Page 139 of The New Place

“He tried to eat it,” Peggy says.

“I told him not to,” Liesl says. “You have to come down now.”

Ned needs another minute. An hour. To sit here with Abbot and just be.

Though they’re signing up for a lifetime of that, aren’t they? So he stands and takes Abbot’s hand. “Ready?”

Abbot’s eyes are dark behind his glasses. He looks calm. Maybe Ned is too, after sitting here together. He feels better, certainly, and Abbot looks it too.

Today is happening, his life barreling forward toward this moment, and he’s learned to simply accept it and hold on for the ride.

Abbot tugs his hand and Ned steps in, reading the invitation in his tipped chin.

“Come on,” Liesl says, impatient as Ned kisses Abbot, cups his face in his palm, and stands there for a long beat, taking another moment to simply be near him.

He has to let go of Abbot’s hand as they walk down the stairs, which feels unfair. He wants to keep that tight grip, grounding him against the swirl of strangeness this moment holds, like too much of his life is crammed into this handful of minutes. He grabs it again on the sidewalk, lacing their fingers together and shivering without his coat. The girls must be freezing too, but they don’t seem to notice, peering through the window for some signal, and only then pulling open the door.

The bells on the handle jingle cheerfully like they have every time Ned has come in here. The balloons are scattered about, not just the white ones the girls were playing with, but also maroon, and bearing Callahan’s seal. Probably picked up at the university’s bookstore and they’re odd and out of place and entirely fitting.

The tables that were already pushed aside have chairs stacked on them, except for a handful of seats arranged to face the far wall, where a few strands of twinkling lights have been strung. Pat stands before them, his hands folded. He nods so seriously when he sees Ned and Abbot that he must have practiced.

Everyone glances back toward them from their seats. Ned tightens his grip on Abbot’s hand. This is a lot. And this is really happening, too. Mom and Dad are on one side of the extremely short aisle they are apparently supposed to walk down, and Chris and Susan are with Charles on the other. Beverly and Sandy too, and they’re all smiling. Dad wipes at his eyes.

Peggy runs up the side of the room, skirting the aisle, and climbs into Dad’s lap.

“Pegs,” Pat half whispers, bending to her. “Remember your job?”

“Yes,” she says.

Pat tips his head toward Ned. “Wanna go do it?”

“Now?”

“Yeah, now.”

She scurries back and Liesel takes her shoulders. “Do it like this,” Liesl says.

Ned tenses, waiting for Peggy to balk at being ordered around.

But she lets Liesl move her to stand in front of Ned and Abbot, facing Pat. She hands Peggy a bottle of bubbles and oh, that’s going to make a mess, but Ned doesn’t stop her as Peggy unscrews the lid. She dips the wand into the bottle with fierce concentration and then blows hard through the ring of soap.

“You have to go,” Liesl says and Peggy takes a step forward, stops, and slides the wand back into the bottle to start the process again.

Liesl waits behind her, Baxter’s leash in her hand, and a bow tied around it that was surely supposed to be on his neck. It looks chewed on, the ends of the ribbon a little frayed. Ned could probably get him to wear it with enough treats and patience, but Liesl is clearly busy anticipating her task, her expression too serious and focused to interrupt.

Yeah. This is a lot. It’s also really, really great.

Peggy takes a step and blows another trail of bubbles. Some drift backward and Baxter raises his nose, sniffing at the spheres, but he thankfully doesn’t lunge for them. Pat grins, watching her, clearly happy to wait. Dad wipes at his eyes again. Baxter finally sits as Peggy makes it another two steps without stopping, and then he lays down with a huff.

Move, Ned used to tell himself in this same room. Stand up. That’s all you have to do. Deal with walking after that. It had felt like it took all his energy to drag himself through each day, to simply take a step and then another one.

That changed when Abbot came into his life. Because he made Ned change—made Ned want to change, really. Taught him how to remember to breathe after so long he hadn’t noticed his lungs burning, flicked on a light when Ned hadn’t known his eyes were straining in the dark.

Liesl starts down the aisle when Peggy’s most of the way to Pat, walking with a solemnity that belies Baxter wandering at a much more sedate pace, pausing to sniff the leg of a chair, probably hoping to find a stray french fry. They planned this, her and Ned’s family and Pat, and threw this tiny little ceremony together, and that touches him right in a tender spot in his chest, crowding out the voice whispering This isn’t real.

He and Abbot are real. That, he’s very sure of.

“Ready?” he whispers. Pat’s grinning. Peggy climbs into Dad’s lap again. Beside them, Mom takes the bubbles from her and carefully screws the cap back on. Liesl tries to make Baxter sit at Pat’s feet, but Baxter lays down and yawns, oblivious to the sternly disappointed look on her face at his casual attitude toward the proceedings.