Page 52 of Soldier's Chrismas Hope
Nora felt a wave of gratitude for her friend’s kindness, and then a twinge of guilt. Not many of her old friends took the time to come see her these days. Ever since she took in the kids, she hadn’t been able to get out much, or really at all. And understandably, her usual crew wasn’treally interested in coming by to hang out with the children.
Except for Leslie—she stopped by here and there with candy or coloring books, always ready to talk and play with the kids. She had never even questioned why Nora wasn’t available to go out anymore. She was the one person in Nora’s life who really seemed to understand her new role.
And I didn’t even tell her we were leaving.
“I’m sorry I didn’t message you,” Nora said. “It was just so sudden.”
“What was?” Leslie’s voice was worried now.
“It’s nothing bad,” Nora told her right away. “I was getting ready to put the kids to bed the other night, and there was this knock on the door.”
“Edward,”Leslie whispered.
“His brother, actually,” Nora explained, still sort of unable to believe it herself. “River.”
“River,” Leslie echoed. “Wow. I didn’t even know Edward had a brother.”
“He does,” Nora said, lowering herself to the bed. “I actually met River first.”
“Really?”Leslie said. “I want every juicy detail.”
“I guess I’ve never told anyone this,” Nora realized out loud. “It was all so long ago. We were practically still kids, all volunteering at a firehouse fundraiser.”
“Wow,” Leslie said, chuckling. “That’s the most small-town thing I ever heard.”
“That’s fair,” Nora agreed. “Trinity Falls and Springton Valley did a joint fundraiser that year. We werehoping to raise enough for a special training session for both firehouses.”
“Did you?” Leslie asked.
“We did,” Nora told her, remembering everyone’s joy when the goal was met.
But by that point in the evening, it seemed like her fate had been decided for her.
“When I first got there, we had no idea how it was going to go,” she said. “I’d never been to the Trinity Falls firehouse before. It’s in the same building as the town office, but sort of built into the hillside, so you get in through the back.”
“Weird,” Leslie said.
“Anyway, I was supposed to be volunteering in the nursery area,” Nora went on. “I was super early, and when I couldn’t find the entrance, I sort of panicked. But this really cute guy saw me wandering around and asked where I was headed.”
“I bet he did,” Leslie teased.
“When I told him the firehouse, he told me he was going to be volunteering too, parking cars,” she said, smiling at the memory. “So we headed down together.”
“So that was River, then?” Leslie asked.
“Yep,” Nora said. “We hit it off right away. Talked about everything under the sun.”
“Like what?” Leslie asked.
“He was feeling pressure from his parents to finish college,” Nora said. “But he already knew what he wanted to do with his life, and the Army was the next step. He was all set to report for duty the next day.”
“Wow,” Leslie said. “So he spent his last night at home volunteering?”
“Yeah, it made me kind of sad,” Nora admitted. “I really liked him. But I understood too. My parents wanted me to go to med school, or to be a nurse. But I knew I wanted to work with animals.”
“I get that,” Leslie said with a smile in her voice. She was an animal person too, of course.
“Anyway, he really made me laugh,” Nora said. “And it just felt like we’d known each other forever after only half an hour of hanging out.”
