Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
One week later
Travis
I had spent the past week focused on my family and my business.
I went to work every day, as did Gage. But rather than mope as I had been for weeks, I engaged with others, checking on things myself rather than leaving it to everyone else to figure out.
I even managed to have lunch with Kaleb and Sawyer, the three of us talking about surviving the snow-pocalypse.
With the winter storm behind us, school was back in session, the kids returning to their routine.
I alternated taking them to daycare to give Gage a break, and I picked them up the same.
I helped Kate with her homework, although I still didn’t understand why she had it.
She was six. There were plenty of homework years ahead of her. No sense stressing out a first grader.
And when we were settled in at night, I ensured it was time well spent.
I didn’t stalk Brantley or Reese, and I didn’t comb through the internet looking for possible news updates.
I left it to them to deal with, trusting that when the time came, they would let me know.
Instead, I avoided my home office, opting to be where Gage and the kids were.
But today was the day we’d set to check off one of the things on Kylie’s list. With the weather warming up nicely and quickly, we decided it was the perfect time to plant a tree. Or rather multiple, since, yes, Gage had liked the idea of helping the environment, too.
“Where’re we goin’, Daddy-O?” Kade asked when I helped the kids buckle into their seats.
Kade, Avery, and Haden were with me, while Gage had taken Kate and Maddox to run a couple of errands before we met up in a little while.
“We’ve got somethin’ to take care of today,” I explained.
“What somethin’?” Kade inquired, always with the questions.
I looked at the boy and smiled. “You’re gonna plant a tree.”
His eyes widened, a look of confusion and concern on his little face. “Why would I do that? Trees come from the grass.”
Grinning, I tapped the brim of his baseball cap. “Actually, they don’t.”
“What about me?” Avery called out. “I wanna plant a tree.”
“You’re gonna help. We’ve got three to plant.”
“Three?” Kade’s shock was dramatic. “That’s a buncha trees.”
“It is, yes. But I figure you can handle it, right?”
“What about me?” Avery repeated, a harumph in her voice this time. “I wanna plant a buncha tree.”
I chuckled. This could go on forever, I knew.
I adjusted Haden’s seat belt, touched his nose, and made the little boy giggle.
“Where’re we gonna put the trees?” Kade asked.
I shook my head. We had decided we would spread the trees around so that everyone had a reminder of Kylie.
Gage suggested we show the letter to Kylie’s parents, her sister, as well as Curtis and Lorrie, to help them understand the significance of what we wanted to do.
So we had carved out time in the evenings, which meant later than usual nights.
As I'd expected, there weren’t any dry eyes when the letter was being read.
I had shed plenty through the week, rereading it over and over.
A couple of times, I'd caught Gage doing the same, sitting in my office—the one place we could usually find privacy—his eyes glued to the paper.
Most people probably wouldn’t see the letter as much, but for us, it was a bit of closure. Though difficult to process, it was a part of Kylie we had when we thought we would get no more.
“Are they all gonna be at Pop’s house?” Kade asked.
“Nope. One at Pop’s, one at Grandpa Joe’s, and one here. We’ll do ours later.”
“Where’s Daddy?” Avery asked when I climbed into the driver’s seat.
“He’s at Pop’s house already. With the tree.”
Kade inhaled sharply, another dramatic effect of his. “What if he plants the tree without us?”
“He won’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
I laughed, briefly glancing back at them in the rearview mirror before turning my attention to the road.
“I wanna plant a huge tree,” Kade said, demonstrating his idea of huge by spreading his arms wide.
“We’ll have to see what Dad’s picked out,” I told them.
“I hope it’s giganormous,” Avery said softly.
“That’s not a word,” Kade told his sister.
“Uh-huh.”
“Nuh-uh.”
I managed to tune them out for the few minutes it took to get to my parents’.
When I pulled down the dirt drive, the first thing I noticed was all the vehicles parked near the house.
It was Saturday, so this wasn’t a family dinner, yet I saw all the familiar ones: Kaleb’s Ford Expedition, Sawyer’s Chevy, Zane’s F250, Jessie’s Hyundai, Beau’s Escalade, Cheyenne’s Lexus.
And a few more I would’ve been surprised to see on any given day.
“Everybody’s here!” Kade exclaimed. “Yay!”
If I had to guess, my son had already forgotten about planting the tree.
I didn’t bother reminding him as I got them out of the SUV, herding them toward the house, where my old man was sitting on the front porch, Kate in the rocking chair beside him.
“What’s all this?”
“It’s a party,” my daughter said easily.
“A party?”
She nodded curtly. “A tree-plantin’ party.”
“Is that right?” I looked at my father.
Pop’s gray eyebrows popped once. “I’m just here for the food.”
