Page 17 of You'll Be the Death of Me

A sense of dread swallowed her whole just as Jason came stomping down the stairs. His face was blotched red, and he looked faint at the same time. “Did you call 911?” he asked Mariana.

“Yes. They’re on their way,” she told him.

He nodded and took a deep breath. “Okay. This is... I don’t know... Shit. I guess we need to call her family?”

Mariana looked at him, and her eyes washed with tears. Her chin began to wobble. She clutched her phone and nodded.

Jason clucked his tongue and shook his head. “I can’t believe this is happening.” He crossed the room and pulled Mariana into a hug. It made Dell’s dead chest hurt.

She turned back to Cole with a look that was half desperate plea, half fury. “Fix this.Now.”

Cole bobbed his head in a frantic nod. “Yes. Yes, I am going to fix this.”

It didn’t take Dell long to realize that standing around watching her loved ones mourn her sudden death was a terrible idea.

Her brothers showed up first, having completely abandoned whatever real estate venture had them both wearing suits on a Saturday morning. She could tell them apart only because Alex had taken to scruffy facial hair in the year since his new daughter was born, and Andy was clean-shaven. Aside from the stubble, the only thing unidentical about her brothers was their love lives. Alex had married his college sweetheart and started a family, and Andy remained a perpetual bachelor and kept a Tinder account withThe Bad Twinprominently displayed in his profile.

Their faces were pulled into matching shades of shock as they paced about her living room. They were both stroking hands through their dark hair and chewing their bottom lips, the latter a habit Dell fell victim to as well.

Her father showed up next. Once a broad man with a head of hair as thick and dark as his sons’, William Rodgers had grayed into a softer version of himself. Despite having been a formidable authority figure to the outside world her whole life, he had been wrapped around Dell’s finger from the day she was born. WilliamRodgers was putty in her hands, his darling girl, and the sight of his blue eyes misting over as he huddled into Alex’s and Andy’s distraught grip felt like a spear to her dead heart.

But it was her mother who broke everything.

Patricia showed up in jeans and a blue South Bay Food Bank T-shirt, as she’d already been on her way to the food drive in San Jose where Dell had planned to spend the day. Even dressed down, she looked elegant and refined. Her graying blond hair was slipping loose from the bun she’d spun it into, and when she folded herself into Dell’s father’s arms and whispered, “Oh, Billy,” in a soft, broken whimper, it shattered everything Dell had left.

“I can’t be here,” Dell said to Cole, who’d been standing beside her watching the scene unfold. “I need to go.”

“Yes, of course. I’ll go with you,” he said.

Despite knowing no one could see her—because not a single member of the family she’d known for thirty-three years raised an eyebrow at her presence, nor did her best friend, assistant, or fiancé—she felt exposed walking outside in her nightgown.

The front door still stood open. Outside, the foggy morning air carried its customary crispness, but it didn’t feel the same on Dell’s bare arms and legs. Something blunted it. It was the same thing that kept her bare feet from fully sensing the hard concrete she walked on, she guessed, though she had no idea what it could be.

She stopped on the edge of the walkway where she and Jason began jogging every morning, and stared blankly at the bay. The colors were faded, the bridge a dull shade of rust and the water pale gray. Even Robbie loitering in the distance looked like he wore a worn shade of black.

“Sorry you had to see that,” Cole softly said.

Dell jumped at the sound of his voice, having forgotten thisstrange man had followed her. She stepped back and took in the sight of him with fresh eyes.

He was still handsome, perhaps more so out in the daylight. His hair was the unruly kind of tousled, just this side of messy, and his clothing looked like he’d only managed to scoop himself up off the floor in a tastefully careless way. She was tempted to reach out and straighten his crooked tie, but somehow the idea of altering the whole perfectly disheveled scene felt criminal. He was long and leanly muscular—a completely different shape than Tommy—and being barefoot was only making her feel smaller. He was the kind of man she could wear four-inch heels beside and still feel dainty. His expression of concern carried something else with it, something intriguing and warm, which sent a curl of heat to Dell’s face. She was suddenly extremely aware she was standing in front of him in nothing but her underwear and a thin, short layer of satin.

She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at him. “Yes, I wasn’t planning on living out a warped version ofIt’s a Wonderful Lifethis morning.”

A shy smile lifted his lips, as if he wasn’t sure he should laugh at her dark humor. “At least you know they love you.”

The comment hit Dell like a sledgehammer. She knew her family loved her, of course she did. They were the type to write it in greeting cards and say it on phone calls. There’d been no shortage of affection in her household growing up. Her parents still held hands in public. But witnessing their devastation over her loss put it into new perspective. Words and sentiments were one thing. Visceral reactions and uncontrollable grief were another.

The sensation of tears boiled up behind Dell’s eyes, burninglike a small fire. When she went to wipe away the drops that should have been falling, she felt nothing but supple skin.

She flinched with a frown and rubbed her dry fingers together. She scowled at Cole. “I can’tcry?” she said incredulously.

He pursed his lips and shook his head. “Afraid not.”

An exasperated scoff escaped her mouth. She thought back to how she’d felt when she woke what seemed like ages ago already, the peculiar absence of... everything. “So, what, I have no more bodily functions?” she asked, and shoved her fingers into her neck to check for a pulse.

Nothing.

“Right. Your body is basically preserved as it was when you, um...passed.”