Page 158 of Season of Gifts

She laughed at his tone, as he’d intended, and he dipped his head beside hers.“Stay?”

Alice kissed his temple, her lips a benediction.“Forever and a day.”

That might be just long enough to satisfy his soul.

Chapter eighty

Alice

Taptaptap.Henry bounced his thumb against the steering wheel.Tap tap tap.

The stereo was off, the car quiet except for the heater blowing out warmth.He wasn’t tapping to a rhythm Alice could hear.But they’d left the cardiac care center a few blocks back, with his mom in the hands of her medical team for the next couple of hours.

She’s gonna be finefloated in the space between her tongue and the roof of her mouth.Except those weren’t the words she wanted—she might as well sayhey, you’re making everybody jumpy with your emotions, so stuff them down, okay?Talk about sounding like his dad.Yeesh.Just about anything else would be more open and encouraging.“I don’t know how you’re feeling, but if you want to talk about it, Jay and I will listen.”

“Yeah, Danny says”—Jay, behind her, pitched his voice louder, and Alice lowered the blasting heater—“you have to go at the pace that’s best for you.And that you gotta treat yourself with consent too, not just other folks.So if you make a decision and then get uncomfortable with it, it’s okay to tell yourself to stop and go back and pick the other decision.Like if you wanted to stay in the waiting room.”

She sent Jay a mental high-five.They only had a few more days with Mother before going home, and Henry was working hard at giving up the driver’s seat.He’d called to offer the home health position to a woman they’d interviewed, but they hadn’t heard back yet whether she’d accept.

Henry hummed a note of approval.“I’m pleased that your conversations with Danny are so fruitful.I would, actually”—tap, tap, tapwent his thumb—“appreciate altering our itinerary this afternoon, if that’s acceptable to the two of you.Not to return to the cardiac center early, but to add a brief stop before the market.”

“Sure!”Jay’s answer came spring-loaded almost before Henry finished.

“Of course we can add a stop.”Hard to imagine what else they would need for dinner.The kitchen already overflowed with food, and the sunny garden room held plenty of flowers.They weren’t likely to put lit candles on the table with two preschoolers.“Where are we headed?”

“To lay something to rest.”The front of Henry’s jacket puffed out against his seat belt, but if he’d taken a deep breath, he released it without a sigh.“A grudge of sorts.”

On the way to the medical center, she could’ve exchanged a glance with Jay.They’d given Mother shotgun privileges.But he’d insisted Alice take the front seat afterward and claimed the seat behind her for himself.

“Against your dad?”Jay braved the question she’d hesitated to ask.

Henry hadn’t shared every page he’d read, but the man he described and the one who’d written about grief and fear and regret hardly seemed like the same guy.

“Yes and no.”

They wound through tree-lined residential streets, bare branches in dark vees against a cloudless sky.The cemetery revealed itself with crooked lines of headstones spiking up from low snowdrifts as the sedan climbed the hill.Henry turned into a drive marked by squat stone pillars; snow crunched beneath the tires as he came to a stop.The rest of the road—if there was one—hadn’t been plowed.

“We may have a walk ahead of us.”He stared out the windshield, his thumb tapping again.“I do apologize.If you would prefer to wait in the car—”

“Gonna stop you right there.”Alice unbuckled her seat belt and zipped her jacket to her chin.Reaching across the console, she rested her mittened hand on his, trying to push fuzzy warmth into his nervous twitch.“Unless you order us to stay behind, we’re going with you.”

“No.I would be glad for the company.”He shut off the engine, and the vents stopped pumping heat into the car.“I haven’t visited since the service.Seven years.”As he opened his door, the chill tiptoed across her nose and cheeks.“It was early fall then.The leaves had only recently begun to turn, spots of brilliant color dappled throughout the cemetery.”

The snow squeaked under Henry’s feet.The door behind her opened and shut quickly, and Jay appeared at her door, steadying her as she stepped out.His gift was coming in handy already.She’d put the new boots on expecting to deal with slush in plowed parking lots.The snow-covered field of stones in front of them was a bit more than that.She gripped Jay’s forearm in thanks.“Good traction on these, sweetheart.”

Jay straightened her cap over her ears, leaning in as he did.“I’ll break the trail if you stick close to him.Kinda thinking his past wasn’t any happier than ours were.”

His dad sure hadn’t been a happy guy, if his journals were anything to go by.Maybe just because Henry had been reading about tough times, but still.

Swallowing hard, she pressed her nose to Jay’s cheek.“Having that same thought.”

Henry stood in front of the car, shielding his gaze from the sun.Stepping up beside him, Alice took hold of his free hand.“Take your time.”

He pointed up the slope.“Do you see the Greek Revival mausoleum with the fluted Ionic columns in front?”

Not really, no.But she did see a little white house in the distance that could’ve come out of a social studies textbook on ancient Greece.“That’s where your dad is buried?”

Was it still “buried” if they weren’t in the ground?Not the time to ask.

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