Chapter 15: The Wake

The morning of the wake was a blur. As much as I wanted to be supportive of Luke, my ego was too badly wounded from yet another blatant rejection the night before.

To avoid him, I busied myself by helping Bev with food for the wake.

“Please! I need to do something to… help,” I had begged after she turned down my initial offer that morning.

“Alright then,” she relented, finally handing me an apron.

Though she wasn’t fond of the idea initially, she quickly warmed to it once she realized that I knew my way around a kitchen.

We worked quietly and efficiently, plating the bounty of food that she’d previously prepared and placing it in the living room for the guests. I avoided looking at him while we worked, which wasn’t hard to do… it seemed that the entire county had shown up for the wake and they were all swarming around Luke.

“Go get that boy to eat something,” Bev instructed, holding a plate of food towards me and nodding her head in his direction.