Ever After

by Odessa Gillespie Black

  The sight of him in a tender moment made me feel helpless. I wanted to be there beside him, holding his hand, consoling him.

  As Cole visited at Ava’s side, a couple of antsy family members behind me began to oscillate from foot to foot, roll their eyes, and make impatient huffing noises. The guy in front of me checked his watch and sighed loud enough for Cole to hear.

  Cole flashed him a glare that could have incinerated a small country.

  The rude family member found something terribly interesting near his shoes to focus on.

  Cole turned, reached into the coffin, and placed something in Ava’s hands. His bottom lip trembled. With his head down, Cole fled the casket, bumping into another group of loud family members.

  They stared after him as if he was something they’d just scraped off their shoes.

  When it was my turn to approach the casket, my stomach churned. I’d never met Ava Rollins. I could feel eyes on my back as I took her in for the first time.

  Was I supposed to touch her? Meeting her for the first time, this way, under such circumstances, was so outlandish. I wanted to go back in the house and hide until the fiasco was over. Why couldn’t she could have called me while she was alive the way normal people would have and said, “Hey, I’ve investigated you extensively and found that you’re an all right girl, so to piss my family off, I’d like to leave you my legacy.”

  My sad gaze slid over her white hair and frown-creased forehead.

  Her lips had been placed in an almost smirk in her last final facial expression. Seemed fitting. Ava’s perfectly placed gray hair curled around her face, and her red earrings stood out against the white satin pillow. Crimson lipstick lined her lips with the precision she was accustomed to in life. Her black suit had been immaculately pressed with a red carnation on the lapel. Crossed at her stomach, her old wrinkled hands clasped one another.

  The smallest Bible I’d ever seen in print lay on her stomach. It’s what Cole had in his hands before he got to her casket. For him to place it in her eternal resting place, it must have meant a lot to him. It looked very old.

  I bowed my head and turned to find Preston right behind me.

  He scooped his hand around my arm and led me to the right row of chairs set up in front of the huge flat screen television.

  Parents of the wildest children finally called them in to be seated, but that didn’t stop the occasional whisper or outburst.

  A man in a suit made his way to the front, cleared his throat, and started the proceedings.

  Two could-be FBI agents in black suits and sunglasses stood on either side of a flat-screened television centered on a white cloth-covered table. One man held the remote and adjusted the television while the other studied the crowd from behind his mirrored glasses.

  Preston nodded at me and excused himself to the podium—the first time he exhibited commendable manners since I’d met him. Once there, he placed his hands on the wood and looked out at the crowd with what appeared to be genuine sadness. Preston cleared his throat and gave me a half-hearted smile.

  Maybe he wasn’t as bad as my first impression made him out to be. At least he was honest about his interests. That was more than I could say for Cole.

  He sat a few rows back on the other side of the aisle. He stared straight at me with an eyebrow arched.

  I faced forward, hating that I cared what he thought or felt.

  Preston had started.

  “You must have questions regarding your invitation here. As you all know, Ava Rollins would rather be hung up naked in the center of the town square than have kind words spoken for her or tears shed in her tribute. She was a woman of modesty, but was also a woman with her own ways at which all her associates were commanded to adhere. I’ve asked you all here today for a viewing of her final will and testament, read by none other than the decedent herself. Without further ado.” He stepped aside and nodded to one of his flank-men. One pressed a remote, which caused a cobalt blue screen to appear on the television.

  An elderly woman resembling the woman in the casket but much more alive popped up on the screen. She wore an austere black dress and hat with a black wisp of tulle.

  Everyone gasped.

  Everyone but me.

  She straightened her hat. Either she was stark raving mad, or she couldn’t have cared less what others thought. I leaned toward the latter.

  “Is this damned thing working or not? I tell you, humanity has been plagued with technology,” she clucked in an authoritative, guttural voice.

  A man’s muffled response was audible in the background.

