Silence descends upon us as Brad pulls up outside the B&B we’re all staying in outside of town. “Here we are.” We all slide out. Kody and I grab our bags from the back.
“What do we need to do first?”
Breathing in the cool Alaskan spring air, I feel the one-two punch to my heart move more viciously than anything Nick could land with his powerful blows. “Drink. That’s what I need to do before tonight.”
“Maybe I’ll arrange for Rainey to get Nick,” Brad mutters, glancing at his watch. It’s only a little after eleven in the morning.
Kody slaps him on the shoulder. “I’ve never known you guys not to be able to catch up. Jed’s the only one who can’t…” The rest of the words are left unsaid.
“Text Nick and tell him you’ll send a taxi to pick him up,” I order as we climb the steps to the pretty blue inn. “Also, tell him the driver might need to make a detour to get us more booze by then.”
The last is said as the proprietor comes to greet us. A warm look is exchanged for one of alarm. Brad quickly jumps in to save us from being thrown out before we’re checked in. “Ron, these are two of my three friends here for Jed’s funeral.”
The wariness is replaced by a look of abject sympathy so strong I have to avert my eyes. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
Kody’s voice is shredded when he says, “It was so unexpected.”
“Yet as awful as it may seem, the quick and unexpected sometimes seems easier to those of us who have lived through the prolonged and suffering. It’s all a matter of perspective.” His face contorts as if speaking from his own experience. Holding out his hand, he says, “Ron Hotchkiss.”
“John Jennings.” We shake briskly.
He does the same to Kody. “Don’t worry about bothering your friend with taxis and the like. If you all are too imbibed to pick him up, I can get him for you.”
I turn to Brad. “How did you find this place?”
His smile is laced with all the pain we’re all feeling. “I didn’t. The package from Jed’s lawyers included instructions on everything I was supposed to do, including contact Ron. I just followed them. What about you?”
I remember the picture in my bag. “I only received a photograph and a note from the attorney there would be a will reading after tomorrow’s service.”
We turn toward Kody, who shrugs. “Same here.”
“I wonder about Nick?” Yet even as I say the words, a wave of pain over Jed planning all of this out in anticipation of a death that he never could have predicted was coming practically brings me to my knees. Turning toward Ron, I lift my bag. “Can we…?”
“Of course. Let’s get you settled.”
I’m not certain anything is going to be settled ever again, but I’m more than ready to get started with the drinking portion of today’s events.
When Nick arrives, we’re three bottles in, which is a fairly slow pace considering all we want to do is forget Jed won’t be able to berate us for our childish behavior in the morning. Or ever again.
Dropping his bags at his feet, he gives his thanks to Ron before folding his weary body into the last arm chair in front of the fire. “Tell me you saved a bottle for me.”
Brad passes him an unopened bottle of Jed’s favorite scotch. Nick unscrews the top and lifts it to his lips.
I raise a brow. “You aren’t in training?”
Tearing his lips away, Nick barks out a bitter laugh. “When am I not in training? Someone has to teach those young punks how to fight. But this only happens once.” Pinning us with the glare he used to give his opponents in the ring, he tacks on, “At least it better.”
Kody mutters, “I’m not the one with a suicide wish getting my ass beat by guys half my age on a regular basis.”
As if that pleases him, Nick sits back and resumes drinking.
We catch up before I bring us back around to a topic I’m curious about. “Did anyone else get anything resembling the letter from the attorney like Brad did?”
Heads shake around the small space. “I called and asked Maris about it,” Brad admits.
“What did she say?” I take another pull.
“Just that she was the executor of his estate and everything would be explained then. Rainey wanted to see if we could drop anything by, a casserole or something, but Maris shut us down. She said Dean’s family is in too much shock. She was polite but firm. Said she’d see all of us at the viewing.”
We all spend a moment digesting that because that doesn’t sound like the outrageously outgoing Maris Smith who’s as much our little sister as she was Jed’s. I’m about to ask more about it when Nick pipes up. “I’m surprised his husband isn’t the executor.”
Brad shrugs. “Grief maybe? Who knows?” He takes a sip from his second glass. After all, one of us needs to remain sober enough to drive to the wake. Later I’m absolutely certain he plans on catching up.
Kody shudders. “I just hope it’s not one of those open-casket things.”
“Why?” Brad demands. “It’s respectful.”
“It’s kinda creepy,” Kody counters. “All that makeup and crap they use to make the person look like they’re still alive when all they end up looking like is a wax figure out of some museum that’s preparing to scare the fuck out of you.”
We’re all stunned by the vehemence of Kody’s words when Nick yells, “Boo!”
Kody fumbles with his bottle, spilling it all over himself. “You’re such an asshole,” he fumes.
“Yeah.” Nick smiles lazily. “But you know damn good and well if you said that shit if Jed was still alive, he’d have done the same thing—if not worse.”
Kody looks away, but not before I catch the glint of tears the firelight illuminates. “You’re right.”
“Want to repeat that?”
“Fuck you, Nick.”
“Nah, I hear that often enough.” He pauses for a moment before he says, “Though it’s normally, ‘Fuck me, Nick.’”
We all laugh, but my mind is stuck back on something Nick said earlier. “I still can’t believe he got married without us there.” Jed had married his husband less than two years before at a destination wedding in the Caribbean Islands.
Nick nods. “Even when he was with us, he never spoke much about Dean. But I know he loved him, man. From the moment they met on that vacation, he was gone for the man.”
“Wonder why we never met him. I mean, that trip was a couple of years ago now?” I muse aloud.
Brad snickers. “Would you introduce a respectable man to the group of us?”
“You did,” I counter. “Many, many years ago.”
“Much to her lament,” Brad laughs.
“To Brad’s point, I wouldn’t introduce a woman I was serious about to you assholes on a good day,” Nick agrees. “Which is why it’s going to suck meeting him on the worst one imaginable.”
I lift my bottle in acknowledgment. But I’m just grateful Jed had a few good years with someone who made him happy. “He must have been something special though. Jed wouldn’t have fallen for just anyone.”