Page 24 of Ashes of Us

Danica wasn't home long when Emilia, Xavier and the three kids showed up.

Emilia immediately put the two oldest to work, instructing them to start putting tablecloths on the tables Xavier was setting up.

With Gracie watching her parents closely from where she was quietly playing with her dolls at one of the tables, Danica and Emilia followed behind them, putting weights on the corners of the tablecloths so they wouldn't blow away and plastic glasses full of plastic utensils in the center of each table.

“Are you expecting many people?” Emilia asked curiously as she started unfolding chairs.

“I have no idea,” Danica admitted. “I know Reggie and his wife and kids are coming; he's offered to man the barbecue.

Trey said he'd stop by, so did Heather, Penny, Aaron, Jennifer, Morgan, and Matthew. If they all come with their families...” She trailed off.

The Prestons rarely had fewer than two kids, so there were going to be a lot of people.

“Let's just hope they don't all come at the same time.”

They were setting up a table that had a large picture of Jasper on it when Reggie showed up.

After the hugs and greetings, he headed over to the barbecue to get it set up, and Xavier grabbed the two oldest boys to help bring out the coolers with hot dogs and burgers in them.

Danica set up a pile of boxes with tea lights in them at one end of the table and laid out a few boxes of matches so people could light a candle for him.

Emilia, who had been introducing Reggie's wife, Vera and their daughters to her kids, joined her and, after a moment, rubbed her arm.

“You know,” she murmured. “Xavier and I were talking, and if all his parents want is his sperm, why don't you have it...” She waved her hand, looking for the right word.

“Harvested?” She wrinkled her nose and cleared her throat.

“Not to give in or anything, but so you can take Jasper off the machines.

The hospital will freeze it, and then if his parents do win or the court case drags on for longer than three weeks, you're not visiting the hospital to sit with your husband's dead body for hours on end.”

Danica looked at her, considering her idea. She had stayed with his body for visiting hours on Saturday and Sunday, feeling an odd sense of guilt that he was just lying there alone. “You know what? I think I'll pass that on to my lawyer and see if he can talk to the judge about that.”

“Who is that?” Emilia asked, her tone of voice a little suggestive. “God, he's cute.” Danica turned and saw Maverick had arrived and was carrying a small flower arrangement.

“That's my private investigator,” she responded quietly, elbowing her. “You have a husband.” Maverick was cute, though, so she had to agree with her.

“Married, not blind,” Emilia murmured as Maverick spotted them and walked over, smiling. “Dimples, too. God damn.”

“He has a girlfriend,” Danica muttered as he reached them. “Emilia, this is Maverick, Maverick, this is Emilia, my best friend who's married to Jasper's cousin. She knows who you are.” Seeing Emilia's confused look, she explained they were telling people he worked at the hotel with her.

“These are for you, I guess.” Maverick handed her the flowers. “I wasn't really sure what to bring.”

“These are perfect.” Danica smiled at him and turned to set them up on the table next to the picture of Jasper. “You didn't have to bring anything.”

“Felt like I should.” Maverick was looking around the backyard curiously. “I have Watson in my car; do you mind if I bring him out? He helps break the ice and is amazing with kids.”

“Oh, yeah, bring him out.” Danica nodded, and Emilia looked between them curiously. Maverick turned to go back to his car, and she raised her eyebrow at Danica.

“Watson?”

“His dog,” Danica explained briefly, and Maverick returned, this time with the Basset Hound on his leash.

“Oh, my goodness!” Emilia cooed and immediately knelt down, holding out her hand for Watson to sniff. “Aren't you adorable?” Danica watched in amusement as Watson immediately nudged her hand and wagged his tail furiously.

“No, Emilia.” Xavier's firm voice came across the yard from where he was standing with Reggie. “We're not getting one.”

“He knows me too well.” Emilia sighed as she straightened up, dusting off her knees.

“So, Emilia, since you know who I am and know everyone in the family, why don't I rely on you to introduce me to people who might know about Lucy and Jasper's relationship?” He turned his attention back to them with that same warm smile. “That way, Danica doesn't have to worry about me.”

