A Beautiful Fall (24 page)

“You can reach us on the cell phone if you need me tonight,” she told him. He nodded again, the brim of the straw cowboy hat falling and rising like that of a nameless hero behind a mask in a matinee Western movie.

“Emma, I’m so glad you were here, glad we were all here today. I’ve been given so much strength from you all,” Christina said.

o o o

Michael and Emma walked out the front doors of Wellman. The rain had stopped, and sunlight pierced through a patch of cumulus clouds. The storm had brought with it the warm weather of an Indian summer.

“I feel like everyone I know is in this hospital,” Emma said.

“It’s been a heck of a week.”

They left her father’s Caddy in the parking lot. As they climbed into Michael’s truck, he suggested they grab a drive-through dinner. Two cheeseburgers and Dr Peppers later, Michael drove out on old Highway 90 toward Christina’s place.

“Here, I want to show you something.”

“What?”

“You’ll see.”

They drove up to the hill country where they’d gone so many times that summer. Michael drove off the road and followed a path of tire tracks to a ridge, then stopped.

Emma climbed out, the hillside catching the last light of day. A grove of old oaks and pine trees fused with a golden meadow of songbirds. A gentle evening breeze waved through the tall grass. Miles below them, pleasure boats still sailed on the lake.

“Oh Michael. It’s so beautiful up here.”

Emma shut the heavy truck door and stepped into the clearing. Michael leaned against the truck, letting Emma rediscover the site for herself.

“I remember this place,” she said, fading back to another time, walking where they’d walked before.

Emma turned to Michael.

“Remember that night we camped here?”

“Yes.”

“The sky was so blue, so clear.”

“So cold.”

“It was freezing! You built a fire and we stayed up all night and at sunrise we watched the fishermen sail out onto the lake. We drank coffee we brewed over the fire.”

“You always loved the outdoors, Emma.”

“I didn’t realize how much I missed it,” she said, looking into the woods, hearing a woodpecker clacking on the side of a tree.

“It hasn’t changed much in the last fifteen years. I could throw out a blanket like we did that night. We could stay out here awhile, looking at the stars.”

Emma spun around, giving Michael a “do you really think we should?” look, but underneath it was a “that’s a great idea!” look.

He pulled back the seat hatch, removing a rolled-up red plaid blanket and walked to Emma. Michael opened the warm blanket, letting the gentle breeze catch it, then wrapped it around her.

“It’s big enough for two, Michael,” said Emma, offering the blanket to him with an outstretched arm. He moved next to her, pulling the blanket over their shoulders. They stood shoulder to shoulder, staring up at the first stars of the evening.

They were motionless for a long time. When they did move, their actions were subtle, instinctive. She leaned her head against his shoulder. He slipped his arm around her. Slowly, they found themselves in a warm embrace. Emma buried her face in his chest, breathing in a scent that simultaneously took her back in time and pointed her to an uncertain future. He whispered something she couldn’t quite hear. She looked up and melted into a kiss as sweet as she had ever known.

~ Nineteen ~

And I wonder where you are
and if the pain ends when you die
And I wonder if there was
some better way to say goodbye.

—M
ARTINA
M
C
B
RIDE

“Goodbye”

“Hi there, Emma. Sorry to bother you so early, but it’s time for a wake-up call from reality!”

Emma should have known better than to leave her cell powered on overnight, but she thought if there was even the
slightest
chance that Christina or Samantha might call during the night, she didn’t want to miss that.

“Hi, Lara,” Emma answered, wanting the phone call as much as a toothache.

“Sounds like somebody had a late night.”

Emma pulled the covers over her head, barely holding the phone against her ear. She wasn’t tired from lack of sleep; she was just tiring of the constant intrusion of one world into another. Her work life was once again tapping for her attention like a door-to-door salesman who won’t take no for an answer.

“Listen, Robert wanted me to call you. You’ll be glad to know he’s purchased a seat for you on a chartered jet leaving out of Columbia tomorrow morning at six forty-five a.m.,” Lara said, imitating the sound of a travel agent going over the flight itinerary with a client. “He’s also arranged ground transportation. Don’t get your hopes up for a limo though; I think it’s just a town car. Apparently he’s not taking any chances of you not getting here in time for the meeting.”

