that the rush of emotions crowding in on Giana once again
rendered her speechless, but she didn’t need to say anything,
because Coralyn was already in motion. Already pulling things
out of the fridge and getting down plates.
They were going to have their first real breakfast together as
them.
Epilogue
Coralyn
The park was almost entirely deserted. In the dead of
February, a month that hadn’t yet even thought about giving
way to spring, not many people ventured out. There was the
occasional jogger, poor brave souls that they were, and a few
people who ambled by dressed in heavy winter coats, puffed
out like the birds who had to stay and endure the cold winters.
“Are you regretting coming out with me yet?”
“Not a chance.” Coralyn slipped off her gloves and grasped
Giana’s hand. She curled their fingers together before tucking
their clasped palms into the fold of her wool coat to keep them
warm.
They’d just been to the cemetery, where they went every
week, to put flowers on Heather’s grave. Coralyn’s parents
didn’t have a headstone or a plot in a cemetery, but she had the
urns with their ashes. She had them on the seat of the bay
window at home, along with their photos. Her mother’s
necklace sat framed in a shadowbox between them. She hadn’t
felt right about accepting it from Giana, but when she’d
suggested getting it framed and having it with her parents,
that’s where it felt like it belonged.
“You know…” Giana’s breath frosted over. It was early yet.
Saturday morning and barely light. They’d gone to the