Josh met me at the door as I brought in the first bags of groceries.

"I'll get these, you should call your mom," he said, taking them from me. I stared at him, dread filling me.

"It's not your grandmother," he said, noticing I hadn't moved after putting the bags down. He headed out to the garage and I went to the phone, biting my lip as I dialed home.

"Hello honey," Mom answered.

"Hi, Mom. Josh told me to call you," I let the question drop.

Mom sighed. "Your grandfather died," she said slowly.

I blinked. "Grandpa?"

"Yes, Grandpa Kern."

"How...when?"

"I don't know sweetie, I just read his obituary in the paper this morning. Apparently it was Monday morning. The funeral is set for Friday, I think. Hold on, let me get the paper," Mom was quiet for a moment as she found the paper and then she read the obituary to me.

"I don't think it'd be worth the hassle to come out for the service," I answered. "Not that I'd be welcome anyways."

"Like it or not, you are blood family to them," Mom pointed out.

"I know, I wish I could be there to see the look on Robin's face to see me there." I glanced at Josh, who was putting the food away. I leaned against the counter top and watched as he put the tea bags into the canister as Mom chuckled.

"I didn't even hear he was sick," she said.

"Me either. I hadn't talked to them since Dad's burial. Actually, I hadn't talked to them much after Grandma Kern's funeral." My father's mother had passed away just weeks after Josh came out here for his two month writing frenzy in 2002.

"I was never good enough for your father," Mom replied.

"It's their loss, really, Mom. I feel bad he never got to know his great-grand kids, but it was his choice."

"I agree," Mom sighed. "I guess I should go though."

"Take pictures," I joked. Josh looked over at me from over the fridge door with raised eyebrows.

Mom laughed. "I will," she promised.

"I suppose I should send flowers," I said, standing up and turning to face the counter top, grabbing the pad of paper and pen that we left there. "What was the details on the service?"

Mom repeated the details from the obituary and I scribbled them down. I thanked her and we hung up. I paused for a moment and got the phone book down from the cabinet and flipped through to the florists and ordered two arrangements, one from me and Josh, the other from the kids.

I slammed the cabinet door as I put the phone book back. "Just fucking typical," I muttered to myself.

"I'm sorry," Josh said from the doorway to the family room. I jumped, having forgotten he was there.

"Thanks," I gave him a small smile. "And thanks for doing the groceries for me."

"No problem," he siad. He studied my face. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I went to the fridge and got out a bottle of lemon water and took a sip. "It's just so typical of him to do that," I pointed out.

"What?"

"Be sick and not tell anyone. I'm sure my Aunt Robin knew, and I'm sure he told her not to call anyone else in the family to tell them," I spat out. "We weren't good enough, Mom and I. And they weren't too fond of my brothers either, because Dad would bitch at them about Miss Pat, I guess." I took a deep breath before continuing. "They pretty much cut ties with us after Grandma died. I figured it was their loss and accepted it, and I haven't seen or heard from them since Dad's burial."

"Where they brought their own pastor?" Josh asked. I nodded.

"Yeah, they didn't like that Dad had changed denomination. They were pretty livid about the memorial service being at Mom & Dad's church and not at the one he grew up in. That extra pastor thing was a power play over Mom. They had been married for twenty-seven years, but he was theirs first."

Josh shook his head. "I don't think I blame you for not trying to keep contact with them."

"One of the things you can say about them though is that they're determined. They make up their mind, there's no changing it," I explained. I grinned at him. "And never play poker against one either."

"I'll keep that in mind," Josh said before heading towards the stairs.