Читать книгу Happily Never After - Kathleen O'Brien - Страница 2

“Yes,” he said. “I’m here. What’s wrong?”

Tom understood that something must have happened. Something bad. Kelly hadn’t called him in ten years, though at first he had deluded himself that she might.

“I don’t know if you heard about Lillith Griggs. I mean, she became Lillith Griggs—you knew she and Jacob got married, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I knew that.” He and Jacob still kept in touch, still wrote now and then, though of course, Jacob didn’t admit that to Lillith, who had, like Kelly, been one of Sophie’s bridesmaids and therefore subscribed to the official position that Tom Beckham was scum. “What about Lillith?”

“She was killed in a car accident. Three days ago.”

Tom hadn’t known Lillith well, but she’d always seemed much more…alive than most people. She was a beauty, a brain and a class clown all in one. What kind of accident had been potent enough to extinguish all that?

“I’m sorry to hear that. How is Jacob?”

“He’s a mess,” Kelly said. “That’s why I’m calling. The funeral is tomorrow and he hopes you can come. He needs a friend…and you seem to be the one he wants.”

It was subtle but he could hear how inexplicable she found that fact to be. “Okay,” he said.

“You’ll come?” She must have been expecting an argument.

“Yes. Tell him I’ll be there. What time is the funeral?”

“One. But Tom, if I tell him you’re coming, and then you…”

“Kelly, I’m telling you I will be there. Have I ever lied to you?”

“No,” she said slowly. “Not to me.”