Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
JUNE
“ S how us what you’re painting now,” I suggest to Sarah. She invited Luna and me over to have appetizers for dinner and some drinks, and I admit, I needed some girl time. “You know how much I love your art.”
“Oh, I have some really fun projects in the works,” Sarah replies, her eyes lighting up with excitement. “Come on out to the studio, and I’ll show you.”
She grabs a bottle of wine and three glasses, but I hold up my hand.
“You know, my stomach hasn’t been great the past few days, so I think I’ll just drink water tonight.”
“Oh no, did you eat something off?” Luna asks as Sarah returns one wine glass to the cabinet and pulls a bottle of water out of the fridge.
“It’s either that or stress. I’ve been working my ass off on the chapel over the past few weeks, but Thanksgiving is this week, and I’m not even close to being done.”
I follow them out of Sarah’s back door, across the patio, and over to the guesthouse where Sarah has her art studio set up.
Earlier this year, she had been living in the space, having rented it from Tanner, but when she moved into the main house, Tanner set her up out here with a really kick-ass studio.
It makes sense because Tanner owns an art gallery, and he understands how important it is to Sarah to have her own space to create.
“It’s so cool in here.” They removed all the furniture out of the living room, there’s an easel set up in one corner, and there are canvases leaning against the walls all around the room. Some are empty, waiting for Sarah to work her magic on them, and others are covered in gorgeous colors.
“It helps to have a working kitchen and bathroom out here. Tanner even insisted that I keep the bed in the bedroom in case I wanted to take a nap. You guys, I never could have even dreamed that I’d end up with a place like this.”
“It’s pretty damn sweet,” Luna agrees with a nod as she takes in the different pieces. “I love this one.”
She’s standing in front of the canvas on the easel. It’s a seascape with moody clouds and choppy waves, and there’s a whale’s tail coming up out of the water. The sand is sprinkled with crystals and starfish, and it looks as if you could walk right into it.
“Thanks,” Sarah replies as she pours wine for herself and Luna. “It’s not quite done yet, but it’s getting there.”
“I swear that I’m not crashing your party,” Tanner says as he opens the back door by the kitchen and comes in carrying a tray of food and leading Sarah’s one-eyed rescue cat, Petunia, on a leash. The cat happily runs into the studio and winds her way through Luna’s legs. “I’m just bringing out the food so it doesn’t go cold.”
“Thanks, babe,” Sarah says, smiling as she loops her arms around his neck and gives him a big kiss.
“Ew.” I wrinkle my nose. “Save that shit for after we’ve left. Remember when I told you that I’ve had an upset stomach? This isn’t helping.”
With a laugh, Tanner gives her one last kiss and then walks out the door, leaving us alone with excellent food and a very happy cat.
“June, we cut you off earlier,” Sarah says as she pulls some paper plates out of a cupboard and gestures for us to help ourselves to the food. “You don’t think your chapel will be done by Christmas?”
“I don’t see how.” I shake my head and stare at the spread of comfort food. There’s hot artichoke and spinach dip, bruschetta, cheeses, meats, and all kinds of olives and breads. It’s an awesome-looking little buffet of goodness, so I mentally cross my fingers that my stomach won’t revolt and fill my plate. “It’s been three weeks since Grandma’s party, and I’ve been busier than I thought I would be at this time of year with actual work. I haven’t been able to spend as much time on my place as I’d like.”
We settle on stools around the little island in the kitchen to eat.
“What do you have left?” Luna asks as she scoops some dip with a chip.
“A lot.” I shake my head and sigh in happiness when the bruschetta tastes like heaven and doesn’t make my stomach roll. “The walls are all done, complete with drywall and texture, but I still need to paint. The kitchen has cabinets, but they also need to be painted, and there are no countertops yet. The trim needs to be done. I need light fixtures. And don’t even get me started on the bathroom and mudroom.”
“What’s happening with the bodies in the basement?” Sarah asks. I showed them the little mausoleum in the basement the week after the party, and it freaked them out as much as it did me.
“The city thinks that we should be able to move them—respectfully, of course—to the mausoleum for cremated remains at the city cemetery. I only have to get final approval from someone higher up. As long as no one has been interred in the last twenty-five years, it’s considered abandoned.”
“Oh, my god, will they have to bring them up through your house?” Luna asks, looking horrified by the thought. “Because, holy shit, I wouldn’t want that.”
“They’ll bring them up and out the back door so they won’t have to come through the whole house.”
“Good.” Luna sighs in relief.
“Once that’s done, I’ll seal off that door downstairs so I can forget that it ever existed. Cullen thinks I should use it for storage.”
“No fucking way,” Sarah insists, shaking her head. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Agreed.” I reach for more bruschetta, happy that it’s sitting well on my stomach. “I’m just glad that it’s not going to be a huge hassle to have them moved. But, you guys, I need to talk to you about one of the graves down there.”