“What meeting?”

“Well, as luck would have it, Northeast Federal got hit with another lawsuit late yesterday afternoon, and they were on the phone with Robert immediately afterward requesting a meeting with the firm tomorrow. That’s scheduled for eleven thirty a.m. Wednesday,” Lara said. “Robert thinks they’re ours to lose at this point, but he’s not about to take chances on you not being here. So, yada yada, you get the star treatment. But if I were you, I’d plan on Wednesday being a very long day at the office. He’s ordering lunch and dinner in.”

“Right,” Emma said. “Well, tell him I’ll be there.”

Lara scoffed. “Of course you will be. I’ll send the flight information to your phone.
Welcome back
!”

Emma clicked off the phone and curled up under the blankets, hoping to stave off the encroaching realities of her departure at least a little while longer.
You get used to a place when you stay there for ten days. Especially when that place is called “home” and you haven’t set foot there in years.

She smelled the aroma of fresh paint wafting up from the main floor, and heard Michael and her father talking. Emma got up, dressed, and headed downstairs. She wasn’t about to spend her last day in Juneberry in bed.

“Can’t a lady get any sleep around here?”

Emma smiled at Will as she met him downstairs. He carefully painted the trim around the doorway inside the office.

“Sorry if we woke you, hon. Come on down and take a look.”

Emma walked into the office. The new, larger windows were in, and they flooded the room with October morning sunlight. At the other end of the room where the kitchen pantry used to be, Michael guided a roller brush, laying the first coat of a lively yellow that reminded Emma of the Oval Office in the White House.

“Honey, we’re going to have the new office completely finished by lunchtime. I can’t believe how quickly everything’s been made over.”

“Me, neither.”

“Once we’ve got two coats down, the last thing to do is buff this floor. We’re going to clean the original hardwoods first and then seal it.”

“Is the wood in good-enough condition?” Emma asked.

“See for yourself.”

Will pulled up a section of the lavender drop cloth. Beneath it was a rich cherry hardwood. It looked amazing.

“Some of the imperfections will be visible, but this house has been here a long time. I see no reason to cover up the dings and scars. We’ve all got ’em.”

Emma watched her father as he spoke with excitement about the new office. She wanted to freeze this moment in her memory for the inevitable time, just a day away, when she would have to fold him up and store him away until the next time they could spend time together. She put her arms around him and hugged him.

“Hey, what’s that for?”

“It’s for saying good morning,” she said.

If this week had taught her nothing else, it taught Emma how precious life was—that life could be taken away when you least expected it. In less than twenty-four hours, Juneberry would be taken away from her. Emma felt like she was living the answer to one of those “if you only had one day to live, what day would you choose?” questions.

She walked to the other end of the office where Michael was standing, eyeing the revitalized space, imagining where the furniture would go.

“You’ve done wonders with this space, Michael. I can’t believe it was a cramped bedroom when we started.”

“Do you want to go with me to pick out office furniture later, Emma?” Will asked from the other end of the room. “I’d like you to be there to help me pick it out.”

“Sure. We can go after lunch.”

o o o

Samantha held her newborn son, Jimmy, while an RN met with her, asking if she had any questions about the care and feeding of a newborn baby. This was standard procedure, but certainly not necessary since Samantha had plenty of experience.

In the speedy modern world of hospital birthing, the bill had already been dropped off in her room, slid under her door like at a hotel, before Samantha woke up. Doctors signed her release time for just before noon.

In another room at Wellman, Christina awoke in a small baby blue recliner she and one of the night shift nurses had dragged from the lounge into Bo’s room around midnight. She’d dozed on and off through the night, getting up to check on her beloved, who’d transitioned from anesthesia to the deep sleep of recovery without ever waking.

Other than some stiffness in her petite frame, Christina felt reborn. She’d spent what were for her precious moments watching him sleep through the night, lightly touching his hand or his forehead, careful not to wake him, and praying over and over again her thankfulness to God.

