*
A calm settled over Leigh once she knew the story was finally out. She heard Bowie on the phone discussing the news with his brothers, and while she had no regrets, she was surprised to find she felt no sense of satisfaction, either. Stanton was still gone, and no amount of legal retribution would change that.
When Constable Riordan called her later to tell her Stanton’s body was finally being released to the family and that he was also releasing the pickup Bowie had been driving, it felt like the past days of tragedy were finally coming to an end.
“I thank you for the courtesy of your call. I’ll have a wrecker pick up the truck and bring it into Eden for repair, and I’ll notify the funeral home. Do I have to sign anything before they can pick him up?” she asked.
“Which one do you intend to use?” Riordan asked.
She told him.
“I’ll make a note. They know what to do.”
“Thank you,” Leigh said.
She heard him disconnect and then laid the phone on the table. The walls of this house were closing in. She could see thousands of lonely hours ahead of her, and in a moment of panic she turned and rushed outside to the back porch.
Hit by the sunlight and the scent of pine, her panic subsided almost instantly. With a slow, shaky breath, she sat down in the porch swing and pushed off with her toes, remembering the day she and Stanton had hung this swing and all the time they’d spent in it over the years, making plans for the next day’s work.
She heard a soft cluck, cluck, and made herself focus on the present and what was in front of her, rather than what might be still to come.
The chickens were out of the coop, meandering about the backyard, searching the grass for bugs and seeds, and registering their disapproval with a squawk if another chicken got too close.
The faint breeze coming down the mountain cooled the beads of sweat on her forehead. She looked up at the infinite sky peppered with small white clouds and swallowed past the knot in her throat.
“So now I have to bury you. I hope you’ve mentioned to God, Whose infinite wisdom has often confounded me, that I completely disagree with you having to die.”
A hen squawked loud and long.
“My sentiments exactly,” she muttered, and pushed off in the swing again, giving way to the tears.
Eighteen
Talia’s first night at the Youngblood home was hectic and noisy, but after so many years of enforced solitude she was savoring every moment.
Baby Johnny still had tiny stitches in his lip and was soaking up every ounce of attention he was given with giggles and squeals.
“He’s a handful,” Bowie said, laughing at Johnny’s latest antic.
“He’s adorable,” Talia said.
“Until you’re the one chasing him down,” Leslie countered.
“When they’re your own, somehow the trouble doesn’t seem as big,” Leigh added.
Talia laughed with Leslie, but the sadness in Leigh’s voice was impossible to miss. Jesse was down on all fours, and the baby was crawling under him. Bella and Maura were in the kitchen, quietly finishing up the supper dishes, doing what Leigh couldn’t focus enough to do. Talia grieved Stanton’s loss along with them, but she grieved more for Leigh, because she knew what it felt like to lose the only man you would ever love. She viewed the fact that she’d been given a second chance with Bowie as nothing short of a miracle.
Leigh seemed to be participating in all the post-dinner socializing, but in reality Talia knew she’d checked out. More than once she noticed Leigh’s focus shift to a picture on the wall or the floor at her feet, and her behavior didn’t change until Aidan brought up the story about Wayne Industries being under investigation, which sparked a whole new conversation.
“Yes, how the mighty have fallen,” Bella said, coming in from the kitchen. “The charges against them seem overwhelming. How do you get out from under any of that without going to prison?”
“What I can’t figure out is how some journalist in Chicago latched on to the story,” Samuel said.
“I told him,” Leigh said.
A shocked silence followed, then everyone began talking at once.
“How did you know to call him?” Bowie asked.
“He’s one of our brokerage clients...and he liked Stanton,” Leigh answered.
“Oh, wow, Mama, that’s amazing,” Michael said.
Leigh’s expression darkened.
“What’s amazing to me is that my brothers and sisters didn’t take me seriously from the first.”