  “Hell, no, I don’t want you to rewind it and start over. Those cold hearted bastards wouldn’t inconvenience themselves for even a second unless they thought I was going to leave them something, so why make this any more pleasant for them?” She straightened her white puff of thinning hair and cleared her throat.

  Someone said something in the background again.

  “No, it’s not morbid. It’s funny. I’m dead so I should wear black. It’s only proper. Now shut up and record me before I fire you and find another maintenance person.” She sighed and focused her attention on the camera. “I’m sure you are all wondering why I would ask you to gather in my gardens when I wouldn’t even invite you to a Sunday tea when I was alive. Well, it sure as hell wasn’t to give you anything. Um, sorry. Sorry, Cole. I meant to say ‘heck.’ Ah. Oh, hell, I’m dead, so what does it matter if I curse. It’s not like it’s going to change anything.”

  Cole’s eyes were red, but his face crinkled into a smile. He looked down to his lap.

  “On to the business at hand, since I’m sure most all of you have some other engagement to attend after they plant me in the ground. I, Ava Rollins, being of sound mind and an amazingly incredible body for a ninety year-old, leave you, Cole Kinsley, the cottage and a deed to the tract of land you’ve lived on since childhood. It has always been yours, as it will always remain.” Ava paused and smiled out to the sea of materialism, her blood family.

  An uproar of contentious whispers commenced as heads turned to me, but Ava had anticipated their reaction.

  “Oh, hush your mouths. I’m far from done. Martha Rollins, I leave you exactly what you’ve contributed to your family members, friends—if you can call them that—and fellow humanity. Nothing. You’ve granted more bitterness, back biting, pain and suffering than I could ever return you. So in my death, you receive exactly what you deserve, dear sister. Nothing.” Ava, with cold eyes, a stern age-rattled voice, and bitter humor, cut down the rest of her alienated family until there was not a single outraged person in the whole crowd left. When she was done with the slaughter, she turned her head slightly, and I swear, she looked straight into my eyes. Her final words were, “I’ve oftentimes wondered if everything I’ve ever done in my life was a mistake, but in this final moment, as I leave this world and enter into the next life, I can rest knowing I’ve done at least one thing with precision. I leave all of my worldly possessions, other than the aforementioned property, to Allison Ainsley Knowles. Please take care of Thomas and the staff. Give them raises and a healthy retirement sum. In closing, my dear Allison, you deserve all the joy and happiness life can offer you. Live life to the fullest, love like you’ve never loved before, and when you find something worth fighting for, don’t let anything come in your way.”

  For a few seconds, the woman on the screen held me.

  Her old, yellowed, loving eyes tugged at the fabric of my soul.

  The screen went black.

  I sat rigid, stunned.

  This was real.

  “Ava’s sister Portia has a few words, and directly after the service Ava arranged for a breakfast to be held in the grand ball room. I hope everyone will stay and join us.” Back at the podium, Preston’s face twisted as if he no more wanted any one of those heathens to stay than he wanted to contract a case of malaria. He came back to his seat beside me and sat even closer now. He pl
aced his hand in my lap and took mine.

  I stiffened but didn’t want to cause a commotion.

  Family members and acquaintances whispered right through Ava’s sister’s eulogy.

  Over my shoulder, Cole’s green eyes pierced me. He nodded, lifting an interested brow as his eyes fell on Preston’s hand.

  Wait a minute. He didn’t want me, but no one else could make a move? Was that it?

  I shrugged and spun back to face the front.

  From the same direction, chairs clanged together and a commotion broke out. Cole didn’t bother with respect as he headed right for us, pushing chairs this way and that.

  Portia must have been done with her speech because people around us had already made their way down the aisle.

  Preston had just used my hand to help me up.

  I couldn’t take my stare from Cole or find vocals to warn Preston.

  Before I could fully stand, a deafening boom sounded from behind Ava’s casket, and the whole first row of people simultaneously plunged toward me. People fell on top of each other, and when I hit the ground, another body pummeled into me.

