Night Road(127)

He took her in his arms and kissed her. At the touch of his lips, so sweetly, achingly familiar, she felt as if her soul, bound in chains for years, broke free, stretched and opened its wings. She was flying, soaring. She clung to him, crying at last for the best friend she’d killed and the years she’d lost in prison and the daughter whose babyhood would forever be hidden from her. This moment was more than she’d ever dared to hope for, and the love she’d tried so hard to extinguish overwhelmed her.

She drew back and stared at him in wonder. Tears spiked his lashes, made him look impossibly young again, like the boy she’d given her heart to all those years ago on a night like this, with the lights of the highway rushing past them. “How?” was all she could say, but she knew he understood. How could they go back, really?

“I love you so much, Lexi,” he said. “That’s all I know.”

“So, what do we do? How do we start?”

He handed her the dirty Thermos as carefully as if it were an artifact from a lost civilization, which, in a way, it was. “We keep our promise.”

Lexi held the time capsule in her hands, picturing the gold earrings, the Saint Christopher medal, and the fraying friendship bracelet within.

Lexi felt Mia with them—in the warm summer breeze, in the rustling of the trees, in the steady heartbeat of waves. She kissed the sandy curve of the Thermos and buried it again. When she was done, she patted the sand in place. “She’s here,” Lexi said, feeling her best friend beside her for the first time in years.

Zach finally smiled. “She always will be.”

Then he took her hand and they stood up. “Come home with me, Lexi,” he said, and all she could do was nod. Home.

They walked quietly toward the house, and she thought: this is how we do it; this is how we talk to our daughter. Holding hands.

*

The next morning, Grace woke up early. In her footed pink jammies, she walked sleepily down the narrow hallway to her daddy’s bedroom, dragging her yellow blanket along behind her.

His door was closed. That was weird. She pushed the door open and started to say, Wake up, sleepy head, but all she got out was, “Wa—”

Mommy was in bed with Daddy. They were kinda stuck together, sleeping.

Grace got a little flutter in her heart.

Her mommy was here.

She shuffled forward and climbed up on the bed, squirming between them. Before she could say anything, her daddy started tickling her, and she giggled until she couldn’t breathe. Then she lay there, between her mommy and daddy, feeling like crying even though she didn’t know why.

“Are you okay with me being here, Gracie?” her mommy asked.

“I thought you were leaving.”

“Your daddy changed my mind,” Mommy said. “Is that okay with you, Grace? Can I live with you guys?”

Grace giggled at that. She felt so happy she forgot to cover her mouth. “Of course it’s okay.”

After that, Grace had a lot to tell her new mommy. She talked nonstop until the alarm beside Daddy’s bed rang; then she sat up suddenly and said: “I gotta go to school. It’s the last day. Will you drive me, Mommy?”

“I don’t drive,” her mom said, looking nervously at Daddy.

“That’s weird,” Grace said. “All mommies know how to drive.”

“I’ll get my license back,” Mommy said. “By first grade, I’ll be ready. Now, how about breakfast? I’m starving.”

Grace launched herself onto Daddy’s back, and Daddy carried her into the kitchen, plopping her down in her seat at the table.

All the time she was eating, she couldn’t help staring at her mommy. She could tell that Daddy couldn’t help himself either. It felt like being a family.

And Grace could think of a lot more to say to her mommy now. Through breakfast and out to the car, Grace talked. She told Mommy about how bendable Barbie was and how cool Hannah Montana and Cinderella were and how long she could hold her breath, and before she knew it, she said, “An I c’n waterski like Ashley Hamerow.”

They were in the car now, driving to school.

Mom turned in her seat and looked at Grace. “Is that true?”

“It could be.”

“But is it?”

Grace slumped in her car seat. “No.” It was hard to only tell the truth. How would anyone like her for who she really was?

At school, Dad pulled out of the carpool lane and parked under the big trees off to the side of the school.

“Can I walk you into class?” Mommy asked.

Grace got that fluttery feeling again. She smiled. “You could be my show and tell.”

Mommy smiled. “I’d like that.”

They walked through the crowd of children, and Grace started to feel sick. Mommy was gonna notice that she had no friends.

But all the way to the classroom door, Mommy held her hand, and when they got there, she knelt down and looked at Grace.

“You remember when I told you about my best friend, Mia?”

Grace nodded. She wanted to suck her thumb, but the kids would just make fun of her for that.

“I was so scared the day I met her. It was the first day of school, and no one liked me. I ran out of the lunchroom ’cause I couldn’t sit with anyone. And then I saw this other girl sitting all by herself. And I just went up to her and started talking. That’s how we became best friends. You have to take a chance, Grace. Talk to someone.”