The Perfect Homecoming (Pine River #3)

Leo’s death had been terribly painful for all of them to watch and excruciating for Leo to endure. He’d lost his ability to swallow, as the doctors had predicted, and suffered horrible bouts of choking. Shortly after that, he lost the ability to talk, his breathing labored and shallow, and as Leo himself had warned, that signaled the end.

Bob was desperate to take him to a hospital, but unbeknownst to him, some time ago, Leo had asked Jackson to prepare an advance directive, in which he’d said he did not want to be kept alive by artificial means. Because you know you won’t be able to let me go, Dad. But I will be ready. I am ready, he’d said in the note that accompanied the legal document.

“I want to die at home, Dad,” Leo had said through an endless bout of wheezing a few days ago.

That plea had nearly put Bob Kendrick on the floor. But he had given his boy what he wished.

It was a merciful death when it came one Tuesday afternoon, right after Days of Our Lives and before Dr. Phil. As heartbreaking as it was, Leo’s family and close friends gathered around and felt nothing but relief for him. His suffering was over. Most of all, Emma thought, Leo must be relieved. He’d once told her the first thing he was going to do on the other side of life was run. “I mean, run, like Usain Bolt. You saw him in the 2008 Olympics, right? No? Seriously, now, how big is that rock you live under? Like, is it a meteorite?”

God, how they would miss him.

When the service was over, and the marching band dispatched, and the party balloons released to the sky, and the streamers thrown, they all trooped back to Homecoming Ranch for the real party. A local band had come out to play, and the Grizzly Café had set up a buffet in the old barn.

It was Bob who started talking about his memories of Leo, from the time he was a boy and got himself hung in barbed wire trying to escape a bull, to the day he called home from college and mentioned in passing that he couldn’t grip a football. Before long, everyone was laughing at the memories of Leo, repeating the things he’d said, the messages he would get across in the form of sports parables. It was a fabulous send-off, just what Leo wanted.

But Emma wasn’t ready to laugh yet. Her memories were still swollen and bruised and tender. She owed so much to Leo. Along with Cooper, Leo was the person who had slowly convinced her to open herself up to the possibilities life offered. To let go of the prison she’d put herself in, especially because Leo couldn’t. He’d convinced her one cold afternoon to stop looking back and to start looking forward.

The dance was gearing up when Emma walked out onto the porch and sat on the steps. The dogs came out from under the porch one by one to be petted. She heard the screen door open and close behind her. In the next moment, Cooper sat beside her. “You okay?” he asked, putting his arm around her.

“I am,” she said, and she meant it. “You know, the last thing he said to me was to laugh at his funeral. But I can’t laugh, Cooper.”

He smiled. “The last thing he said to me was to take care of you.”

Emma’s eyes widened with surprise. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he said, and looked out over the meadow. “He said you are horrible about asking for help and probably need it more than anyone. And that you’re super hot and guys will always be hitting on you.” He chuckled. “It’s no wonder the two of you were lovebirds over there. Probably had a great time together, calling it as you see it.”

Emma laughed. “Yes, we did.”

“There, you see?” Cooper said with a wink. “He made you laugh.”

“He also wanted me to promise to never leave Pine River,” she said. “But he finally gave in and said it would be okay to go back and forth between here and LA.”

Cooper kissed her temple. That was their plan for the time being—they’d go back and forth between LA and Colorado until the solution of where to settle presented itself. Neither of them felt an urgency to make that sort of decision. They were okay in flux for the time being, because the big decision had been made—they loved each other, and they were going to give this a go. That was challenging enough, given Emma’s past and the need to build trust with Cooper. But Emma had never felt so wanted as she did with Cooper, and she basked in the feel of that. She wanted Cooper to feel as secure as she did, and was devoted to making sure he knew every day how much she loved him. Truly, deeply, loved him.

Leo would be so proud of her. And he would be the first to congratulate her that in spite of the somber note of the day, she could see just how bright and shiny the future was looking.

Emma hadn’t told anyone but Leo that she’d taken her tote bag with its contents and thrown it in a Dumpster by the Wal-Mart. The past was a fallen tree on the river of life, and so far behind her now that it wasn’t important.

“You know what he told me?”

Cooper and Emma started—they hadn’t heard Libby come outside. “I was holding Marisol’s baby, and he said I should have some stinkers of my own. Lots of them, because Marisol was not the sharing kind.” Libby laughed. “I’m so glad I got to tell him I was pregnant.”

“Tell who what?” Madeline had followed Libby outside and sat down beside her.