  “Allie! Please open your eyes. Please!” A male voice.

  A cloudy blur of people scattered around me.

  Cole’s whole body covered mine. With both his hands on either side of my face, he said, “Are you okay?”

  I nodded, not sure what had happened, or if I was in fact okay.

  Cole rolled over and gently lifted me from the ground. He righted me, holding my arms to keep me steady. Beads of sweat trickled down his brow despite his body shivering through his suit.

  A loud scream broke through the chaos. “It’s an arm! Oh my god! It’s an arm!”

  And then someone else added, “Someone blew up the casket!”

  “Should have been the girl,” another contemptuous voice yelled.

  “Let’s get you out of here. Don’t look.” Cole pulled me to the safety of his arms and guided me to the back steps of the house. “It’s horrible. Close your eyes.”

  I tried my best, but it was hard. I didn’t know if anyone had been hurt or if the only carnage had been to Ava’s body.

  People picked themselves up off the ground and darted in all different directions. Parts of a black suit, a red carnation, and a foot lay scattered around us as Cole dragged me closer to the patio.

  I held my stomach and closed my eyes until we reached the steps. I tried not to cry but couldn’t help it.

  “It’s okay. I’m here. I’ve got you.” Cole’s fingers worked over my arm in soothing strokes as he led me through the house.

  Shelby and Kaitlyn trotted past us going in the opposite direction.

  As they passed, something weird happened inside my head. One of them had done something to get my attention, and it had worked.

  Kaitlyn put her finger over her lips.

  What had she meant for me to do?

  As cries of horror still sounded outside, Cole took me to the library and shut the door. He placed me in a chair and kneeled in front of me.

  I burst into tears. Too much. This was too much.

  A wild look erupted in his eyes. “Are you okay? God, you’re crying. Are you hurt?”

  I nodded, trying to get my bearings back.

  Cole’s hand cupped my face as he looked me over.

  “Wait, no. I’m not hurt. I don’t know.” My breath caught in my throat with him that close. The rest of the world nor what had just happened mattered. I had fallen for him. I couldn’t deny it anymore. I couldn’t stop it. He couldn’t stop it.

  “There’s something you need to be made aware of. I’m not just a handyman, or groundskeeper, or your employee. Ava made me promise before she died that I’d be the bodyguard for whomever she deemed beneficiary. I thought you should know that.” His voice shook as he stumbled over the words. He slid his jacket over where a shiny black gun glistened in the sun that bled through the library windows. “Are you sure you weren’t injured?”

  Pride, yes. Body, no. Another moment ruined. It was as if he could detect when my feelings deepened, so he shredded my heart at each advance.

  “I’m sure I’ll live.” I wiped my nose.

  “I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming. I should have protected you better.” Cole’s fingers grazed my cheek. It pulsed with pain where I’d landed on it or hit it on a chair. I couldn’t remember. When I winced, he cringed.

  “I’m fine. It’s you I’m worried about,” I said.

  He stood and put space between us, his turn of silence sending spikes of ice to the pit of my stomach. Pacing back and forth over the Japanese rug, he kneaded his temples. He glanced out the floor-to-ceiling windows and then turned back to me. He opened his mouth, but words didn’t come out. He shook his head and paced some more.

  I couldn’t imagine how he felt. Outraged. Devastated. Heartbroken. I had to say something. I chose my words carefully. “I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am, Cole. Losing someone you love is hard enough, but having someone take her from you more than once. I know that made you have to relive the pain. You have to be almost out of control right now. I just want you to know that I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here.”

  Cole turned on me, his glare ferocious.

  I cowered back into the large plush cushions.

  “Would you stop with that idiotic psycho-babble. You don’t have a damned clue what you’re talking about. Since we were kids you thought you knew what was going on inside my head, but you don’t always know. You’ve always jumped to conclusions—” Cole’s face paled. His eyes bulged.

  “I’ve only known you for just over two days.” I trembled.

