31. Her Family Was Home
THIRTY-ONE
Her Family Was Home
Harry
W ith Dern released and headed home, no word on anyone they were looking for, and a mild headache fomenting between his eyes from looking at Dern’s bank records to see if he could find something the Feds missed (they wouldn’t get Farrell’s or Abernathy’s until next week), Harry took off, maybe for the first time in his career, fifteen minutes before five.
Five minutes later, he walked through Lillian’s front door and stopped dead.
His dogs greeted him, but Harry was stuck on the tall, built, handsome Black man holding his woman close in his arms.
A beautiful, willowy Black woman was sitting at the table eating chicken tetrazzini, and everyone had clearly decided it was five o’clock somewhere, because the wine was out, and it looked like it’d been out for a while.
Ronetta rounded out the crew.
“Harry!” Lillian cried excitedly and broke from the Adonis’s hold to dash to him. She gave him a hug and a quick peck on the lips, then took his hand, dragged him in and said, “Come and meet Shane and Sherise.”
He only slightly relaxed at the confirmation of what he’d already guessed: this was who she thought of as her brother and sister.
The slightly part of that was, she’d also told him Shane was her first crush, not to mention, Shane was frowning at Harry in a way Harry wasn’t thrilled about.
And now that he saw them, he remembered them both. He went to school with them.
Harry played baseball, not football, like Shane did, so they didn’t run in the same circles.
But now, he for sure remembered Sherise, who was the most popular girl in her class, and Harry had graduated by then, but if he remembered correctly, she was homecoming queen.
It helped Shane’s mood when Sherise gave him a brilliant smile and a kiss on the cheek. Shane’s frown faded a little when he saw the familiar and affectionate manner in which Ronetta greeted him.
But the handshake he got from Shane might have fractured a few bones.
Maybe Lillian was Shane’s crush too.
“Harry, wine, beer, whisky?” Ronetta asked as if he’d walked into her house.
Then again, he suspected he did.
This was all family here, and that happened.
“Beer’s good,” Harry said.
“Want me to warm you up some tetrazzini?” Lillian offered.
He looked down at her. “Are you eating?”
“I was thinking of diving into the beef enchilada casserole,” Lillian said.
“Alfredo gnocchi,” Sherise put in her vote, even still stuffing her face with the tetrazzini.
“We’re freezing Lillian and Harry’s casseroles,” Ronetta decreed. “I already told you I’m making my fried fish and cornbread tonight.” She looked to Harry. “I made my banana pudding for you, Harry. Something healthy.”
Harry couldn’t stop his chuckle, because bananas were a power food, but not sandwiched between layers of pudding, whipped cream and Nilla Wafers.
“Can we talk outside?” Shane asked him.
Sherise rolled her eyes at Lillian.
Lillian smiled.
Ronetta topped up her wine.
“Sure,” Harry said.
Since he was closer, Harry led the way.
Though, Shane walked all the way to the garden gate with Harry following before he stopped.
“I’m sure you get what I wanna talk about,” Shane announced.
“Yeah,” Harry said. “And there are three different law enforcement agencies?—”
“No, man,” Shane cut him off irritably. “You’re living with Lillian and you two have been dating for only a week?”
Ah.
“No, I’m not living with Lillian. I’m staying with her. At her request,” Harry corrected.
“And you two have been dating for only a week?” Shane reiterated.
“She loves you. So I’m going to try to be respectful when I say, Lillian’s a grown woman, this is her choice, this is what we decided as a couple, and this is what’s happening. I appreciate your concern, and I can assure you, I’m very aware our relationship is new. It might not make sense to you with how you’re seeing it, but we’re juggling getting to know each other with what’s going on with Lillian, and I’m taking it as slow as I can considering the circumstances.”
“Not slow enough, since you describe the two of you as a couple.”
“Well, we are, and I’ll let Lillian explain that to you if she wants.”
“She has family right next door.”
“She wants me right by her side.”
Shane’s handsome features pinched. “And that sure works for you.”
“Listen, Shane, this isn’t really your business?—”
That made Shane’s eyes flash. “The fuck?”
Definitely Lillian’s big older brother.
“But I’m going to tell you anyway,” Harry kept on like Shane hadn’t interrupted, “because if I had a sister, I’d be like you. I’m here. My dogs are here. I’m where she needs me. But we haven’t made love yet because I’m also very aware of her emotions right now, and I’m seeing to those.”
