She sniffs, “Wyatt,” and touches my chest, dropping her hand as I pass by.
Aunt Luna nods to me, wiping her eyes, quietly gasping for air and unable to talk. I grab her free hand and squeeze it.
Diana walks into my arms, hugging me and staying here. “I tried to get back in time.”
“Hey, shhh, it’s okay. You did. You’re here now. This is when it matters.”
“I wanted to say goodbye!”
“You couldn’t have. She only talked to Grandpa, just for a second…to tell him she was going.”
Diana draws a deep breath, hugging me tighter. “She said that?”
“Yeah. She said she saw…” I can’t finish the sentence, I’m so choked up.
Diana looks at me, cheeks drenched. “Her husband?” I can only nod, and she whispers in wonder, “She saw Jerald! Wyatt, that’s what she wanted this whole time.”
“You believe she saw him? Like for real, not just in her head?”
“Yes, I really do.”
CHAPTER 36
THE MEMORIAL
DIANA
Sunlight outlines Wyatt’s brown hair, stoic profile and tense shoulders as we approach his grandparent’s house in Buckhead, hand in hand.
It’s a beautifully landscaped property close to the size of a mansion, but not in the least bit formidable. Pale yellow paint and white shutters have a charm that makes me relax as we walk up a stone path cutting up the middle of a bright green lawn. Their wide open front door beckons everyone who knew and loved May Cocker to join in the memorial BBQ she requested be her last goodbye.
Wyatt mumbles, expression distant, “Can’t believe this is your first time coming here. I wish I would’ve brought you earlier.”
Giving his rough fingers a soft squeeze I reassure him, “I’m happy being here for you.”
He looks at me, voices of his family inside growing louder with each step. “Diana…”
We stop walking, my voice intimate as I ask, “Yes?”
He kisses my forehead, rasping against it, “I’m not sure I can make it through the day without losing it.”
I hold his head gently and we stay with our foreheads together for a few seconds. He kisses me, a brief but powerful thank you.
“Wyatt!” a pretty blonde I saw at the hospital calls out.
“Samantha, hey,” he greets her. “Have you met Diana? My girlfriend?”
My heart stops.
She turns to me as if it’s not a surprise. It sure is one to me!
“Hi Diana, nice to meet you.”
I hug her, and she explains to Wyatt, “I was just stepping out front to talk to Logan. He’s calling since it’s Monday.”
“Where’s he at now?”
“The dance troupe landed in Croatia last night, I think. Or it might have been the night before. I’m not sure. How are you?” She touches his arm. “Grandpa was telling everyone you’ve been spending a lot of time with Grams lately.”
He takes a rough breath, emotions clogging his throat. “Diana works at Silver Linings.”
“I heard.” Pretty brown eyes lock onto me. “I live with Zoe, Wyatt’s sister. She told me. My sister and I both live with her.”
“Oh,” I nod once, putting the pieces together. “May was my favorite. Your Grams was really special.”
Sam’s eyes tear up as she covers grief with a smile. “She was!” The phone in her hand rings and she glances to it, breath catching. “That’s Logan! Perfect timing. I really need… um, anyway…I’ll see you inside?”
Wyatt and I move on as she hurries off.
“Is Logan her boyfriend?”
“Nah, best friend.”
“Are you my boyfriend?”
Wyatt glances to me. “You caught that, huh?”
“Hard to miss.”
“Slipped out. Didn’t mean to say it without telling you first.”
“Telling me? Not asking? Do I have any say in this?”
He pauses then smirks, “No,” as we walk into his grandparents’s beautiful home. There’s a spacious living room on the left with classic yet lived-in furniture, the kind that begs you to sit down and enjoy the company of a large family.
I can see ahead to the kitchen and it doesn’t surprise me how many people are showing up to celebrate her life.
My chest feels tight as we pass a staircase on our left, and I glance over to a long line of framed family photographs as far as my eyes can see.
Wyatt notices that I’m craning my neck to see how far it goes, and he pauses, guiding me to a photograph of six boys. “That’s my dad, the littlest one, with his older brothers.”
“May told me about them,” I whisper while observing their different personalities that are so obvious from body posture and facial expressions. “The twins are so much blonder than everyone else.”
Wyatt agrees, “They’ve always stuck out. One is Samantha’s dad, that’s why she’s so blonde. This one, Uncle Jason. But you can see Uncle Jett is dirty blonde. This one next to him is Uncle Jaxson, he’s going darker.”
“Sandy brown hair.”
“Right, and then there’s my dad and Uncle Jake, farthest from blonde as you can get. They have the same coloring as Grandma Nance when she was young.” He guides me up a couple steps, past more photographs of the boys at various stages in their youth. “This is my Dad in his Marine uniform. He enlisted a couple years past high school.”
“He was very handsome. Still is.”
“Of course he is.”
I glance to Wyatt, see he’s teasing, and touch his cheek, trace the soft hair of his beard all the way to his chin. “I want to be your girlfriend, so we’re clear.”
“As if you would’ve said no.”
A grin flashes on my face, though I’m trying to contain it. “Please don’t change.”
He laughs, casting one last glance to his father before we join the crowd. The kitchen is teeming with people.
Wyatt’s grandmother, hair no longer a rich, deep brown, hurries past us. “I made enough chili for eighty people, not two hundred!”
“Mom, I hired caterers to help,” says Wyatt’s mother, reminding me that she was once a chef who owned two restaurants. We briefly met at the hospital, but everything was so intense that day.
His grandmother gasps, “Meagan! Did you?!” hand flying
