Page 149 of 10 Rings I Hate About You
She looked at me. The same look I’d noticed before, where she did that internal assessment to determine whether it was okay to ask for something. I wasn’t even sure she realized she didit. And I hated that she’d had enough times in her life where her needs didn’t matter, that she felt like she even had to think about that—or just do everything on her own.
I filed that away and decided that as long as I was around, she’d have one less reason to wonder.
“Hold up each piece,” she said and let out a tiny exhale. “I’ll tell you what pile to put it in. I just … I can’t go through and touch them all myself tonight. It’s too overwhelming.”
“Done.”
We found a rhythm within a few minutes. I took things off the hanger and held them out. She looked at them and said whether she’d keep it or not, and the “I’m not sure” ended up on the bed in a separate pile.
I was going to make this as easy as I could for her.
A blouse, cream with small embroidered flowers around the collar. “Donate.”A cardigan in deep green that Delaney ran a finger over before she said, “keep.” A pair of slacks, practical, well-made. “Donate.”
I picked up the next item when her hands stopped moving. This particular hanger held a dress. Simple. Navy. A subtle-wrap style.
“She wore that to my high school graduation,” she said. Her voice had gone low and soft. “Her connecting flight was grounded because of bad weather so she drove fourteen hours to get there. She didn’t even tell me because she wanted to surprise me, and she was afraid she’d never make it in time.” She paused, lost in thought. Probably remembering that day. “I was walking across the stage, and I heard her shout my name.”
I held the dress and said nothing. The fabric was light in my hands. To me, it was just a dress. To Delaney, it was something else entirely.
She lightly fingered the material. “She brought me an enormous bunch of flowers. It seemed like it was every kind shecould find in every grocery store she passed on her way directly from the airport. There were so many, but the ones I remember the most were the sunflowers. She said she got those because it was the only flower that looked as happy as she felt that day.” Delaney smiled. “I have a photo somewhere of us outside on the high school football field where the ceremony was held. She’s holding the flowers, I have my diploma, and we’re both laughing at something. I wish I could remember what made us laugh so hard.”
She reached out, took the dress from my fingers, and carefully folded it before she added it to the keep pile.
I reached for the next hanger as she straightened up and kept going.
An hour later, the closet had three organized sections. The keep pile was hung neatly to one side, the donate pile was in a large trash bag by the door, and the “I’m not sure” pile was folded and placed on a shelf in the closet. Delaney was not done with those decisions yet, just done with them for tonight.
Exhaustion lined her face. I’d ordered pizza that had come in the middle of it all, and was probably cold sitting in its box on the stove.
I slipped my arm around her waist, and she laid her head on my shoulder. She let out a deep, shuddery sigh and left the room, returning with her arms full of the clothes that had been in her suitcase. The sundress, a few T-shirts, a long cardigan, and a few soft sweaters I’d seen her wear.
She hung them on the empty side. Maybe ten items in a closet that could hold fifty.
But it was a start. After she hung them, she stood back, appraising them, and nodded. She drew in a breath and let it out.
“I’m so proud of you,” I said softly.
“Thank you for helping me. I couldn’t have done it by myself.”
I wrapped my arms around her and breathed in her light lavender scent. “You can ask me to help with anything.”
“I’m hungry.”
I kissed her temple. “The pizza we ordered is in the kitchen. I’ll heat it up.”
She nodded. “I think I have just enough energy to go through a few more things other than clothes while we eat.”
I almost protested and told her she didn’t have to push herself so hard tonight. It was the first time she really had to deal with her aunt’s things, but I kept it to myself. She was the one who decided how and when she was ready to deal with her grief.
I was here to make sure she ate, drank, and eventually slept.
I left and came back a few minutes later with drinks, two plates piled high with pizza, and napkins. We sat on the floor with our backs to the bed, and the closet door opened in front of us.
After her last bite, Delaney set her plate down on the floor beside her. “I’m so glad you ordered this. I didn’t realize how hungry I was.”
She stood as I finished mine and entered the closet. Her gaze traveled the shelving along the top and a tiny gasp reached me. Delaney stuck her head out of the door and motioned for me.
I put my plate aside and followed her. She pointed to a box on the top shelf. “Can you get that?”