Shane’s chin jerked into his neck at Harry’s frank disclosure, but Harry wasn’t done.
“Now you tell me, you have the shitty timing of meeting one of the best women you’ve known a week before she finds out her parents were murdered, she found some balm in you being around, what would you do?”
Shane glowered at him for several very long beats.
He stopped doing that to glance at the house.
Then he dropped his head, lifted a hand, rubbed the back of his neck before he straightened and looked at Harry.
“I’m being a dick,” he said softly. “But Sonny was like a dad to me. Avery was pure sunshine, and my second mom. And I gotta tell you, I’m pissed as fuck what happened to them.”
“I get you.”
“Be honest, how’s Lilly Bean doing with this?”
“She’s strong, but she talks, she cries, she has times I can see it come over her. But she’s hanging in there.”
“Don’t let Mom fool you,” he warned. “She’s gonna be the backbone of all this, but she’s suffering too.”
“I’ll keep an eye.”
“Now, back to what you were saying, you all have any clue who would do this?”
“What has Lillian shared?”
“I just got home maybe twenty minutes ago. I didn’t want to ask.”
Harry nodded and ran it down.
“Fuck. After all this time, you got more than I expected you would,” Shane remarked.
“We don’t have a shooter, but we got a lot of people looking for him, whoever the fuck he is, and I swear to you, if there’s any chance in hell of finding that guy, we’re gonna find him. And we’re gonna nail him.”
Shane studied Harry a moment before he said, “I believe you.” He shot another glance at the house and finished, “We should probably go inside.”
Harry looked over his shoulder to see Ronetta, hands on hips, looking annoyed, standing in the window with Sherise, who, when she got Harry’s attention, lifted her hand and did a finger wave. Lillian was there too, but she was bent over like she was petting one of the dogs.
They walked in, and the instant Shane closed the door, Sherise declared, “So, Mom , just in case you want to give me more guff about not giving you grandchildren, hark!” she cried, using her hands to indicate Shane like she was advertising a bottle of shampoo. “Feast your eyes on my big brother, who scares all my suitors away by having various versions of a talk outside .” She clasped her hands in front of her and aimed fake moon eyes at Harry. “Please don’t leave, Harry, no matter what badass bullshit Shane just treated you to.”
“Language,” Ronetta snapped.
“Mom, I’m thirty-eight years old,” Sherise snapped back.
“You’re never too old to respect your mother,” Ronetta returned.
Shane was grinning hugely as he picked up a wineglass and took a sip.
Then he made a face. “Who bought this?”
“Not everyone can afford fifty-dollar bottles of wine, Shane,” Sherise stated.
“I give a discount to family, Sherise,” Shane returned. “How much did this cost?” he asked Lillian.
She sucked in her lips and refused to answer.
“Jesus Christ, you got it off the five-dollar shelf,” Shane accused.
Ronetta cupped her ear and asked the ceiling, “Did I just hear my beloved son take the Lord’s only begotten son’s name in vain? Please tell me I did not. Pretty please.”
Lillian came to Harry and handed him a beer. Then she claimed him from the side with her arm around his waist, so he slid his around her shoulders.
He took a sip and watched her face.
And fuck yeah.
The lightness was there.
There were two integral pieces missing who would always be lost to her.
But her family was home.
“Oh my God, the sunflower war!” Sherise yelled.
Lillian giggled. “We could barely get into our houses when Mom and Ronnie were trying to outdo each other with sunflowers.”
“The stalks of those are rough as hell. Think I lived a whole month coated in Neosporin,” Shane put in.
“I can only say I was sure glad it was petunias the next year,” George stated.
“Av won,” Ronetta sniffed. “Av always won.”
“And you always beat her with the better cornbread,” Lillian said, then she took a bite of the same.
They were sitting around George and Ronetta’s dining room table, eating fried fish, green beans, some carrot and turnip mash that Harry thought would suck, but was phenomenal, and cornbread, which Lillian was right, it was the best he’d ever tasted.
And Harry was paying close attention, because conversation had moved to remembrances of Sonny and Avery, and he wanted to make sure Lillian was cool with it.
But Lillian was not only cool with it, she was blossoming under it.
He caught Shane’s gaze, and Shane gave him a nod, sharing he was having a mind too.
So Harry looked to George, who tipped his head to the side to acknowledge he was on the lookout as well.
