“The last vacation. . .”
Her mom didn’t need to finish, Maizie had relived that vacation in her head thousands of times, trying to remember exactly what Mack’s laugh sounded like. Exactly what it felt like to challenge him to ride the scariest roller coaster and riding it with him, even though she was terrified, because everything was a competition. What she wouldn’t give for just one more chance to talk to him.
“The boys were still young.” Her mom said, and Maizie turned to see the tears slipping down her mother’s cheeks. “Sometimes I worry they’ll forget him because they didn’t get to make the same memories with him that you did.”
“We’ll just have to remind them,” Maizie said, and fell into her mom’s side in a hug. She knew everyone else in their family missed Mack too, but she and her mom were the biggest cry babies. Maizie’s dad had cried twice. The most silent yet agonizing tears she had ever witnessed had escaped her dad’s eyes the night Mack had passed and the day they had laid him in the ground. She never wished to see him cry again.
“Do you think we will ever stop crying?” Maizie asked.
“I hope not,” her mom whispered into her hair.
Maizie sniffed and wiped at her eyes. She hated crying, it made her feel so utterly out of control.
“Come on, we are going to be late!” her dad hollered. Maizie and her mom pulled apart then followed the boys out the door.
“Ya’ll are worse than herding cows.” Her dad said, then linked his arm through theirs. “But far more worth it.”
* * *
Christian satin the corner pew next to Jayce and his grandparents. His eyes drifted closed as the organist played the hymns. When was the last time he’d felt so at peace? He always attended church and for the most part enjoyed it. But the last year-and-a-half had been hard. Instead of peace, all he felt were the pitying eyes of everyone around him. How was he supposed to move on when everyone still tiptoed around him as if he were fragile?
The last time he’d felt peace in a church was when his dad was still alive. His dad had always been so calm. He had never yelled or cussed, even when life gave him many reasons to.
So how was it fair that Christian’s Dad had been taken from him while there were evil people running around free to do whatever they please, no matter who they hurt.
His forehead tightened, demanding his eyes not shed the tears building behind his eyes. They wouldn’t do him any good. Not once had his grief changed a devastating outcome from the past.
A breeze drifted past him, causing his eyes to open. Maizie floated through the door, her white dress billowed around her, showing off just enough of her toned legs to make his mouth go dry. She looked like an angel. Her eyes met his, and she shot him a glare, reminding him that she wasn’t an angel.
He focused his eyes forward, but they kept drifting to her throughout the meeting. He was entranced by the way she flipped her hair over her shoulder and the reverent way she bowed her head as if deep in thought. Before he knew it, the closing song started playing and he had no idea what had transpired.
“Hi, Christian.” A girl he recognized from the pond party appeared in front of him as soon as the song ended.
“Hi. . .” He couldn’t remember her name.
“Mirabelle,” she said and when she smiled two little dimples appeared in her cheeks.
“Right.” He remembered now. She was the one who had kept finding an excuse to touch him. The one he had purposely not given his number to.
“A few friends of mine are hanging out at the lake tomorrow if you want to come,” she flirted, brushing his arm.
A hard pass. “I’m pretty busy tomorrow,” he lied. He spotted Jayce by the door and Christian rushed away without saying goodbye.
“Hey!” Another girl tried to stop him, but he pretended not to see her.
“What’s with these girls?” Christian asked when he and Jayce finally made it outside.
“Think about it,” Jayce said. “Everyone here has grown up together since they were in diapers, which means they either love newcomers or hate them. Either way they’re staring.” Jayce grinned and made a show of flexing his muscles when a few girls looked in his direction.
Christian stopped walking. “Does Eric know that’s the main reason you come down every summer?”
“He does now.” Eric walked by and slapped Jayce in the back of the head.
“Ow.” Jayce rubbed the back of his head. “They also have ears everywhere.”
* * *
When six rolled around,people Christian had never met before poured into Grandma and Grandpa’s house until it was twenty degrees warmer than normal.