This has both of them leaning toward me.
“Go on,” Sarah says before stuffing some olives into her mouth.
“I found Daniel Snow down there. Rose’s true love that she talks about in her diaries.”
“You’re kidding,” Luna says, sitting back in shock. “He’s down there?”
“Yes. Grandma asked me to go down and see if her best friend from high school was interred down there, and it’s a true testament to how much I love that woman that I agreed to do it. I found Daniel while I was looking for her and had a thought. Luna, do you remember the night that you and I were talking, and you wondered if Rose sticks around the lighthouse because she has unfinished business?”
“Yes. She seems so sad to me sometimes.”
“What if she’s looking for him?” Sarah interrupts, bouncing in her seat. “Oh, my gosh, this is romantic as hell. What if she’s looking for him, and we know where he is, so we move him out there so they can spend eternity together!”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
Sarah and I stare at a stunned Luna, waiting for her reaction.
“Obviously this needs to happen,” Luna says at last. “Do we need to get permission for this? Because I’m absolutely fine with giving my permission for him to be buried with Rose in the family graveyard on my property.”
“Well, I’m a direct descendant of Daniel, and I give permission for him to be moved.” I clap my hands in anticipation. “We probably still have to file something with the city so they have a record of where he’s moved to. He’s been dead for roughly a century, so I don’t think anyone is going to cause any problems, though. He’s going to be moved anyway.”
“We can move him this week ?” Luna asks.
“Why not? He’s on my property, and he’s going to your property. I don’t see the problem here. But I’ll make sure we file all of the proper paperwork. I don’t want to be a grave robber or anything.”
“This is awesome,” Sarah says and pours herself some more wine. “I never thought I’d ever be involved in exhuming a body, and maybe I watch way too much true crime, but it’s kind of fun.”
“I’m excited for Rose and Daniel to be together again. She loved him so much.” Luna grins. “Something tells me this is exactly what she needs.”
“Then we’ll do it.”
“You’re doing what ?” Apollo props his hands on his hips and stares at me as if I just told him I’m moving to Antarctica.
“We’re moving Daniel Snow to the lighthouse cemetery today.” I grab a jacket from Apollo’s closet. Over the past month, several pieces of my clothing have migrated into his closet, and I’m not sure if that is a good or bad thing. So, instead, I’m choosing not to think too much about. “You’re welcome to join us.”
“Is this the kind of scheme you three come up with when you’re left to your own devices?”
I roll my eyes at him. “This is a good idea, Apollo. He has to go somewhere, so he might as well be with Rose. Because he’s being evicted from my house.”
“I get that.” He sighs, pushing his hand through his hair, and then shrugs before reaching for his own jacket. “Okay, let’s do this. I assume our first stop is the chapel to get him?”
“Yeah, I’m not excited about this part,” I admit. “I really don’t want to have to go down there again.”
“I’ll go with you, scaredy cat.”
I stick my tongue out at him, but I don’t decline his offer as we leave his house and make our way to the chapel.
“Sarah and Luna are meeting me here,” I inform him as he parks in front of my place. “They want to be a part of the whole process, start to finish.”
“Of course, they do,” he mutters as I get out of his truck and hurry inside. “I guess I’ll tell them that I was driving by and saw you, so I stopped, but we really need to tell them about us.”
“I know.” I worry my bottom lip as I unlock the front door and let us inside. “I know we do, and I agree, but today is not that day because we’re moving a body. ”
“Soon. Very soon.” After I’ve closed the door behind us, he cups my face in his warm hands and kisses me in that way that makes my toes curl and my stomach flutter. “Because I’m done being a secret.”
“We’re on the same page,” I assure him as a car door slams outside. “They’re here. Trust me, we’ll get this done today, and then we’ll set up a dinner or something for all six of us so we can tell them all at once.”
“Okay.” He nods once, seemingly placated for now, and I turn to open the door. Sarah and Luna are rushing up to the steps, with their men bringing up the rear, and I step back so they can all come in. “You brought the whole crew.”
“If you think I’m going to miss this, you’ve lost your pretty little head,” Wolfe says with a soft smile.
“Same goes,” Tanner adds as they all file inside, and I close the door behind them. “Wow, June, this is incredible.”
“Thanks.” I follow their gaze and look around the space.
“It’s starting to look like someone’s house,” Wolfe adds. “That kitchen is going to be awesome.”
“I know, I can’t wait to cook in it,” I confess. “It’s still a few months out from being finished, though.”
I notice Apollo frowning in confusion.
“I thought you said you wanted to be in by the holidays,” Tanner asks.