“I thought I’d never want to look at another sunflower after that year,” Sherise said, then her voice changed. “But now, they’re my favorite flower.”
Harry tensed, he sensed Shane and George tensing.
But Lillian just reached out a hand across the table, Sherise took it, and they held on, with fingers and gazes, before they broke and Lillian said, “Remember when Mom got it in her head to have a chicken coop?”
Sherise burst out laughing, Ronetta chuckled, even Shane and George smiled.
And George said, “By the time she finally gave up on that, Sonny was running out of excuses as to why he couldn’t build one for her. He wanted to spend his weekends cleaning up chicken poop like he wanted his fingernails pulled out at the roots. He kept coming over and asking me for new excuses she might buy, and damned if I wasn’t running out of them too.”
“I’ll tell you what, if I had a rooster waking me up at the crack of dawn, there’d be some super fresh fried chicken on my dinner table that night,” Ronetta declared.
And everyone was laughing.
“Think that’s the only thing Sonny ever refused her,” Ronetta whispered to her plate.
Lillian slouched to the side and hit Harry.
Harry wrapped an arm around her shoulders.
“He spoiled her something rotten, didn’t he?” Lillian asked.
“Every damn day of his life, baby girl,” George answered. “Every damn day.”
Sherise sniffled.
Shane grabbed hold of his sister like Harry had Lillian.
“I miss her singing,” Sherise said.
“I miss his really bad jokes,” Shane said.
“I just miss my friends,” George said.
“Well, they left us Lillian. And they left us a bucketload of good memories,” Ronetta stated into what had become maudlin. “They left us with the way they lived with us, nothing but good and happy.”
Harry took his wineglass and lifted it but said nothing.
“Hear. Hear,” George said it for him, lifting his own.
Everyone grabbed their glasses.
“To Sonny and Av,” George made the toast. “The best neighbors you could have. The best friends you could have. The best people there could be. I had a family of four when they moved in next door, but the minute they did, we all had a family of seven. Now they might be gone, but our family remains strong, and they’ll always be a part of it.”
“To Sonny and Av!” everyone said.
They all drank.
Lillian turned her head to give Harry’s jaw a kiss, then straightened in her chair.
And they all ate great food in the company of family.
Harry surrounded her with him in her bed before he gave it to her.
So Lillian sat between his legs, his arms around her middle, as she read the last message her mother had for her.
There was an explanation of why they left her behind.
There was also a message of love.
Lillian didn’t say anything for much longer than Harry knew it took her to read the letter.
Then he watched as she ran her fingertips over the words, like she could touch her mom again through her cursive.
“Will I get the original back?” she asked.
It was evidence, and likely not important enough not to be released, but in the unlikely event it was deemed so, he silently vowed he’d get it back for her anyway.
“Yes,” he said.
“I wish…” She didn’t finish that.
Harry gave her a squeeze. “What do you wish, sweetheart?”
“That she’d sent this. That they’d gone direct to the police department. That they’d kept driving. That they’d hidden in their room and never left.” Her voice grew small. “That they were still here.”
So he didn’t lose hold on her, Harry moved her hair out of his way with his chin and buried his face in her neck.
“Thank you for bringing me a copy of this, Harry,” she whispered.
As his response, he kissed her neck and lifted away.
She was now holding the letter to her chest, and she leaned back into him.
“And thank you for not letting Shane scare you away,” she went on, lightening the mood, but keeping her mother’s letter clasped to her.
“He wasn’t as tough as all that, just worried about you.”
“He’s a good guy. I wish he’d find a great woman to marry and make babies so Ronetta won’t complain about it anymore.”
“And you’d get to spoil his babies,” Harry added.
“Well, there is that,” she replied.
Harry smiled as he remarked, “I think Sherise better get on that first.”
“What Ronnie doesn’t know is, Sherise doesn’t want kids. It’s kind of one of the reasons why she hasn’t found a man.”
“Why doesn’t she want kids?” Harry asked.
Lillian shrugged and tilted her head back so it was on his shoulder and she could look at him.
“She’s always been really ambitious. And she eats life. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her say no to any invitation that came her way.” A small smile hit her mouth. “Except kids. But she’s up for anything. I think she just doesn’t want them to slow her down.” She pushed up just a bit and whispered like she was sharing a secret, because she was, “And don’t tell, but she’s been with someone for almost a year. It’s pretty serious. They’re looking at places to move in together. He doesn’t want kids either. This is why Sherise isn’t bringing him home to meet Ronnie and George. Because Ronnie will try to talk them into it. Oh, and also, so Shane won’t talk to him outside and scare him off.”
