DAYS
Chapter 3
The funeral was held a week later, two empty coffins draped with American flags and surrounded by flowers. Both women made it through most of the service, but when they were presented with the flags, they broke down, turning to each other for comfort and embracing tightly. Trivette accepted the flags for them, tears streaming down his own face. Afterwards, the two women went back to the ranch together. Neither of them wanted to be alone.
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Three weeks later, they were eating breakfast when Alex made a proposition.
"Syd, why don't you move in here with me?"
"Move in with you?"
"Yeah—I can't manage the ranch on my own, and I don't want to be alone in this big house."
Sydney looked thoughtful for a moment. Finally, she said, "Okay, I'll do it." She sold her apartment four weeks later. All of hers and Gage's belongings were moved to the ranch. Most of Gage's things were boxed and stored in the attic, because Sydney was not yet ready to get rid of all of it. Alex had seen Sydney put a few of his shirts in the back of a dresser drawer, and a half-full bottle of cologne was on the nightstand. Alex was not yet able to move Walker's things from their bedroom, either. When she was ready, she would, but not until then.
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Alex and Sydney had taken to wearing overalls around the house, finding them much more comfortable. It also made it easier for when they had to do work in the barn. At the moment, they were throwing fresh straw into the horses' stalls, though more of the hay seemed to be flying at each other. They were still giggling madly as they walked back up to the house a few minutes later. Suddenly, Sydney stopped, her eyes wide. She looked up at Alex in amazement, then took her friend's hand and pressed it gently to her belly. Alex smiled. The baby was kicking, and apparently, he took after his parents—he kicked hard! They had talked about what the babies' names would be. Alex had chosen Angela Alexandra for a girl, and Cordell John for a boy. Sydney was going to name her baby either Christopher Francis or Christine Frances, using variations on the spelling of her beloved late husband's first name for the middle name. They hadn't wanted to find out what they were having. They were more than halfway through their pregnancies now. Sydney, at five and a half months along, had long ago been taken off of active duty and assigned a desk job. At six months, however, Alex was still carrying a full caseload.
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