I laughed, then passed Haden off to my dad and went into the house. Sure enough, my brothers were all there, significant others, too, plus all the kids. Amongst them, I noticed Brantley and Reese, Kaden, Keegan, and Bristol, Mack and Jeff, as well as Joe and Melissa.
“Before you yell at us,” Zane said, his face sober, “we’re here for support. And because we wanted to be a part of it. We loved her, too. Thought it might be a nice celebration if we were all here for the tree plantin’.”
My throat tightened as I nodded. “Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Thanks for that.”
“Plus, you know how we all love a good party.” Zane smacked me on the back, probably a little harder than need be, but that was my kid brother for you.
I peered past Zane to my cousin Brantley, who was standing in the kitchen chatting with Kaden and Keegan.
As though he felt eyes on him, Brantley looked up, met my gaze across the room.
My first instinct was to pelt him with questions, find out where they were in the investigation, why so much time had passed and nothing was being done.
It would’ve been easy to unleash on the man. Too easy.
But I wouldn’t. Not today of all days.
Which was why I offered a nod of my chin in greeting, received one in return before I turned and sought my husband in the room full of people. I found Gage sitting on the couch, Maddox on the floor at his feet. When he saw me, his eyes widened.
“I don’t know what happened,” he said, his voice a bit dramatic. “I got the tree, brought it here, and—” He waved at the chaos as though that said it all.
And maybe it did.
After all, this was what the Walkers did. We rallied for support, took care of one another. It was something I had relied on all my life, one of the things I knew my wife had loved about our life. We had this … so many people who cared.
“We’ve got food,” Kaleb announced. “Question is, do you want to eat before or after?”
I looked at Gage. “Up to you.”
“We should ask the kids, see what they think.”
“Good idea.” This was supposed to be a family thing.
I pulled Avery away from playing with Ethan’s triplets, then found Kate still sitting in the rocking chair.
After I told them to stay put, I searched for Kade.
It took a minute to wrangle him from where he was playing with Mason and Matthew.
When asked about the tree, their unanimous decision was to plant it now.
“Where’re we puttin’ it?” Pop asked Kade.
The little boy shrugged his shoulders. “Where should we put it, Pop?”
“I think I’ve got the perfect spot.”
Pop carried Haden while Kate, Avery, and Kade trotted beside him down the steps and across the front yard. I grabbed Maddox while Gage helped Ethan and Beau by picking up Jack. The rest of the crew, adults and children, weren’t far behind us.
“What about right there?” Pop suggested, pointing to an empty spot a few yards to the left of the big oak tree.
“Yay!” Kade squealed and took off running, more kids following him.
“That way, Mother and I can watch over it every day.”
I felt my sinuses heat, eyes brimming. Because I didn’t trust my voice, I nodded my agreement.
The next hour was spent with everyone taking turns digging a hole, despite the fact we had the machinery to do it in far less time. No one was in a hurry, though, helping the kids scoop up dirt, toss it aside, each adult also taking a turn.
“How big is this tree?” I asked as I saw the hole continuing to get bigger and bigger.
“I figured we wanted somethin’ strong enough to weather anything.”
Just like Kylie, I thought to myself.
Once Gage was satisfied the hole was big enough, he disappeared, returning a few minutes later, driving Pop’s tractor, a trailer hitched to the back, and a good-sized magnolia tree with an enormous root ball strapped down.
It was when my brothers went to assist that Kate came over to hold my hand.
I glanced down at my daughter, saw she had tears streaming down her pretty face.
She was probably the only one of my kids who understood the real significance of this, and I hated that she did.
I hated that we’d lost the most important person in our world.
But I hoped this would give us something to hold on to, something to remind us of her each and every day.
It took some time, but the tree was maneuvered into place, the root ball broken up some so that it would settle in as it should, then the kids were once again scooping dirt to fill the hole. Kate joined them then, a smile on her face.
“You realize there’re three more,” Gage said from my side.
I looked over at my husband. “Three? I thought there were two more.”
“I bought one for Jess. Figured we’d help her plant it at her house.”
I squeezed his hand. Leave it to him to think of others at a time like this.
As I stared at the tree, I sent up a silent note to my wife: Kylie, baby, I’m definitely going to marry him. Just like you asked.
It took the rest of the weekend for us to get the remaining three trees planted. With each one, there was a celebration and a toast, everyone coming together to celebrate the life of a woman who’d meant so much to us.
On Sunday night, after the kids went to bed, I moved my things back into our bedroom. I'd been sleeping in there for a week, but I hadn’t quite felt committed to it. Now it felt like where I was supposed to be.
I figured Kylie had something to do with that. Even gone, she was watching over me, ensuring I did what I was supposed to. It took a strong woman to wrangle a Walker, and I'd never known one stronger, with the exception of my own mother.
I was blessed to have had the time I did with Kylie, and it was time I lived up to her expectations.
But there was one more thing we had to take care of.