Harry chuckled.
She settled back in.
They lapsed into silence that was surprisingly comfortable.
Then she asked, “Do you think it would be weird to sleep with this letter under my pillow?”
“Not even a little bit.”
“You’re such a good guy, Harry,” she whispered again, this time, though, it wasn’t a secret.
They talked. They readjusted and got under the covers. Lillian smoothed the letter out under her pillow. Harry doused the lights.
They tangled up, and it took Lillian a while, but she finally fell asleep.
So Harry did too.
The next afternoon, in the small, mostly Black-attended Baptist chapel in town, it was standing room only.
Lillian had elected to have Sonny and Avery’s remains put in one urn, which from everything he’d heard about them, seemed apropos. That urn was on a pedestal at the front flanked by large, pretty autumn sprays of butterscotch mums, red gerbera daisies and big green leaves.
And sunflowers.
Off to the side stood a posterboard size picture of a handsome, auburn-haired man with his arms around a beautiful, blonde, green-eyed woman. They were outside. The sun was shining in their hair. She was bent double, her arms tucked to her front, her head back, her eyes sparkling, her gorgeous face full of laughter. He was behind her, bent into her, his arms wrapped around her, fingers curled around her wrists, looking at the camera, smiling.
She was wearing a sundress.
The pastor spoke of them as if he knew them, and Harry wondered if this was Ronetta and George’s church, or all of their church. He and Lillian hadn’t had time yet to discuss religion.
He’d wanted to stand off to the side, but Ronetta was having none of it.
This meant he was in the front pew between Lillian and Ronetta, George, Sherise and Shane rounding out their row.
When the pastor opened it up, numerous people came forward to share their love and amusing stories about Sonny and Avery, speaking with such respect and affection, it felt like the sixteen years had melted away and all they were relaying happened just last week.
When that ended, the choir in their robes stood up, and a young Black woman came forward as the pianist struck the first chords.
Lillian instantly tightened, sharing whatever this was, it wasn’t expected.
And then the young woman, accompanied by the choir, started singing “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.”
Lillian’s arm flashed in front of him, and as if she was expecting it, Ronetta caught her hand.
And they held tight.
The singer didn’t have the talent of Aretha Franklin, but nobody did.
She still kicked that song’s ass.
When it was over, Ronetta and Lillian broke only so Lillian could blow a kiss to the singer.
The girl smiled and returned to her place in the choir.
So yeah, maybe this was Lillian’s church.
The pastor invited everyone to the fellowship hall, and they stood from their bench.
No one in the chapel moved as Harry led Lillian out of the pew into the aisle. He held, because she held, until George and Ronetta, Sherise and Shane joined them.
Then they walked down the aisle together.
Harry saw them in the back: Josh, his wife, Amanda, Harry’s dad and Caroline.
Jesus, his dad caught a plane from Arizona and dragged Caroline up with him.
He dipped his chin to them, hoping the look he gave them expressed the depths of his gratitude at their gesture, and he led his group into the fellowship hall.
Jenna and Janie, Molly and Kay were bustling around a table filled with finger foods, and Trey and Mark were still shoving soft drinks and waters into tubs of ice.
With Lillian latching on to him, Harry stood with her as she received her parents’ friends and acquaintances, and hers, nodding, giving hugs, accepting cheek kisses and hand clasps.
It seemed the entire Misted Pines football team, circa Shane’s tenure there, shook his hand after they all gave Lillian tight hugs. Cade and Delphine gave their condolences. Rus, Cin and Madden as well. Even Doc, Nadia and Ledger showed, and Harry knew Lillian hadn’t yet met any of them, and they didn’t know Sonny and Avery. Same with his buddy, Jaeger, Madden’s father, Cin’s ex, who came with Rus, Cin and his girl, but he also showed to support Harry’s new woman.
And Stormy took Harry’s advice. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing Harry ever did, standing beside his woman while her ex held her close (and for a fucking long time), but he got through it due to the expression on Lillian’s face stating plain how much it meant.
Though, she understandably looked confused when his family arrived at them.
“Sweetheart, I want you to meet my dad, Greg, his partner, Caroline, my brother Josh, and my sister-in-law, Amanda,” Harry introduced.
“Oh, wow,” she whispered. “I…this is unexpected.”
