A Promise of Fireflies Read Online Free PDF Page B

bullshit.” He plastered his hands to his hips. “What a fucking idiot!”
    She bristled. “Evan!”
    “Sorry.”
    “He’s still your father.”
    “Doesn’t make him any less the idiot.” His nostrils flared. “He’s almost fifty years old. Doesn’t he know what causes that?”
    “That’s the only thing that makes this almost comical. He should be thinking about grandchildren—don’t get any ideas,” she said, pointing a critical finger at him, “not having one of his own.”
    Mischief peeked through the anger that moments ago smoldered in his eyes. “No worries, Mom. I’ve got too much on my plate and I do know how not to make a kid.” He paced a few times, shrugged, and grabbed the back of the chair. “Looks like I’m going to have a half-brother or sister.”
    Even in anger her son seemed to find a positive, and she relaxed.
    “I’ll talk to Dad after the funeral. Has he mentioned anything about divorce?”
    “Nope. He came by to personally deliver the headlines. God, I can’t imagine her being a mother.”
    “Hell in heels with a diamond-studded shovel.”
    Ryleigh pressed her fist to her mouth but failed to stifle a snicker.
    The haggard croak of the doorbell interrupted their discussion, and Ryleigh met the waiting courier at the front door. He handed her a large envelope with her name and address typed neatly across the front. Her heart stuttered.
    Though she’d been expecting it for weeks, she hesitated, turning it over and then over again, the unbound paper, ink, and words a heavy weight in her hands. Conflicting thoughts wrestled with her better judgment. A few swipes with a pen and it would be over. Or there was the option of using it for kindling. Or toilet paper. Accidents happen.
    She opened the envelope to documents dated weeks ago.
    Evan sat next to her with his palm glued to his forehead while she signed her name where indicated—the shaky squiggles dissolving their marriage. She prepared the return envelope in the artificial light of her kitchen and in the presence of the somber stare of her only child—her tiny family of two.
    With a funeral looming, a divorce imminent, her soon-to-be ex’s girlfriend pregnant, and questions without answers surfacing from a small shoebox, Ryleigh counted along with the ticking second hand like the condemned walking the Green Mile.

Chapter Six

     
    SHE COULDN’T DECIDE which was worse—burying her mother or burying her marriage—as if it mattered which one took top prize. By the end of the day she would finalize one life and begin another.
    Both terrified her.
    Morning broke with a menacing layer of dark clouds suspended over Hidden Falls, a Thursday bleak enough to match the slow churn of dissidence inching itself through her belly. The drive through the mountains seemed to take forever.
    An hour and a half later, Evan took hold of her arm as they filed past the gates of Pinewood Cemetery toward the plot where Eleanor Endicott would rest.
    Cemeteries fascinated her. Covert clues engraved on the headstones offered glimpses into the mysteries of those buried beneath the stone. Where most people found sadness and apprehension crossing from one grave to the next, Ryleigh’s curiosity heightened.
    Today promised something different.
    A light breeze rustled through the trees, and bronzed in red, orange, and gold, leaves fluttered from above and stirred underfoot. An odd uneasiness plucked at her as she crossed the cemetery, but Ryleigh’s eyes remained glued to the casket perched next to a mound of soggy dirt. Simple in style, the casket seemed overly large for a body diminished by a silent, arbitrary thief.
    Not far from here, Ryleigh had brushed through her mother’s hair as white as the roses she so loved and held her misshapen hands for the last time. It seemed peculiar how quickly the memory had become engraved on her mind like the names carved in granite.
    Evan guided her as they approached the gravesite, his grip unwavering. Natalie