“I think I can do that.” Emilia nodded and waved for him to follow her. “Come on, let's go meet my husband and youngest daughter, who won't talk or look at you. Just go with it.” Maverick nodded, and they left Danica standing there, watching them walk away.

“How do you know Maverick?” A deep, familiar voice spoke from just beside her, making her jump. She turned to see Alex standing beside her, watching Maverick walk away with narrowed eyes.

“What are you doing here?” Danica winced as she heard the slightly accusatory tone in her voice and shook her head as he raised an eyebrow at her, looking mildly insulted.

“Sorry, I just didn't expect you to come.” She pushed her hair off her face, wondering why she was so flustered about Alex being here.

He had texted and asked for an update over the weekend, but she had been with Jasper and figured she would answer him later, then forgot.

She wasn't even sure how he found out about the memorial.

“You didn't respond to my text on Saturday, so I stopped by to check on you on my way home.” He folded his arms, looking around. “Am I interrupting something?”

“Sorry,” Danica mumbled. “I was busy and then forgot to respond.” She remembered his first question and looked at him in surprise. “He's my PI, my lawyer suggested him. How do you know Maverick?”

“We were both on the varsity track and field teams in high school.” He shrugged.

“Rival teams, though, he went to Salem High, and I went to Newman.” He was still looking around with vague curiosity, and she realized she hadn't answered whether he was interrupting or not.

God, he had really thrown her off by just showing up.

“Right.” She hadn't realized Alex had done track and field in high school; he looked more like the quarterback type.

“Anyway, he's here because we're having a small memorial for Jasper.” She nodded at the table with his picture.

“He's gonna try to question Jasper's cousins about his relationship with the woman who approached us in the hospital.”

Alex tilted his head at her, looking both annoyed and confused. “What does she have to do with anything? What happened in court?”

Danica felt her shoulders slump. Of course, he wouldn't know.

She had been trying to push Alex out of her mind as much as possible since Friday.

The fact that he had shown up and had her back was giving her confusing feelings, which were making her feel very guilty and disgusted with herself.

“Come on.” She waved for him to follow her and led him toward the garage, away from everyone else.

“First, if you plan to stick around, Maverick is pretending he's a friend of mine from the hotel, so you'll need to go along with that.” She came to a stop just outside the door.

She still hadn't been able to go into the garage.

Anyone who had asked for her husband's tools had been gently turned down, with Danica claiming she wanted to keep them since rebuilding cars had been their special thing together.

Alex nodded, glancing over at Maverick. “I can do that. So? What happened?”

“They don't want custody of his body,” Danica muttered, wrapping her arms around her stomach protectively. She had felt vaguely stomach sick since leaving the courthouse Friday afternoon. “They want his sperm.” That made Alex freeze, and he turned his head slowly, looking at her blankly.

“I'm sorry?”

“Yeah.” Danica nodded. “They've decided losing both Jasper and their potential grandchild is too much and want me to give permission to harvest his sperm for the woman who approached us at the hospital.”

“They believe that the baby was Jasper's?” his tone was low and incredulous, and she could see a spark of anger in his eyes. “They're taking her side?”

Nodding, she quickly explained about Jasper showing up at his parents' place in a panic the day he died and how she thought he had confessed to his mother that he had cheated and gotten Lucy pregnant.

“Apparently, she's his old girlfriend who thought he was gonna propose and got dumped instead.

According to Emilia, she never got over him.

Luckily, like ninety percent of his family are taking my side and are disgusted with them, but they believe that the fact that the judge didn't shut them down immediately means they aren't in the wrong here.”

“And why didn't the judge shut them down?” Alex growled. “This is fucking ridiculous!”

“Funny, that's what Trista said.” Danica rubbed her face, suddenly feeling exhausted and absently wondering when her emotions would stop flipping on a dime. “I can only assume he had some sympathy for them. He gave me three weeks to find evidence that Jasper didn't want the child.”

“Even if he did, it didn't survive the accident, so it's not the same one.” Alex pointed out. “Why is the judge letting his parents mentally and emotionally abuse you for the sake of a child that doesn't exist?”