beautiful blonde girl who looked so much like her mother.
“Abbi,” Laurie said, coming up behind her. Harper turned, slightly embarrassed though she wasn’t sure why. “She died of leukemia.”
“Yes.” Harper nodded. “Agent—Mark told us about your daughter. I’m so very sorry.”
Laurie looked surprised but then nodded. “Nothing is quite the same without her.”
Harper heard the small break in her voice and the words resonated with her. How often she’d had the same thought about her parents. Nothing, all her life, would ever be the same as it would have been had her parents still been with her.
“Mark was a little worried about having Jak here.” She shook her head. “Not because of the life he’s led, but because he was worried about how it might look as far as the case. We talked about it.” She paused for a moment and a happiness came into her eyes that made Harper wonder if she’d seen the conversation as a move back toward their connection as a couple. She remembered Mark saying how far they’d drifted, and she hoped very much she was right about it being a small step. “We decided it didn’t matter. Our hearts, our souls, would not and could not allow a person without any family to experience loneliness when we could prevent it.”
Harper’s heart warmed at the words. They’d saved her from loneliness too, when she’d felt alone so often in her life, and she was grateful. She once again gazed at Abbi’s picture, taking in the smile of the beautiful girl on the wall who was still so very, very loved.
“You might know, because of your husband’s work, that I lost my parents when I was seven.”
“Yes,” Laurie said, taking Harper’s hand in hers and squeezing it. “I’m so sorry.”
Harper gave her a sad smile, nodding. “I was just wondering if maybe . . .” She shook her head, suddenly feeling silly when she started to put her thought to words. Feeling like she might be stepping out of bounds to say what had entered her mind. Her heart.
“What, dear?” Laurie squeezed her hand again, spurring her on, looking at her with hopeful eyes.
“Well . . . I guess it sounds sort of fantastical, but do you think that if people meet here on earth, the people they’ve loved and lost meet too, because they’re watching over their loved ones? Does that make any sense?”
Tears came to Laurie’s eyes but there was happiness—hope—in her expression. “Yes. Yes, I’d like very much to believe that.”
Harper expelled a relieved breath. “Good, because my parents, they were wonderful, and I’d really love to believe they’re meeting Abbi right now and making her feel as welcome with them as you’ve made me feel here with you tonight.” She blushed, hoping the woman didn’t take what she was saying as a desperate—and perhaps unwanted—attempt to make her invite Harper back again or something like that. She laughed, feeling awkward. “I hope—”
“Oh, my darling girl.” Laurie’s voice broke as she pulled Harper to her in a big hug. “I can’t tell you how much you’ve filled my heart by saying that. Thank you.”
Then they returned to the room, tearful but smiling, where the men were waiting for them, both with equally perplexed looks on their faces, to which Harper and Laurie responded with another bout of giggles.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Because of the newly falling snow—and that the plows weren’t out on Christmas—the ride to Harper’s apartment was slow and quiet, though pleasantly so. Harper was basking in the glow of having spent the happiest Christmas she could remember, and Jak looked happy too, a small smile curving his lips as he watched the snow streak by his window.
They pulled in front of the house where she rented a room, and Harper took his hand, laughing as they ran from the truck, the snow a white flurry all around them. She unlocked the door and they spilled inside, Harper taking her finger and bringing it to her lips as they tiptoed up the stairs.
The old house had been converted into a duplex, and the old woman who lived on the main floor was a distant relative of the original owners who had built the home. The studio apartment Harper rented, was up a flight of back stairs and featured a main room, a very small kitchenette, and a bathroom, nothing more. But it worked for Harper’s needs.
She unlocked the door at the top of the stairs, and they entered her apartment, removing coats and scarves,