“I’ve never done death very well,” she finally said.
He inhaled deeply of her sweet scent. “Does anyone?”
“I have a friend who is a nurse. She accepts it as a part of the cycle, a consequence of living, and she sees it as natural and inevitable. She says it doesn’t bother her. I should be like that. I should be used to it by now, but I can’t …” She swallowed. “I can’t think that way. I’ve never been able to wrap my head around people being here one minute, and the next …”
“Gone forever.”
She nodded. “Yeah. Disappeared. And those left behind have to dealwith what’s left of them. Like … their belongings, clothes … and …”
“I know that feeling well.”
“Do you?”
“Remember you asked me why I left Fargo so suddenly?”
She nodded.
He’d never told a soul. Stashed it in the back of his mind, leaving it in the past where it belonged. But now, something compelled him to tell her.
“I had to go live with a cousin in Bismark.”
She studied his face intently. “Why?”
“A week before graduation, my mom hadn’t been feeling well because she was … She was expecting a baby. Boy.”
Her eyes widened. “You have a brother?”
Nick bowed his head. “I was going to.”
“Oh.” Her voice was barely audible. “She lost the baby?”
“Yeah. And I lost her, too.”
“I am so very sorry.”
For several heart-stopping seconds, she looked straight into him, and then her gaze dipped to his lips. Then she leaned in, and Nick stopped breathing.
Boom!
The explosion came from across the lake. Jannie didn’t flinch, but Nick instinctively pulled her closer, his head turning toward the direction of the sound.
A burst of glittering color filled a large portion of the black sky over the water.
“Fireworks?”
She nodded. “That’s Disney.”
“Oh.”
Another burst of light and color, this time streaking slowly up and up, to separate into a green shower of sparkling stars.
“It’s their nightly fireworks show.”
“You have fireworks in your backyard every night?”
“Yeah.” She smiled. “I guess I’ve grown immune. I don’t pay them much attention anymore.”
One after another, the fireworks ascended in the sky and exploded into a riot of glittering colors.