“You see how much needs to be done?” I sweep my arms wide, gesturing at everything that’s not finished. “It’s going to take more time. It’s fine. Come on, let’s get this over with.”
I grab a cordless drill that we’ll need when we get downstairs and then lead them through the future mudroom and down the stairs.
“It’s creepy as fuck down here,” Wolfe decides, making me laugh.
“Now you know what I’m dealing with.” I grab the handle of the heavy door to the mausoleum. “Okay, so it’s not necessarily scary in here, but it’s a little alarming when you first see it. Luna, Sarah, and Apollo have seen it, but Wolfe and Tanner, consider yourself warned.”
“Open her up,” Tanner urges. “It’ll be okay.”
“You got permission for this?” Apollo asks me as I turn the knob.
“I filed the papers with the city. It’s all taken care of.” I pull the door open and feel inside for the light switch.
“Whoa,” Tanner says, stepping inside.
“There’s got to be a few hundred people down here.” Wolfe follows behind his friend, saying, “It’s really creepy that they’re small squares and not regular sized.”
“These are all cremated remains.” I lead them down a row to where Daniel is. “Here he is.”
“Daniel P. Snow,” Luna reads, tracing the letters with her fingertips. “Wow, he was over eighty when he died.”
“Let’s get him out of here,” I say and raise my drill.
“You know, there have to be ghosts down here,” Wolfe says, and I whirl on him, shaking my finger at him. “Or not.”
“Don’t say that. I have to live here, you big jerk. There are no ghosts here.”
“Nope. Not a one,” he agrees. “Although, I live with Rose, and it’s not so bad.”
“No ghosts,” I repeat before turning back to unscrew the front panel. “It’s not even funny to suggest it.”
“I wasn’t being funny,” Wolfe mutters as I pull out the first screw and then move on to the next. It doesn’t take me more than five minutes to remove the front plate, and then I’m met with another one on the inside.
“I guess it’s good that they reinforced these in case water ever got in here,” I mutter as I start on plate number two.
“I’m going to keep this and use it as a marker for his grave until the new one is finished,” Luna says behind me.
“Good idea,” Sarah agrees.
“Okay, this one is off.” Before I pull it away, I take a breath and look back at the five of them. “Why am I scared?”
“Because there are cremated remains in there?” Apollo asks, making me scowl. “Do you want me to do it?”
“No. I’ll do it.” I take another breath. “I need more light.”
Suddenly, several phone flashlights shine over my shoulder, and I can see better.
I pull the plain panel away and find a simple, brown box with an engraved piece of brass that reads: Daniel P. Snow.
“This is him.” I pull his box out and turn around toward the others. “I don’t know why this feels a little anticlimactic, but I won’t complain.”
“Let’s get him out of here,” Luna suggests. “Do you want to replace that panel?”
“No, it’s fine. They’re all going to be removed eventually anyway. I want to get out of here.”
It isn’t until we’re back outside that I take a deep sigh of relief.
“One down, a few hundred to go.” I smile ruefully at the others. “We have to start somewhere, I guess.”
“You guys can follow us up to the property. We already dug the hole, so it won’t take long.”
“You ride with me,” Apollo says to me, and I nod, following him to the truck.
“She must be out of sorts if she didn’t argue about riding with Apollo,” I hear Sarah say to Tanner as they walk to their own vehicle.
“Yeah, we need to end the secrecy,” I say to Apollo as I get into his truck.
“Is it weird that we’re burying him to Rose’s left when her husband is to her right?” I ask as we all stand around the gravesite.
“They need to be together,” Luna reminds me.
“I know, it’s just…weird.” I shrug and gently lower the box containing Daniel’s ashes into the small hole in the ground. “We should probably say something.”
The others nod and look around at each other, no one volunteering.
“Okay, I’ll do it.” I blow out a breath. “We are respectfully laying the remains of Daniel P. Snow into his final resting place, here by the sea where he spent so much of his life and next to the woman he loved for his whole life. Due to unfortunate circumstances, Rose and Daniel couldn’t be together in life, so we hope to reunite them in death. May they both rest in peace.”
Wolfe shovels dirt over the box, and the others nod.
“Well done,” Tanner says with a wink.
“I really do hope they both rest in peace,” I reply, looking down at both graves. Luna places the panel from the mausoleum at the head of Daniel’s grave, right next to Rose’s.
“That’s it,” she says when the dirt is all filled in. “It’s done. I’m glad they’re finally together.”
I sniff the air and smile when I smell the roses. “She’s here.”
“She’s been here the whole time,” Sarah says softly, tears in her blue eyes. “And I think she’s happy.”
“I hope so.” I nod and reach for Sarah’s hand as her other hand reaches for Luna’s. For a long moment, we stand together, high on the cliffs with the sea wind blowing around us, waiting until the smell of roses fades away. “I really hope so.”