Smoke

Epilogue

Come on, Mom. Let’s go.”

She rested her hand on Ben’s head for a second and then put the last of her stuff in the suitcase. “Get your dad,” she said. “I can’t close this with one arm.”

“I can do it,” he said. He reached up onto the bed, closed the top and easily closed the zipper, pulled it down onto the floor. “Let’s go.”

She smiled at him; he seemed to have grown two inches in the three weeks she’d been in the hospital. “You’re such a big boy.”

He rolled his eyes. “Mom.”

“Sorry.”

He pulled the suitcase toward the door where Dylan appeared. He reached for the suitcase and Ben reluctantly handed it over.

“I can get it,” he said sullenly.

“No doubt, champ. But I want to help Mom, too.”

“I’ll meet you guys downstairs,” she said. “I want to spend a few minutes with Mount.”

Dylan looked at her uncertainly, then nodded and took Ben by the hand.

“Hurry, Mom,” he threw over his shoulder. “You said we could have pizza. And I’m hungry.”

“I’m right behind you.”

Mount was sitting up in bed reading one of Lydia Strong’s true crime books, With a Vengeance, about the man who murdered her mother. He was very thin, gaunt about the face, his collarbone protruding through his gown. He had charcoal circles beneath his eyes. But there was more color to his cheeks than there had been in weeks. And he was sitting up. So that was something.

“She’s had a hard life,” said Jesamyn, entering the room and pulling up a chair beside him, nodding toward the paperback in his hands.

“It just made her tougher.”

“And sadder.”

“You think she’s sad?”

“Yeah, I think she’s a little sad inside.”

“Hey. Who isn’t?”

She nodded and gave him a smile. “You a little sad, Mount?”

He gave her a wide warm smile that she didn’t expect. “Not today,” he said. “Looks like you’re going home. So I won’t have you breathing down my neck every minute, nagging me during rehab, ‘That all you got, girly man?’ ” He finished the sentence with an unflattering mimic of her taunts in the hospital gym.

“I’ll be back for rehab, Princess. Don’t you worry.”

He reached for her hand. “Seriously, partner, I wouldn’t have wanted to be laid up here with anyone else.”

“Don’t get all mushy,” she said, giving his big hand a squeeze. “We’ll be back on the job in six months tops.”

She wasn’t sure of that and she could tell by the look on his face that he wasn’t either but somehow he looked happier than she’d seen him… well, ever.

“What’s going on?” she asked with a smile and a cock of her head.

He shook his head. “Nothing,” he said. Then he changed the subject.

“Hey, did you hear they picked up Michele LaForge in Vegas? Speeding in a brand-new Testarosa.”

“I heard,” she said. “I guess she didn’t spend too much time grieving for Mickey Samuels.”

“We all handle our grief differently, Jez. Don’t judge,” he said with mock sternness.

There was a light knock on the door then and she turned to see a face that was too familiar to her, a face she’d only seen in photographs and in her dreams. She stood up.

“Lily,” she said.

The young girl approached her and held out her hand. She looked older than her pictures or Jesamyn’s imagining of her; she looked fatigued. The youthful prettiness, the joyful innocence of her photographs was all but gone from her face. But there was a graceful beauty to her still.

“You must be Jesamyn Breslow,” Lily said. “I recognize you from your pictures in the newspaper.”

Jesamyn nodded, not sure of her voice.

“Thank you,” Lily said, embracing Jesamyn carefully. “Thank you for all you did for me. I can’t express my gratitude. And I’m so sorry-for everything.”

Jesamyn looked over at Mount, who had the biggest smile on his face she’d ever seen. He looked beautiful-goofy-but beautiful.

“You have nothing to apologize for, Lily. And you’re welcome,” Jesamyn said, putting a hand to the girl’s face. “But Detective Stenopolis really deserves all the credit. He never gave up.”

Lily walked over to Matt then and took his hand, sat in the chair beside him. Matt looked like he was going to float away. Jesamyn felt something in her chest lighten and shift.

“I’m so sorry for everything you had to go through,” she said to him.

“Seeing you here, Ms. Samuels, it was worth it,” he said softly.

“Please,” she said. “Call me Lily.”

Jesamyn slipped from the room, looked back at Matt for a second, then looked down the hall. She saw Dylan and Ben sitting on the benches over by the elevator. Dylan stood as she approached.

“You guys didn’t have to wait. I could have met you downstairs.”

“We couldn’t let you walk out of here alone,” Dylan said.

She smiled up at him and let him put his arm around her as she waited for the elevator. She turned around a second and saw the door to Mount’s room close. She felt a little joy and a little pain. That was life, she guessed.

I’m not sure it counts if you have it catered,” said Jeffrey with a teasing smile.

“Trust me. Nobody needs me to be cooking a turkey.”

He held his stomach and nodded his agreement.

“Just help me set the table,” she said, smacking him on the shoulder.

The kitchen around her was littered with white and orange bags from her favorite gourmet shop and the air was rich with the aromas of ham, turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato pie, and everything else she could order. There was enough food for twenty people, though they were only expecting five: Lydia’s grandparents, her half-sister Este and Este’s boyfriend Jones, as well as Este’s mother. Dax was incommunicado; Lydia hoped he might retrieve her messages and show up at the last minute. It was going to be an odd grouping of people linked only by their connection to Lydia and her father. Lydia couldn’t begin to imagine how it was going to go.

“Hey,” he said, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Are you nervous?”

“Jeffrey.”

He let out a whooping laugh. “You are nervous. I don’t believe it,” he said. “I can honestly say that this is the first time I’ve seen you nervous.”

She breathed against the flock of butterflies in her middle and smiled at her husband.

“Remind me again why I married you,” she said.

He took her into her arms and held her tight. “Because you adore me,” he told her. “Couldn’t make it a day without me.”

She laughed. “It’s true,” she said, looking up at him and kissing him quickly. He tasted like the pumpkin pie he’d been eating.

“I don’t know,” she said into his shoulder. “It’s like we have a-family.”

He pulled her back and looked at her. She was half frowning, half smiling.

“That’s a good thing, right?” he asked with a light laugh.

“I guess we’ll see,” she said.

He kneeled before her and rested his head on her belly. It was still flat and firm. But she figured not for very long, if all went well this time.

“What do you think, little guy?” he asked.

“How do you know it’s a boy?” she said.

“I can tell,” he said, rising. “Very masculine energy.”

As if in agreement, the buzzer rang announcing visitors downstairs.

“Ready, my love?” he asked.

She gave him a bright, full smile that belied the flutter in her heart.

“Bring it on,” she said. And they walked toward the elevator doors together.