She finally let me pull away from her clutch and I walked straight into my dad’s arms. “It was great to see you again, Eden, your mom and I miss you when you’re not around.” I could hear the faint hitch in his voice. “You know you can come back home anytime and you wouldn’t even have to see him,” he whispered into my ear. Thank the Lord he didn’t mention his name because I was certain that would’ve been my breaking point. “I know you know that, but I also know that if we want to see our only daughter again we will have to come visit you. I want you to know that it’s completely all right. Your mother may not understand, but I do. I love you, Eden.”

I released my father’s neck and looked up to him, “I love you too, Daddy.”

During the plane ride back to Nashville I tried my hardest to fall asleep but the elderly gentleman next to me thought it was a good idea to keep me entertained by recounting his story about the one that got away.

“It was so many years ago, I met June right before I was drafted for World War II. I remember writing her every day and fighting with guns blazing just so I would be able to get home to her.”

I had nothing else to do for the remainder of the flight other than to wallow in my own misery, so I decided why the hell not make my heart hurt even worse. “What happened when you returned home?”

“I found out that shortly after I left she was killed by a random burglar.” He looked down at his frail hands, “She never even received any of my letters. She died not knowing how I truly felt about her because I was a coward. I left with the mindset that I may not return home so I didn’t want to leave her with any false hope. But I loved her with every breath that I took. I always had that feeling of ‘what if.’ What if I didn’t get drafted and was able to be there to protect my June? What if I told her that I loved her, would she have tried to fight off her attacker knowing that she was loved?”

Now my heart was aching even more for this old man who didn’t get to even enjoy being in love. I covered his hand with mine, “So did you ever get married?”

“I did. I met Mary about five years after I returned from war and found out about June. I kept comparing every woman to June and it was hard to be happy when I did. As hard as it was I had to push June out of my mind so I could lead a meaningful life. I met Mary and her grace captured my heart. Ended up being married for sixty wonderful years before she passed away four years ago. I loved Mary with everything that I was, but June always seemed to creep into my mind at the strangest of times. I hadn’t thought of her for many years and for some reason you reminded me of her.” His eyes seemed to grow heavy behind his framed glasses.

“How old are you?”

“Clifford, but you can call me Cliff. I’m ninety two years young,” he chuckled as he hung his head and proceeded to drift off into a nap until the plane landed.

While he breathed heavily through his mouth I studied the clouds that were beneath the plane as we flew over them. I never confessed how I felt towards Baylor; he knew that I loved him when we were younger but I never told him that I still did. Never actually stopped.

Thankfully the flight home had minimal turbulence and was actually rather peaceful, not even a baby cried during our time onboard. I gently nudged Cliff on his shoulder until he awoke, somewhat startled and disoriented.

“I’m sorry, I just wanted to let you know that we landed,” I said apologetically.

He took his turn to stand and made his way out into the aisle, “Thank you for waking me. And thank you for letting me reminisce, it was nice talking to you, June,” he said with a wink before he used the backs of the seats to steady his pace while he exited the plane.

I just stood there with a faint smile on my face before someone let me out before them. I got my luggage which was actually where it was supposed to be for once and went to look for Julia.

Once my eyes landed on hers the first wave of tears broke free. I rushed off towards her and into her open arms; she knew by my tear-stained face that I needed reinforcements.

She rubbed along my back, “Oh honey, was it hard leaving him? Did he beg you to stay?”

I began crying harder and between sobs I tried my best to formulate the words, “No, he didn’t ask me to. I left before he woke up.” I buried my face in her shirt knowing that I was going to have to owe her a new one.

“Let’s get you home, your mutt misses you and I have ice cream waiting in the freezer. We can dig in while you tell me all about it.”

Chapter 15

Baylor

I awoke startled as I sat straight up in my bed. I looked over to the space on my bed that Eden had been occupying for the majority of the week and it was empty and cool to the touch. She had been up for a while. Something wasn’t settling right in my stomach so I threw on a pair of shorts and rushed out into the kitchen.

The TV in the living room caught my attention so I went towards the couch to see Norah watching cartoons with her feet tucked underneath her and a bowl of cereal in her lap.

“Where’s Eden?” I asked, starting to feel a bit frantic.

“She left,” she answered in between lifting bites of soggy cereal to her mouth.

“What do you mean she left? When?” My heart was beginning to sink into my stomach, fear was settling in.

“About two hours ago. I couldn’t sleep well last night so I came home around seven, she ran into me on the porch and said not to wake you. And she left you a note on the fridge.”

I ran my hands through my hair wondering why she would leave without saying goodbye.

“Why in the hell didn’t you wake me?” I yelled, not meaning to have as much force behind it as what came out.

Instead of Norah cowering to my raised voice, she straightened her posture and yelled right back, “Because she asked me not to!”

“The one time you choose to listen is now?” Her eyes narrowed and I felt awful, so I quickly calmed down, “I know, you always listen. I’m sorry, but I wanted to tell her goodbye. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.”

My shoulders slumped and I slowly shuffled my feet into the kitchen to retrieve the folded note that was on the fridge.

I only got through the first sentence before I started to take matters into my own hands.

Baylor,

Please let this count as our goodbye.

“Norah, get dressed! We’re going to the airport!” I folded the note again without reading the rest and shoved it into the pocket of my shorts.

“I’m ready, Dad,” she replied breathlessly as she ran into the kitchen. “Let’s go get her.”

I darted to grab my keys and started running into the garage before Norah stopped me, “Uh Dad…You may want to put on a shirt and some shoes if you want to be allowed entrance into the airport.”

I stopped dead in my tracks once my foot hit the cool concrete of the garage floor, reiterating what Norah just said. “Shit,” I said under my breath.

I skidded to a halt in one of the open parking spots right next to the terminal entrance. It was a crooked parking job but it would have to do. I threw the Camaro in park and turned to look at Norah.

“Go, Dad, I’ll sit right here.”

“Thanks, sweetheart,” I yelled as I slammed the door on the car and rounded the front of the hood to rush inside.

Once I got through the door, I really didn’t know where I would go from there. No one would let me past security without a ticket and boarding pass but I was going to try and give it a shot. I went over to the board that listed the arrival and departure times and saw the one from Eugene to Nashville. I followed the line that told me what the flight number was, but the departure time was wrong. That couldn’t be, it said nine a.m. and that the plane had already departed.