  “Or has it been longer?” An inappropriately cheerful voice sang from the library entrance.

  Shelby and Kaitlyn filled the bottom half of the tall doorway.

  “There’s only one thing about this situation that’s morbidly hilarious. Ava couldn’t make you look for her, so she made her inherit you. You come with the house.” Shelby smiled.

  Cole took a few wobbly steps back from me. He wagged his head, his skin white as ash. He inspected me, something much darker than hate gathering in his eyes. He darted past the girls and slammed the library door open with a flat hand. It thundered against the stone wall, spraying shards of glass across the marble floor.

  “What in the world’s wrong with him? And what were y’all talking about?” I asked when I was sure he was out of earshot.

  Sirens sounded in the distance.

  “His brain is finally figuring out what his heart’s been telling him all along.” Shelby shook her head at the mess on the floor.

  “And you really shouldn’t psychoanalyze until your doctorate certificate is hanging on your wall. In this case, even then, it wouldn’t help.” Kaitlyn looked up to the ceiling and then back to me.

  “I’ll get that.” Shelby nodded to the glass and left the room.

  “What did y’all mean about inheriting Cole?”

  “Let’s talk about this later. The police aren’t far away.” Kaitlyn sat with me on the sofa.

  I buried my face in my hands and tried to relax. “I need to know.”

  “Not just yet,” Kaitlyn said. “I promise. Soon.”

  Shelby returned with a dustpan and broom. “The police are here, but Thomas is handling it.”

  Kaitlyn took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “I guess I made some enemies today.” I squeezed her hand back.

  “The living are the least of your worries. They’ll find no explosives out there. Our ghost is plenty powerful enough to destroy a casket. If she gets angry enough.” Kaitlyn took her hand back with a jerk. Doing that weird stare-thing at something directly in front of me, she stiffened. “Don’t move until I tell you to.”

  A transparent woman with a skeletal face floated in front of me. In broad daylight. Before Kaitlyn had time to instruct me, the ghost
lunged forward.

  I screamed, jumped straight up, and stumbled to the left. I caught my knee on the tea table, and a sear of pain immobilized me.

  Kaitlyn jerked me onto the floor.

  Long black hair and the back of a dingy, shredded dress disappeared into the brown leather.

  “What the hell was that?” I clenched my sore knee.

  “The other part of your inheritance.” Kaitlyn grabbed my hand. She jerked me up and rushed me from the library to the safety of my room, if it was even safe there.

  * * * *

  From the ledge of my window, the lamp-lit grounds of the house cast shadows on most of the lawn. Police cars and ambulances had come and gone.

  Kaitlyn had been correct. No explosives and no evidence of foul play.

  The authorities had left baffled.

  “It’s not the first time we’ve had troubles, but this is by far the worst occurrence.” Thomas stared at the grounds with me. “Cole has vowed to get to the bottom of this. I promise it won’t be long before your ghost troubles are over.”

  A fine bodyguard. “He hasn’t shown his face since he fled the library like a mad man.”

  “He will probably be busy for a while.” Thomas left me to myself in my room.

  Maybe I could sleep into some happiness where the guy in the old clothes would be there to comfort me.

  That dream world was no different from here, though. Crazy events carried me from scene to scene. I never had control of where I ended up or what the guy and I talked about.

  Most of the time, he talked in riddles. Nope. Not much different at all.

  Tonight nightmares chased away any chances of seeing him.

  In a room in the upper level of the house, I slid the heavy drapery to the side.

  On the lawn, the forest was only yards from the window.

  The moon’s glow washed over Cole as he moved in darting, unnatural motions from the trees to the grass of the grounds. His torso glistened in the moonlight, and loose jeans hung low on his hips.

  Oh, to touch those hips. Longing set into a deep-set ache as he moved farther into the shadows.

  Dark clouds and rumbles of thunder rolled over the tips of the trees. Lightning illuminated Cole’s shirtless torso.