In the early morning, when the sun rose again and light commuter traffic moved past their window, Christina realized she had all she wanted. Bo was alive, sleeping safely in a bed next to her, the very thing she’d prayed for. Words could never adequately express the gratitude she felt. Christina only knew she’d never be the same.

Bo’s eyelids twitched once, then slowly opened. He gazed around the room. The early-morning sunlight was just bright enough for him to find the one object in the room he recognized, the woman he most wanted to see.

“Have you been here all night?” Bo asked, trying to sit up.

“Honey, don’t move. Just lie still,” Christina took his hand, stood at the side of his bed.

“What time is it?”

“About seven thirty. How do you feel?”

Bo looked at the cast on his leg and felt its cool roughness with his fingers. He wiggled his toes sticking out at the other end.

“Like I just fell off a house.”

“Not funny.”

Bo rallied himself from sleep, slowly raising his hands to his face, scratching the end of his nose. He looked rough and unshaven. There were creases in his skin, bruises from the fall, redness from the long sleep.

“I feel like I’ve been sleeping a million years.”

Christina sat on the edge of his bed, smoothing rogue curls in his hair.

“Yesterday was an exceptionally long day,” she told him, her voice languid and peaceful.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

Christina smiled.

“It’s too early for talk, but I’m so glad we’re together right now.”

“I scared you a bit, didn’t I?”

“Yes, but I don’t want to talk about it right now.”

He cleared his throat. “How bad am I?”

“Broken bones, you lost some blood. The doctor says you’ll recover, you’ll just need time to mend and get your strength back.”

“My appetite’s already back.”

“That’s a good sign,” Christina laughed. “I heard one of the nurses asking when the breakfast trays would be delivered. It shouldn’t be too long.”

Bo reached up with his right hand and touched Christina’s face, lightly rubbing her cheek with the back of his fingers.

She held his hand in hers against her face.

“Listen, something happened to me yesterday,” he said. “It’s the kind of thing I think you’ll appreciate.”

“Don’t tell me … you fell for me …?”

Bo started to laugh, then winced. “Now who’s being funny?” he said through gritted teeth.

“I’m sorry, Bo. I just wanted you to smile …”

He smiled.

“So … tell me. What happened to you yesterday, besides the obvious, I mean?” she said.

“I was talking to Mike on the roof just before I fell. I told him he needed to watch out for Emma, and the minute I said that, I felt convicted. Like, even though I believed what I was saying, it still wasn’t right for me to say it. During the next few hours I kept thinking about it, and I got angry … with myself. Then the storm blew in, and that made me even more upset. I finished the last shingle just as the rain started to come down. I stood up, and when I did, I felt this wall of air hit me in the chest. I lost my footing, but I thought I could adjust my weight. The next thing I knew there was nothing behind to catch me.”

Bo stared into Christina’s eyes.

“Have you ever felt like time just stopped or slowed down for you?”

Christina nodded her head.

“In an instant, I felt the front half of my left foot gripping the shingles, and the heel of my boot hovering in thin air. My right foot was already off the roof. As I fell, I could see Michael. He had this look of horror on his face, and I just had this inexplicable sense of clarity. I thought, ‘I’ve just figured out the meaning of life, and I’m about to fall off the roof and die before I get the chance to tell anybody!’” Bo laughed, wincing again. Christina gripped his hand tighter.

“I was sorry I said those things to Michael,” he continued. “I’m going to tell him that the next time I see him. Life’s too short to play it safe sometimes. If he feels something special about Emma, he should go for it.”

Bo shook his head like he couldn’t believe he’d ever thought otherwise.

“I forgave my ex for everything she did, right at that moment, and I believed it was possible for everything to work out, I mean, to be all right.” Bo’s eyes began to squint shut. He paused, offering an expression of deep reflection. “I thought about what it would be like if I never saw your face again.”

Bo looked into Christina’s eyes, a look of repentance sculpting his wounded face. “Christina, will you forgive me?”