Epilogue

Nick

Next Christmas…

Bobby didn’t take on the Little Drummer Boy job the next year after all. At least not full-time. He offered to take any shifts that needed a fill-in, just because he enjoyed it, but we had so many plans for the season together, there just wasn’t time.

After a full year of my new job, I had things under control, and the new guy in my old position only had to do his work. I’d learned a lot from my former boss. All about what not to do. So I did the opposite. I didn’t procrastinate. Scheduled work in advance. Checked in with all of my employees to see that they were on top of things instead of waiting until they were in trouble and needed bailing out.

I loved the work, and upper management even checked with me from time to time to make sure I had all the resources I needed. Night and day! And I had time to spend with my sweet Bobby. Time to work on all the projects we wanted to do on the Victorian we bought and were restoring. A year ago, all I did was work, sleep in hotels, and breathe airplane air. Now, I was home almost every night for dinner. We had weekends away and evenings spent replastering ceilings.

We still had a lot to do before we’d call the house done—maybe we’d never call it done, but what we did have was a beautiful finished living room to invite our friends over to for the holidays. A tall tree rising in the center of the room with presents underneath it, and one of my favorite things. All the decorations Bobby’s late daddy collected were being used to beautify our home. I believe love never really dies. The person just steps into another place, and the one left behind has to find another way to go on. But that love is still there to be built on, and when we went to the cemetery to decorate his daddy’s grave, he brought a picture of the decorated living room to show him.

We had a Christmas party planned for the next day and the boat parade coming up. Chained’s Little Christmas. The tree lighting and Christmas village were already behind us. The season flew by in a blur of sparkling joy and gratitude. Our second Christmas together. In love.