He told me all about Noah and the work he dearly loved with the team. I told him about Aunt Gert, whom he was eager to meet, and filled him in on Daphne’s adventures and on Dad’s stroke and recovery and his budding romance with Ramona. I remembered as we talked why we’d become such good friends and why I’d fallen so hard for him. He was kind and funny and smart and it felt easy between us, like no time had passed. Yet, as I looked at us in the reflection from thewindow, I saw how we had both grown. We were adults now, older and wiser, with wounds and scars and places that were barely healing over.
Over the last crumbs of our meal, Rory sat back and gave me a rueful smile. “Lolly Blanchard. All those years ago when I first saw you, I never could have predicted we’d end up here,” he mused.
I nodded. “I didn’t think I’d see you again,” I said honestly.
He looked a little bashful. “Lolly, I’d love to see you again.”
I took a deep breath.Be honest. Pay Attention. Seek joy. I took a risk. “I’d love that too,” I told him.
He grinned, then reached out and took my hand, gently rubbing his thumb across the back. “I don’t want to waste any more time, Lolly,” he said simply, frankly.
I nodded, trying to swallow the lump in my throat. “Me neither.”
My heart felt like it was beating out of my chest. I looked at our hands clasped on the table amid the waffle crumbs and sticky spots of syrup. I didn’t know what this all meant. It was happening so fast. Could this really be another chance for us? It felt too good to be true. It felt absolutely right.
A firm knock on the plate-glass window near my head made me jump. It was Eve, standing outside and pointing to her watch, reminding me that the market was opening in ten minutes. Rory saw her and lifted his hand in greeting. She crossed her arms and gave him the stink eye, then relented and flashed him a broad smile and a thumbs-up before going back to her booth. We hastily paid the bill, and Rory walked me to Lolly’s Pops. All around us people were unpacking their wares.
“Ooh, look!” On impulse I stopped at a booth I’d seen before, a local jewelry maker. I’d noticed her at a previous market but hadn’t had a chance to see her wares yet. I needed to open Lolly’s Pops but couldn’t resist pausing for a moment to look. Rory stopped beside me. Thewoman crafted jewelry from pressed flowers, preserving their delicate blooms in glass. They reminded me of my mom.
“These are lovely,” I told the artist, perusing the rows of necklaces and earrings. One in particular caught my eye. A simple chain with a hammered silver band encasing a glass circle. Inside the glass was a perfectly preserved delicate flower with five creamy white petals around a starburst of yellow center. It looked strangely familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.
“This one is pretty. What is it?” I pointed. The artist studied it.
“Let me see. That’s a flower from a lemon tree. Very unique, isn’t it?”
I picked up the necklace, the weight of it oddly comfortable in my hand. Where had I seen it before? I knew I recognized this necklace from somewhere. I closed my eyes and tried to picture it. And suddenly I remembered. Nestled against my clavicle, in the mirror of our house in Florida. I had worn this necklace to complement the yellow sundress I’d chosen on that single beautiful day with Rory and the girls.
I stared at the necklace, frowning in bewilderment. How was it possible that it was here, in my hand, if I had already worn it in a previous day in an alternate life? It was a distinctive piece. I’d never seen anything else like it. What were the odds? What was going on?
“That’s pretty,” Rory said over my shoulder.
“A lemon flower stands for clarity, happiness, and hope,” I told him, still feeling confused. “That’s what my mom always said.”
Rory studied the necklace and then me. “Clarity, happiness, and hope, huh?” His gaze was warm on my face. “Can I buy it for you?” He turned to the artist and pulled out his wallet.
“You don’t have to—” I protested, but he was already handing over the cash.
“Please? I want to. Every time you wear it, you can be reminded to never give up hope, to seek happiness, and to remember that life is fullof second chances.” He gave me a crooked smile, so genuine and filled with eagerness that it almost broke my heart. But his words echoed in my head with uncanny clarity.To never give up hope, to seek happiness, and to remember that life is full of second chances.
I stared at him, dumbstruck. Rory had said those exact words to me before, standing in the kitchen of the Florida house, surrounded by sticky chaos and the smell of pancakes. I remembered them clearly. He’d said the same words like they held significance, like they meant something special to us, like we had a history tied to them. I’d had no idea at the time what they meant. But now. What did it mean that he had just said them to me here, in exactly the same way?
I stared at the necklace in my hand, my mind racing, trying to catch hold of something, a niggling premonition, a spark of hope. I glanced from Rory to the necklace. Yesterday morning I’d awakened with the sure knowledge that Rory was lost to me forever, yet here we stood, and I was holding a symbol of hope and happiness. A symbol I’d been wearing on our one beautiful day in Florida together. What did it all mean? I couldn’t quite put the pieces together.
Something Aunt Gert had said to me came back to me then.Often we say “impossible” when what we really mean is “unknown.” So many things are possible; far fewer are known to us. You will discover this soon enough.
And then it came to me, a flash of possibility, a wild, glorious improbability that made me gasp out loud. What if... What if... Could it be that I’d gotten it all wrong? What if that day in Florida, our life together there, those sweet few hours with the girls... What if that day was not an alternate life at all? What if it was not a vision of a different life I could have had, a life that was lost to me forever with that last, melted lemon drop? What if I had instead seen a vision of our potential future together, a life that could still come true?
I clutched the necklace in my hand, fingers closing around it astight as I’d held that last lemon drop just a few months ago. Astounded, barely daring to hope, I tried to make sense of it all. That day in Florida I hadn’t paid any attention to the year in the calendar app on my phone. I’d been so focused on playing Mommy I hadn’t checked anything except the activities for the day. I had assumed that I had awakened the morning after I’d taken the lemon drop, in the same year, just like in Brighton and Kona. But what if I hadn’t? What if something different had happened that time? What if I had actually glimpsed my possible future instead?
All of it came back to me in a rush. A thousand snapshots of our life together—the photos I’d scrolled through on my phone, sitting in the park during Freya’s ballet lesson—birthdays and ballet recitals, family vacations and Christmas dinners. Our first house, nine months of pregnancy, blurry selfies, normal everyday moments, and Dad’s wedding to Ramona. The gangly redheaded adolescent who kept popping up in the photos. The one who bore a remarkable resemblance to Rory’s son. Could that boy be Noah a few years in the future? He certainly looked like Rory. And the photo of me holding popsicles in that industrial kitchen, was it proof of the success of Lolly’s Pops? I’d named my new little business in honor of the one I thought I would never have, the successful business I’d glimpsed in my home office in Florida. But perhaps my little vintage ice cream truck from today came first and Lolly’s Pops would one day be large enough to include that industrial kitchen in the photo.
I thought of the two little girls with dark and copper hair, Sophia and Freya, and my heart squeezed with a desperate hope. What if it wasn’t too late after all? What if I could still have the girls, Rory, a life together as a family?
What if all of it could still be my life?
The idea left me light-headed with a longing so intense I couldn’t breathe. Could it be? I’d never wanted anything more.
“Lolly? Are you okay?” Rory touched my elbow. His concerned eyes were focused on mine, his mouth so close I could have kissed him in an instant. Between us lay a hundred unspoken things, affirmation and desire and tantalizing possibilities for the future. I was dizzy with it, intoxicated. I clasped the necklace close to my heart and nodded, so elated and giddy I thought my heart might burst with joy. Could this truly be just the beginning?
