Jennie Sue didn’t doubt that for a single second. Charlotte wouldn’t have trusted anyone to do her makeup or pick out the appropriate outfit—not even Jennie Sue.
“Did they have funeral wishes?” she asked.
“Your dad said whether or not you had a memorial was up to you. As soon as the coroner finishes with their bodies . . .” He paused again.
She grabbed a tissue and wiped her eyes.
He took a deep breath and went on. “They are to be sent to Sweetwater to the crematorium. You should be able to pick up their ashes next week. And those will be in urns that they picked out when they updated their will,” he said.
“My beautiful mother.” She wept into Rick’s handkerchief.
Justin nodded slowly. “Will always be beautiful in your eyes. Remember her the way she was when you saw her last. The rest of this can wait a few days. Just call me when you’re ready to talk about the business, and I’ll deal with the insurance people and all the accident reports. That’s part of my job as the company lawyer.”
His suggestion made sense, but she wished that she’d insisted they spend the whole day together, not just an hour for lunch. And her dad, trying to help her with money and a car—she would have taken both just to make him feel better.
Chapter Seventeen
Rick and Cricket showed up right after breakfast the next morning. Jennie Sue answered the door and pulled him down beside her on the sofa.
“What day are you thinking about for the funeral?” Cricket asked as she sat down across from them.
“No funeral and no memorial. They left instructions to be cremated and for me to choose the spot where I want to scatter the ashes,” she said in a hollow-sounding voice.
Lettie and Nadine came in from the kitchen, where they’d been helping Mabel clean up after breakfast. They sat in the two chairs that completed the seating arrangement.
“I heard that you got the news when you and Rick were at the cemetery,” Lettie said. “That seems kind of strange.”
“It was surreal and still is even this morning. I was visiting my daughter’s grave,” Jennie Sue answered.
“Jennie Sue, are you okay?” Cricket asked.
“Why?”
“You don’t have a daughter, honey,” Lettie said gently.
“Yes, I do,” Jennie Sue said. “Emily Grace was stillborn a few months after Percy left me in New York. Mama wanted to keep it all a secret so if I got married again, it wouldn’t be an issue. My daughter is in the Bloom cemetery in the Baker plot. I guess there was one secret that no one in town knew about.”
“Sweet Lord!” Lettie laid a hand over her heart.
“He left you when you were pregnant? What a bastard!” Cricket snapped. “Did he come back and support you when the baby was born?”
“I didn’t even know where he was at that time. He left when he found out I was pregnant, and I haven’t heard from him since,” Jennie Sue answered.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know,” Cricket whispered. “I won’t tell anyone about the baby.”
“You can tell whoever you want. I will be putting up a tombstone as soon as I can arrange for one. I’m just glad that Percy let me take my maiden name back so I can have her stone engraved with Emily Grace Baker and she won’t have to have anything of him on her grave,” Jennie Sue said.
Jennie Sue went through the clothes that she’d left behind in her closet and found the simple blue dress her mother had reminded her she’d worn to her senior tea. She chose that one to wear to the coroner’s office that morning. He’d called and said that the bodies were ready to deliver to the crematorium, but she wanted to see them. Maybe it would bring some kind of closure. She slipped her feet into a pair of white sandals. Her mother would’ve preferred that she’d chosen a pair of white leather pumps with maybe a three-inch heel with the dress, but after Percy left, she’d sworn that she’d never wear heels again.
Nadine, Lettie, Rick, and Cricket were waiting in the living room by the time she made it downstairs. Rick wore a pair of jeans and his customary long-sleeve shirt with pearl snaps. Cricket was in the same outfit she’d been wearing when she twisted her ankle.
“You look lovely,” Rick said.
“You always look so put-together and classy,” Cricket said.
“Thank you both, but jeans and flip-flops are more my style. I guess I didn’t wallow around in the Wilshire gene pool nearly long enough,” she said. “Are we ready to do this?”
“If you are,” Rick said. “Mabel says that your mama’s friends insisted on coming tonight, so we’ll clear out before they get here.”
“No, Belinda called to change it. They’re coming tomorrow evening at eight and bringing refreshments with them, since Baker Oil employees will be dropping by, too. It’s only for an hour, so please don’t leave me alone with them.” Jennie Sue handed him the keys to her mama’s car. “If you’ll drive, please, I’d appreciate it. And this car will be easier for Cricket to get in and out of.”
“Rick and Cricket can be here tomorrow night, honey, but not us. Those women would barricade the doors and shoot us on sight,” Lettie said as she got into the back seat of the Caddy, with Nadine and Cricket right behind her.
“I’m not sure . . . ,” Cricket started.
“Please,” Jennie Sue begged.
“Okay, if you are sure about it,” Cricket agreed.
Rick touched her on the arm. “Yes, we will stay.”
“Thank you both. I just need to get through this thing with the Belles tomorrow night, and then I can go back to my apartment,” she answered.
“You’re kiddin’,” Cricket said. “Why would you do that?”
“Because I like my apartment better than I like that big house,” Jennie Sue answered. “And I’m rattling on about plans because I’m dreading this part so much. Until this minute, I could kind of pretend that it was just a bad dream. I’m glad y’all are goin’ with me.”
It was only a short drive to the coroner in Sweetwater. He met them in the outer office. “I’m Dr. Wesley Johnston. Which of you young ladies is Jennifer?”
She stepped forward and stuck out her hand. “I am Jennie Sue Baker.”
He pumped her hand once and dropped it. “Are you absolutely sure you want to see your parents? It’s not a pretty sight. You might want to remember them the way they were the last time you talked with them.”
“Yes, sir,” she said. “I need to see them.”
“Okay, then, follow me.”
She grabbed Rick’s hand and held on tightly as they entered a long hallway. The doctor turned a corner and then opened the first door on the left, with Jennie Sue right behind him. Rick let go of her hand and stood back to let her go inside alone with the doctor. Her chest tightened when the doctor shut the door, leaving her friends on the other side.
I can do this alone. I need to do this alone. It’s the only way I’ll ever have closure, she told herself.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
She nodded, and he carefully pulled back the first sheet. “Your mother sustained a head wound and was killed instantly. She did not suffer.”
She stood there for a long time, tears running in rivers down her cheeks and dripping onto her dress. Finally, she reached out and touched Charlotte’s hair. “My beautiful mama. You won’t ever be old or have to worry about wrinkles again. You’ll always be young and gorgeous. I love you, Mama.”
“Ready to move on?” the doctor asked.
She nodded. “Goodbye, Mama,” she said softly as she took two steps to the other table.
When she saw her daddy, so still and lifeless with a huge cut on his chin, she groaned and let the next batch of tears loose.
“His neck snapped when the plane crashed. Death was instantaneous for him, too.”
“See you later, Daddy,” she whispered as she bent and kissed his cold cheek.
Chapter Eighteen
Cricket was dressed and trying to do something with her unruly, almost curly, not quite straight, hair when Jennie Sue rapped on the bedroom door. Wearing a cute little sleeveless black dress that stopped at her knee and a pair of plain leather flats, Jennie Sue looked like she’d just stepped off a fashion runway.