Page 11 of Gulfside Girls
Ollie squeezed Faye into a hug. She’d worked at the plant with him for a brief stint before he retired. He squeezed her hard, the breath coming out of her lungs a little.
These old guys, there weren’t many of them left. She was actually a veteran now at Jeep. She was closer to retiree than newbie. Her thirty and out was around the corner. How had that happened? How had life moved this fast? She supposed her dadthought the same. His deathbed ramblings indicated regret and remorse, but also love. Deep love from the man who put his foot down.
Why hadn’t he said any of those things before?Ugh. Faye didn’t want to get pulled into a spiral of grief, of mid-life what-ifs. It felt so cliché.
Old Ollie turned away from the sisters and ambled toward the door. The crowd was thinning now.
Faye put an arm around Ali.
Blair appeared on the other side of their big sister.
“The Bruce Kelly Euchre Tournament? Dad would hate that,” Faye said.
“It seems kind of sweet,” Blair replied. Their little sister was the tallest of them and the most wide-eyed about what Dad would like or not like. The short answer was he would not like almost everything.
“But dad didn’t like to draw attention, on him, on us, you know the way he was,” Faye said, then added in her best Bruce Kelly working man gruff voice, “Quit showing off.”
“You fishin’ for compliments?” Ali chimed in with her own impression.
“Oh, alright, alright. I get it,” Blair said.
“What can we do to finish up?” Faye asked Ali.
“I’m going to load the flowers and take them to the nursing home, and then I need to head to the Frogtown offices. We’ve got that home show starting tomorrow, and I’ve got loose ends there.”
“They can’t possibly expect you to be there!” Blair protested.
“They don’t, but they do. My boss is fairly useless on the details.”
“Your dad just died. They shouldn’t expect you to be there,” Faye backed Blair up.
“It’s a good distraction. And you’re checking in on your computer for your work, same thing,” Ali said.
“Look,” Faye replied. “We’ll do the flowers. You go to your office, and then we’ll meet up at Dad’s. I’m going to pick up a couple of pies from JoJo’s Pizza, and we’ll just decompress.”
“What about the kids?”
“Your two are taking mine to their place.”
Faye’s son Sawyer was a Freshman at Ohio State University. He could stay at home with Faye while he was here, but it was probably way more fun to hang out at Katie and Tye’s. Heck, Faye would like to do that, too. Just have a six-pack and be glad you’re not old! Woo hoo! But JoJo’s Pizza was damn good, so the Kelly Sisters’ post-funeral slumber party was a decent option after the week they’d had—heck, the last six months they’d had since Dad’s diagnosis.
“You’re both doing okay?” Ali asked with concern. She was worried about her sisters, their kids, the guests, and her job. Faye wondered how long Ali could really keep this all up.
Ali still looked so much like the one picture they had of their mom, blonde and blue-eyed. That is, if she’d had the good fortune to age. Their mom hadn’t lived to get wrinkled. So many dark thoughts were popping into Faye’s head. It was maddening.
Faye had pinned her own chestnut hair into a bun. It was the color of Dad’s, a fact she used to hate, but now, not as much. Now that she was a supervisor and not on the line, she had let it grow a little. Their Blair had almost red hair. Dad said redheads were his favorite. Of course.
Faye wanted to let Ali know they could help. That they could lighten the load. “We both have it covered. See you at Dad’s unless you have to get back to Ted.”
Ali stiffened.
Faye noticed her reaction. Ted had been dutifully there, greeted guests, and made small talk, but come to think of it, theclosest she’d seen Ted to Ali was with Katie and Tye between them.
“What’s up, big sister?” Faye asked.
“Yeah, no, on that back to Ted thing. In fact, I’ve got to call a lawyer. Do you think I can get a discount, a twofer of will reading and divorce filing?”
“What?” Blair and Faye asked in unison. Talking in unison was a common occurrence among the Kelly Sisters.
