Free Her Summer with the Marine: A Donovan Brothers Novel (Entangled Bliss) by Susan Meier

sorry, Mary Sue. You and your family just sit tight and let McDermott’s take care of you.”
    She hung up the phone, fighting to hold back a whoop of joy.
    “You got a funeral, didn’t you?”
    The relief that filled her almost had her laughing again. “Yes.”
    “It appears the appeals for your dad worked.”
    She rose from the bench. She didn’t quite trust the look in his eyes, but she had a funeral to plan. As her father always said, McDermott’s provides a service. We take care of families.
    And, by God, that’s exactly what she’d do. Take care of the Berkeys.
    That is, if she and her team could do a funeral as well as her father always had—with Barbara Beth as embalmer and the face of her business.
    Oh, dear God.

Chapter Seven
    “God bless you.” Barbara Beth caught the hand of a mourner as the group solemnly filed out of the church behind the casket. “God bless you.” Another hand. “God bless you.”
    Wearing a black sheath and pearls, Ellie stood across the aisle from her, not sure if B.B.’s masculine black suit and over-the-top sympathy were a good thing or a bad thing.
    Dan leaned in to whisper in her ear. “You’re doing fine. Great. And we’re almost done. Ten minutes at the graveside, then we’re in the church hall for a nice lunch.”
    She knew he’d said that to be reassuring. But lunch meant seeing the Dinner Belles, the women whose gossip had ruined her mom’s reputation. The women whose gossip had made her own life in this town a living hell. After her mom had died, she couldn’t go to the diner, O’Riley’s Market, or even Health Aid without one of them pointing and whispering. She was a late-in-life baby. A mistake. What if Amanda had left because she didn’t want children? What if Amanda hadn’t been cut out to be a mom and though she’d tried for twelve years, she’d just had enough?
    Ellie sucked in a breath. If there’d been any other choice for a funeral lunch, she wouldn’t have hired the Dinner Belles. But the nondenominational women’s group did every after-funeral lunch. She couldn’t bypass the offer of their services without causing an uproar. And an uproar meant people would dislike her. People disliking her meant they wouldn’t use McDermott’s. And then her dad would be out on the street.
    Barbara Beth pressed her palm to the hand of the last mourner. “God bless you.” When the swinging doors flapped closed behind him, she raced across the aisle to Ellie and Dan.
    “Oh my God.” Her voice was quiet, hushed, because they were still in church, but her shiny eyes couldn’t hide her excitement. “That was amazing.”
    Shaking his head, Dan left to help the ushers get the casket into the back of the hearse.
    Ellie faced Barbara Beth. “You still have to say a few words at the graveside.”
    She fisted her hands and raised them to her face like an excited child. “That’s right! And I’m the one who tells everybody to meet at the church hall for lunch.”
    “That’d be you.”
    Barbara Beth breathed deeply, shook her long blond hair down her back, and shifted her face into the appropriate solemn lines. “I’ll see you in the hearse.”
    “I’m taking my car.”
    Barbara Beth smiled sympathetically at her. “I know you hate these things. So you don’t really need to go to the grave site.” She cleared her throat. “I am the manager, and you said you basically do administrative work like a bookkeeper, right?”
    Though it rankled, Ellie said, “Yes.”
    “So, we really don’t need you, sweetie.” She put her hand on Ellie’s shoulder. “And the books are somewhat behind…”
    “Barbara Beth, you may be the manager, but I’m the owner. What did we say when we talked about this a few nights ago?”
    “That I should never help Finn Donovan again.”
    “Right. But what else?”
    “That I handle the dead bodies and you handle the money.”
    “And?”
    “And we both work with the people.” She sighed. “But I’m better at