best thing that's ever been mine - a Kaylor story

Chapter 40

If anyone is questioning why Taylor Swift is sitting in the fourth row with her girlfriend's arm around her and two security guards sitting on either side of them at Robin Poe's funeral, they don't say anything out loud. In fact, no one says a single word about them until everyone in the procession is following the hearse down to the cemetery to put her body to rest.

Karlie can feel everyone staring at them where they walk hand in hand, clad in black. They look as anonymous as they can, trying not to stand out and draw attention to themselves, trying to prevent stealing the attention away from the reason they're there, but it's futile.

"What's Taylor Swift doing here?" someone asks softly behind them, clearly not intending for Karlie and Taylor to hear them, but the wind brings the words to Karlie's ears and she turns slightly to look around.

She doesn't know who said the words out loud and she doesn't want to look like she's searching for any potentially red faces in the midst of the funeral procession, so she pretends she was just looking at the sky instead. It's a beautiful day outside, with only a few clouds scattered across the blue sky.

Karlie turns her head to look at Taylor, who seems to not have picked up on the comment from the people behind them. She's red and bleary-eyed and her cheeks have faint lines on them from tears that fell during the ceremony. Karlie throws her arm around Taylor's back and pulls her close to her, giving her a kiss on the forehead as they slowly continue walking.

They stand in the back of the crowd as the funeral continues outside. Karlie stands right behind Taylor, her arms wrapped lovingly around Taylor's waist as the pastor says a few words. Behind them Taylor's security guards are giving the crowd some space, watching them closely from a few yards away. Around them, people stand in silence only interrupted by the gusts of wind and the sniffling coming from the grieving people around them.

Karlie snuggles close to Taylor as Emily and her daughter place flowers onto the casket. It marks the end of the ceremony and people start scattering – some go back to the church and some head towards the parking lot. Karlie and Taylor stay behind for a while, avoiding most of the crowd.

After a few minutes, Emily walks up to them holding her daughter's hand.

"Thank you so much for coming," she says quietly and hugs Taylor tightly before looking down at her daughter, shaking her little arm gently. "This is Madison," she says and smiles at Taylor.

"Hi Madison," Taylor says, "it's very lovely to meet you!" She looks back at Emily and returns the smile. "I wouldn't have missed it for the world," she says quietly, tears glistening in her eyes. "Your mother meant a lot to me."

"You meant a lot to her too," Emily replies, her eyes looking as glossy as Taylor's. "Are you guys staying for a while? Have some food with us?"

"I don't think so," Taylor says gently, "we don't want to impose and I know that if I stay, the focus will just shift to me instead of your mom and that's not fair to her memory."

"I guess you have a point," Emily says and sighs.

"Maybe once things are back to normal again, we could have dinner? Then you two can get to know each other a little," Taylor suggests and looks lovingly from Karlie to Emily and back to Karlie again.

"I would really like that," Karlie chimes in and smiles at Emily.

"That sounds good," Emily says and returns the smile. "I'll call you and we can figure something out. Do you know how long you're staying?"

"We actually haven't planned that far ahead yet, but I'm sure we can manage to find a day. If we're back in New York we can always just fly back here for dinner."