The reverent silence was broken by Lily’s excited bark.
The moment she stepped off the sidewalk to trudge through the snow to the markers, Randi knew something was off. Amazed, she walked over the dead grass on a path that had been cleared directly toward Dennis’s and Joan’s stones.
Somebody was here.
Randi realized it wasn’t the family of another loved one who had done it. The cleared area led directly to where Lily was standing, excitedly sniffing the ground. Not a speck of snow marred the writing on the marble remembrance markers, her foster parents’ names and dates of birth and death completely revealed.
“What the hell?” Randi mumbled to herself, resting a gloved hand on top of Lily’s head. “You recognize a scent, girl?” she asked her curiously. The dog’s nose was off the ground and she was now sitting and looking up at Randi with her head cocked to one side.
Why would anyone clear a path to her foster parents’ gravestones, and then proceed to carefully remove any snow from their markers? Nobody came here except her, and occasionally Beatrice and Elsie. The elderly women went to graves to leave flowers for deceased loved ones and friends on some of the major holidays.
But it wasn’t a holiday.
And Randi knew it wasn’t Beatrice and Elsie who had shoveled the heavy snow.
A flash of color caught her eye, and she bent over to retrieve an object that was situated between the two stones.
She rose with a perfect single calla lily between her fingers. Randi’s mouth opened and closed with surprise as she read the small handwritten tag attached to the flower. There were only two words: Thank You!
Clutching the flower, Randi sat down hard on the snowbank beside the path that had been created by some massive shoveling. Her ass was cold, but she didn’t notice. She was too busy trying to understand what was happening.
Lily cuddled up to her side, quiet as she laid her furry head against Randi’s shoulder.
“Who would do this? And why?” Randi whispered, turning the perfect bloom around with her fingers. It was a smaller calla lily, and it had splotches of a color that reminded her of a ripe plum on the inside of the white flower. In the middle was the signature tiny gold bud that matched Lily’s golden fur coat.
It was still beautiful, which told her it hadn’t been out in the cold for very long.
“Impossible,” Randi marveled, still confused. There was no way somebody had just happened to find this flower in town. The local florist didn’t carry calla lilies. They were rarely seen in her area, and definitely not in the winter.
Fingering the small tag around the flower, she wondered who was thanking Dennis and Joan . . . and why? If anybody should be thanking them, it was her. They’d rescued her from a hopeless life and made her feel like a real person for the first time in her life.
Her eyes misted and tears began to trickle slowly down her face. Even though it could be a little creepy that an unknown someone else had visited their graves, it wasn’t. Whoever had dropped this off and cleared the site had once been touched by Dennis and Joan’s kindness . . . just like her.
Maybe it was an old student of her foster mother’s, or a student at Dennis’s school. The couple had done so many kind things in their lives; they deserved to be remembered.
Randi wrapped her arms around her dog as Lily started licking at her face, lapping at her tears. “I miss them, Lily. I miss them so damn much.” Giving up the fight, Randi lowered her head and sobbed against Lily’s silky fur, keeping the calla lily clutched in her fist.
She cried for the loss of a mother and father, even though they hadn’t shared the same blood.
She cried for the sacrifices they’d made just to keep her with them.
She cried because she’d never completely mourned their loss because it was so hard to let them go.
Finally, she stopped, and memories of the two people she’d loved the most in life drifted through her mind.
They’ll never really be gone, because I’ll keep the memories alive and both of them in my heart forever. They showed me what it was like to truly be happy and loved. Both of them would hate it if I stayed sad when I think about them.
“They wanted me to be happy, Lily. That’s why they lied to keep me here in Amesport,” Randi murmured quietly to her dog as she lifted her head from Lily’s fur.
Swiping away the rest of the tears from her face with her glove, Randi walked back to her car and removed a pretty red rose from the backseat. She took the calla lily and wrapped the two flowers together with the tag the other visitor had provided and walked back to the two stones.
Gingerly, she dropped the entwined flowers back between the two graves, her heart much lighter than when she’d arrived.
She didn’t know who had dropped off the calla lily and cleaned the path and markers, but she and that person had a connection, an abiding love for two of the kindest people who had ever existed.
“I hope I can make you both proud,” Randi whispered, determined to make their every sacrifice really count. “I’ll try my best.”
Lily whined softly, as though she agreed with Randi.
She patted the dog on the head. “Come on, girl. Let’s go home.”
The canine sprinted in front of her to the SUV. Randi followed slowly, thinking about some of the happy memories she’d created with Dennis and Joan. She’d have those peaceful times in her heart forever even as she began to let go of her sadness.
Finally, the healing would begin.
CHAPTER 15
“Evan looks so much happier,” Mara Sinclair shared with Randi as the women put food away and loaded the dishwasher in Hope’s kitchen. “I’ve been so worried about him.”
Randi wrapped the remainder of the chocolate cake that she’d made and placed it carefully in the refrigerator. “Was he that bad?” she asked curiously.
Hope snorted as she wiped the stovetop. “Yes,” she answered simply.
One of Randi’s attempts to make Evan happy had been to gather his entire family in the same place for dinner. Some moments had been painful to watch since she could see Evan’s struggle not to pull away from them because the habit was ingrained, but he was doing well. She had told him that so much happiness came from the people who loved him, so she’d arranged to have a family dinner at Hope’s home.
The ladies had kicked the men out of the kitchen even though they’d tried to help clean up. Poor Hope was afraid for the safety of her dinnerware. Not that it had taken that much arm-twisting to make the guys retreat to the living room, but they’d grumbled goodheartedly anyway.
With Randi, Emily, Hope, Sarah, and Mara in the kitchen, they’d made short work of cleaning up.
“I can’t believe he actually ate my lasagna and garlic bread. He even went for dessert,” Mara contemplated, her voice sounding happily surprised.