Page 86 of Jack of Hearts

The few people who had attended the ceremony had long since left. Kinsey touched her fingers to her lips and then blew a kiss for the last time. Blowing kisses to each other when one of them was leaving the house had been their ritual for as long as she could remember.

Unable to bear watching a pile of dirt being dumped on top of her mother, Kinsey walked away. The day was sunny, not a single cloud marring the brilliant blue of the sky. She wished it were raining, that the heavens were weeping for the loss of a beautiful woman. Taking a pair of sunglasses from her purse, she put them on, and then looked up at the sky. Maybe it was a beautiful day because God was happy to have a new angel. The thought pleased her, and she smiled as the tears still flowed.

Not wanting to go home to an empty house, she tried to think of someplace she could hang out for a while, but she hadn’t been in Jacksonville much the past three years. All her local friends were still at college, so she had no one to call. With a heavy sigh, Kinsey turned her car for home.

Her friend, Cheryl Ryding, had promised to email Kinsey class notes, which would give her something to do. She’d taken the week off after getting excused absences from her professors, but she wished she could return right then and immerse herself in school. Before she could leave, though, she had to go through her mother’s things, decide what to keep and what to donate, meet with a realtor, and put the house up for sale. She’d thought about keeping it, but it was too empty without her mom there, and it always would be.

After returning home, she kicked off her shoes, then went to her room and changed into comfortable sweatpants and an oversized T-shirt that she had never returned to her last boyfriend. There wasn’t an email from Cheryl yet, so she made a cup of green mint tea, and as she stood in the middle of the kitchen, she debated curling up on the couch and trying to take a nap versus facing the chore she’d been putting off. It had been easy to ignore the need to go through her mother’s belongings when she had first arrived, what with having to make arrangements for the funeral.

The call from their next-door neighbor that her mother had suffered a heart attack had come as a shock. Wanda Landon ate healthy; walked several miles a day; gardened; spent an hour a day, every day but Saturday and Sunday, at yoga class; and didn’t smoke or drink more than her one glass of wine a day.

Kinsey choked down a sob. She’d cried enough for one day. Steeling herself, she headed for her mother’s small office. Setting her teacup on a coaster, she sat at the desk and wondered where to start.

“I so don’t want to do this.” Speaking out loud made her realize how quiet it was, and she turned on the small TV, tuning it to a music channel. An hour later, she had shredded old bills and other unimportant papers. In front of her was a small stack of documents—including her mom’s will—that she needed to keep. The will wasn’t a surprise. Her mother had made sure that Kinsey was given a copy before she’d left for her freshman year at the University of Miami. A brief scan confirmed it was the same one she had, leaving everything to her except for the garden trolls, which her mom’s neighbor coveted. As far as Kinsey was concerned they were creepy. Lucy was welcome to them.

In the last drawer, she found a Bible. By the wear and tear, it was old and one Kinsey had never seen. Curious, she flipped through the pages. She was about to put it in thekeeppile when she caught a glimpse of writing. Opening it to the middle, she saw that it was a page for marriages. Kinsey frowned as she read the names.

Wanda Little had married Gordon Gentry thirty-three years ago? Who the hell was Gordon Gentry? And neither Little nor Gentry was her mother’s last name. Kinsey turned the page to see it was a record of births. She stared at the names, trying to comprehend what she was seeing. “Nate Gentry, Court Gentry, Alex Gentry, Kinsey Gentry,” she read aloud.

“What’s going on here, Mom?” Considering that her world seemed about to be turned on end, she decided it wasn’t too early to pour a drink. The only alcohol her mother kept in the house was wine, and although Kinsey wished there were something stronger, wine would have to do. As she stood and went to close the Bible, an envelope fell onto the desk. She picked it up and saw her name in her mother’s handwriting.

Instead of pouring a glass, she brought the whole damn bottle back into the office with her. The first glass, she poured to the rim, drank half of it, then opened the envelope and began to read.

My darling Kinsey,

If you are reading this, then I am no longer with you. Please don’t cry too much, sweetheart. I’ve been blessed to have you in my life, and having you has kept me sane.

You see, I had three sons who were taken from me, and my heart has cried each day from missing them. Without you in my life, I don’t know how I would have gone on.

Kinsey dropped the letter, unable to read any further.