“Would have liked to meet you with a cup of Amanda’s world-famous eggnog in my hand, but Harry called, and this is gonna have to do,” his dad said, going right in for a kiss on her cheek.
“No pressure,” Amanda added, coming in for a cheek brush after his dad moved away. “We have rooms at the Pinetop. And Caroline and I’ve got spa appointments.”
“I’m staying with Lillian, you should stay at home,” Harry invited, releasing Josh’s hand and craning his neck to kiss Amanda’s cheek.
“Caroline and Amanda have been on about this spa for the last two hours, so, I don’t think so,” Josh replied, then he smiled gently at Lillian and went in for his own cheek kiss. When he came away, he looked to Harry, “Brother, you and me have damn good taste.”
“Hello,” Ronetta butted in, which Harry translated to You’re taking up too much of Lillian’s time, people I don’t know, move along .
“Ronnie.” Lillian gestured to his family. “These are Harry’s people. His dad, Greg, and Greg’s partner, Caroline, and Harry’s brother and sister-in-law, Josh and Amanda.”
“Oh my!” Ronetta exclaimed. “Honored guests. Thank goodness I doubled up my baked bean recipe for dinner tonight.”
“Her beans are the greatest ,” Lillian added.
“We’re not here to intrude,” Caroline protested. “We’re just?—”
“Oh now, I don’t think so,” Ronetta cut in, waving her hand in front of her face. Then she leaned in and whispered, “Come with me. Pastor Charles doesn’t allow alcoholic beverages for the masses, but he’s allowed me a stash.”
Like a shot, Caroline and Amanda followed Ronetta, leaving Harry’s dad and Josh behind.
“Really, stay at the house,” Harry repeated his invitation.
“We have a suite with a view of the lake and a couple of days without the kids, so if you think I’ll be able to pry Amanda away from that, you clearly don’t know my wife,” Josh replied.
“You have guests,” his dad said to Lillian. “We’ll visit more later, darlin’.”
“It’s really so lovely that you came,” she returned.
“This is going to make me sound unhinged,”—his father’s gaze shifted to Harry and then back to Lillian, making a point even in the circumstances she couldn’t misconstrue—“but I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Lillian gave him a soft, sweet smile.
His father took her hand, patted it, then he and Josh moved away.
It took another half an hour for the people who were left to share their thoughts and condolences, and finally Harry had Lillian to himself.
“How you doing?” he asked.
“Mom sang that song to Dad,” she belatedly explained the unusual memorial music choice.
“Figured it was something like that.”
“I love it that your family showed. That’s so crazy sweet.”
“Like Amanda said, no pressure, honey. They’re laid back and the holidays are around the corner. Plenty of time to get to know them then.”
“Do you honestly think Ronetta is going to let them get away with a stealth visit, in and out, without her feeding them?”
Harry grinned at her.
Her eyes warmed as they dropped to his mouth.
Then her gaze moved to the room like she was looking for something.
She found it, because she waved at someone.
He turned that way and saw Madden waving back.
“They were gone so long, I’m going to keep them with me for a while,” Lillian said so quietly, he had to lean in to hear her.
“Makes sense.”
She turned to him. “And then I’ll figure it out. Maybe I’ll keep them with me forever. Maybe I’ll spread them in the wildflower field Dad used to take Mom on hikes to, because she loved it so much.”
“Your choice,” Harry pointed out the obvious. “From what I hear about them, they’ll want you to make it and trust you’ll make the right one.”
She leaned into him, and Harry suddenly had to brace, because she gave him all of her weight.
“I’m so glad you’re here, Harry. Right here .”
“Wouldn’t be anywhere else.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever wear black again.”
She was wearing a simple, body-skimming, modest dress that was very attractive, suited her figure, and was perfectly appropriate for the occasion. She told him Ronetta bought it for her.
And she looked good in it.
But black was not her color.
“Again, your choice, but you look gorgeous. You’re the perfect mix of your mom and dad.”
“Perfect mix,” she whispered, slid her arms around him, and pressed her cheek to the lapel of his suit jacket.
He dropped a kiss on her head.
“Hungry?” he asked there.
“How long do you think we have to stay here?” she asked in return.
“You want me to take you away right now, we’re gone. But I reckon Ronetta knows the protocol.”
He was right.
She did.
Because twenty minutes later, Lillian and Harry were in his truck with an urn…
And a massive posterboard picture of two people in love.