The Noel Bridge

Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

One Month Later

A fter work, Alicia smoothed her crumpled scrubs as she stood in the doorway of Bo’s parents’ home, holding a handled bag filled with his belongings.

His mother, Delia, put her hand to her heart upon seeing her. “Hello, my sweet girl.” She reached out and gave her a hug and then tucked her short gray hair behind her ears. “Come in.”

Alicia followed the woman inside, the unique scent of cranberry with fresh cotton that always reminded her of their gatherings on his side of the family hit her. She swallowed to keep the emotions from rising up. With every step down the hallway, she walked back into her old life. But this time, she was observing it rather than wallowing in it.

“Bert’s still at work,” Delia said, referring to Bo’s father. “He’d have liked to see you.”

“I can stay until he gets home.”

They entered the kitchen and Alicia set the bag on the counter.

“So you have a few of Bo’s things to give me?”

Alicia nodded, sliding the bag toward her .

A tear slid down the woman’s cheek as she pulled out Bo’s grandfather’s watch and held it to her lips, kissing it. “This was my dad’s. He gave it to Bo when he was a little boy and he wore it his whole life.” She looked up to the heavens. “Now they’re together—no need for time anymore.” She wiped a tear.

“I feel him around me,” Alicia said.

His mother’s face brightened. “You do?”

“Yes. I feel him rooting me on.”

Her mother blinked away more tears. “That would be just like him. He’d have given you the world if he could.”

“I know.”

Delia took in a long breath and produced a forced smile. “So you said on the phone today that you’ve met someone?”

“It sounds weird, but I feel as if Bo led me to him. I know that doesn’t make any sense.”

“It makes a lot of sense. If he can’t be here to take care of you, he’d send someone if he could. Your happiness was his number one priority.”

That warm cosmic embrace took hold once more. “He got you something for your birthday right before he died,” Alicia said, reaching into the bag and pulling out a small wrapped box. “I couldn’t bring myself to give it to you until now.”

Delia held the box and stared at it, tears welling in her eyes. She ran a finger over the silver, patterned paper. “A gift from beyond,” she said in nearly a whisper. With trembling fingers, she untied the ribbon and ripped off the paper.

The day Bo had brought it home had been like any other day. Alicia was washing dishes and he’d come up behind her, kissing the top of her head.

“ Got Mom one of her coins—a Kennedy half dollar ,” he’d said, holding up a gift bag before disappearing into the bedroom to wrap it.

Alicia had continued to suds up a dish, with no possible inkling as to how different her life would become, and how, in some strange and twisted way, she’d end up right where she should be, even though the pain had brought her to her knees before she’d been able to rise above it.

“Oh, my goodness,” Delia said, bringing Alicia back to the present. She turned the rare coin around. “I’d been wanting this. I just told Bert yesterday that I might buy it, but at a hundred and fifty dollars, he told me to hold off.” She cradled it against her bosom.

Even now, Bo seemed to be looking out for his loved ones.

“Thank you for coming tonight,” Delia said.

“I’m glad I did.”

Alicia came home and stripped off her scrubs from work. Before visiting Delia, it had been her final day at Savannah General, and she’d stayed later than she’d expected, telling all her patients goodbye. Leaving was bittersweet. She hated passing her patients on to someone else, but knew there were better things to come.

“ You’re different ,” Katy had said when she’d gone back to work after coming home from Noel. “ You glow now .”

Over the last month, while she finished out her work days, Alicia had organized her life. Now, after washing her face and slipping on her pajamas, she put her hands on her hips and took in the piles of boxes she’d sorted. She’d parted with the things she’d no longer need, donating them at the second-hand store, and she’d now delivered the last of Bo’s things to his family.

But she’d kept what mattered most to her—Bo’s journal, which he liked to write in every evening, and a beat-up copy of Catcher in the Rye , which he read whenever he was feeling down. He’d said it lifted his spirits every time.

She picked up the items and set them in a box full of other life-memories, like her high school cheerleading trophies and her science-fair ribbons. Then she sealed it up with packing tape, securing her past. The moving company was coming tomorrow, and even though she was exhausted, she still had some organizing to do. It would be a late night, but her excitement over what was to come would get her through.

Her phone lit up with a text across the room. She walked over to it to find a message from Leo.

What are you doing right now? Did you ever get dinner?

She realized then that she’d texted him after work that she was starving, but was planning on visiting Bo’s parents before she ate. She texted him back that she hadn’t eaten but she’d find whatever scraps were left in the fridge.

A knock on her door pulled her attention away from Leo’s text. She set her phone down and went over to the peephole to see who could be knocking at this late hour. When she saw who it was, a gasp escaped her lips. Leo was on the other side, holding a pizza box and a bottle of wine. She flung the door open, wrapped her arms around him, and pressed her lips to his, nearly knocking him backward.

“What are you doing here?”

He laughed. “You’re moving to Noel tomorrow and I thought you might need some help.” He held out the bottle of wine.

She ushered him inside. “Where’s your dad?”

“He’s with Agnes. She let me pay her overtime to stay with him while I’m gone. I’m at a hotel down the road.” He set the pizza on the counter and leaned in, giving her another kiss and taking her breath with it. “Hungry?”

“Starving.”

In the bright light of the kitchen, she dished pizza slices onto paper plates while Leo popped the wine cork and filled two plastic cups. He handed her one and looked around the near-empty space, before pacing over to the window seat.

“I could see you sitting here,” he said.

She smiled. He knew her so well already. “That’s my favorite spot in the condo.”

He came back over to her and held up his cup. “Should we toast?”

She put her cup in the air. “What would you like to toast to?”

“To us. In this moment. Tonight is the start of the rest of our lives.”

No longer caught between the now and the never, she tapped her cup to his, knowing she was currently between the now and forever . And that was a wonderful feeling.