, but she loves you and Evie and she\u2019s filled with grief too. She loves your father very much.\u201d
\u201cI know, just hurts\u201d I replied jerkily \u201cCan we just not talk for a while. Let\u2019s ride up to the cabin\u201d
Michael looked up at the gibbous moon and didn\u2019t say anything else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Trigger warning: Grief and Death At 26 I was expecting to plan my graduation, instead, I sat at the kitchen table planning a funeral. God only knew where my Mom was, she was running the gamut of emotions from anger to soul-deep sadness. She had loved my dad, but not the ranch, and just this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":199,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-fullwide.php","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/193\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rmullhollanddesign.com\/stories\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}