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“Goodbye,” he said. “Even if we meet again, it won’t be like this. Thank you for writing me and giving me a chance to say goodbye to him.” Harold brushed his hand over my hair, smiling. “I hope this isn’t too strange, but looking at you, I feel like I can finally lay him to rest. A part of him lives on here—” he touched both my eyebrows and slid his fingers down my cheek “—and here.” He patted my chest above my heart.
On that note, he turned and walked away, leaving me contemplating the strongest, most bittersweet feeling I’d ever wanted to capture. I headed back inside, took our glasses into the kitchen, and sat down at the table.
A few moments later, I got up again and picked up the phone. There was just one voice I wanted to hear now.
“Hello, may I speak to Daniel?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
‡
Picking Daniel upat the airport, my heart thumped. I waited by the gate he’d be exiting from and fidgeted with my camera. I couldn’t wait to see him, and I knew he couldn’t wait to see me, either. He came through the door from the ramp, eyes searching the crowd, and then lighting up with sheer joy at the sight of me.
I snapped the shot, and then another.
“Hey,” I gasped when his arms came around me, and lifted me into a big hug. The camera clunked against his shoulder, and I clung to his back. “You’d think you’d been gone a year,” I laughed, as he swung me around and then dropped me to my feet. People gawked, but we ignored them. “Not just a week and a half.”
“It felt like a year,” Daniel said, pushing a hand through his messy hair, and then grinning at me again. “It’s good to see you. It was a long trip.”
“I want to hear all about it,” I said, putting the camera’s lens cap on, and picking up one of Daniel’s bags of luggage. I hefted the strap over my shoulder and wobbled under the weight.
Daniel grabbed the other piece, and we headed down past the checked-luggage carousel, both of us glad he’d managed with just carry-ons so we didn’t have to wait.
“Are you hungry?” I asked, as we put his stuff in the trunk.
He didn’t answer until we’d both climbed in the front seat and put on our seat belts. “I could eat,” he said. “But why don’t we go on home first? We can order pizza.”
I pulled out of the parking lot and headed toward the payment booth and then drove down Alcoa Highway, pleased that our destination was a hell of a lot closer now. It meant I could get Daniel out of his clothes a hell of a lot faster, too.
Pulling into the driveway, I realized that though it wasn’t the first time I’d spent the night at the house since Bobby’s passing, it was the first time since Daniel had bought it. The sound of barking came from inside as we walked toward the front door. “Aww, Milky Way sounds excited.”
“Kerri left her this morning with bowls of food and water. I hope she’s glad to be home. Her real home.”
When Daniel got the key from behind a strategically-placed loose brick and opened the door, we were greeted by a ball of white fur and excited yipping. “Hey girl, hey,” I murmured, squatting down to pet her, and let her lick my face.
Daniel petted her, too. After she’d peed by a bush, he lifted her up to carry her squirming body into the house.
When I stepped inside, Daniel turned on the lights and I let out a low whistle.
“One of the guys from McPeak Construction got the phone, water, and electric handled while I was gone with some help from an attorney and many faxes.”
The place looked so different with Daniel’s furniture; some was brought from Kingston, but most of it was new stuff he’d just purchased. I still remembered meeting Bobby for the first time in this room, and how different it had looked and smelled then. I wondered if his ghost lingered, and if he was happy with Daniel moving in here.
“That’s the sectional from the basement?”
“Part of it. It was too big to bring in full.”
“And the TV and stereo.”
“Yeah.”
We walked around, making sure everything was still where Daniel wanted it to be. The one thing he’d changed from Bobby’s layout was the placement of the bed. Bobby had had his facing the south wall and windows, so Daniel had put his bed on the opposite side. It made the room feel less haunted.
“It needs a lot of work,” Daniel said, turning and looking around. “But I love it.”
“Me too. Let’s make up the bed,” I said, opening the linen closet by the hallway bathroom.
“In a hurry?” He laughed.
