Lost and Found (manxboy) ✓

Chapter Thirteen

I took a deep breath and wiped my tears away. I knew more would still come, but I still needed to try to get them under control.

I turned around and saw Jon watching me. I smiled a little and beckoned him over with my hand.

He smiled and began walking slowly towards me.

He came and kneeled down next to me.

I said softly, "Harrison, this is Jon. Jon, this is Harrison."

Jon smiled at me and kissed my temple.

"Do you want me to leave so you can talk to him?" I asked.

"No, you can stay, baby," he said to me.

I smiled at him and watched him turn to look at the gravestone in front of us.

"it's nice to meet you, Harrison," he began. "Beau's told me a lot about you. I actually kind of feel like I know you in some way. I know how important you were to Beau and how important he was to you. I would've like to meet you while you were still with us. But maybe it's best we didn't." He smiled. "I can see us getting into a fight over this special one." He turned to me and grinned. I frowned and pushed his shoulder, but then couldn't help but let a smile peek through. "But maybe when it came down to it, we couldn't gotten along and found things in common. I know you were a pretty special guy. You have to be for Beau to care about you so much...I just want to tell you that I plan on taking great care of him. I know you would be happy with that. Because I'm sure that's all you ever wanted, just like me...For Beau to be safe and happy and taken care of. I promise to do that. I know you're watching out for him too. So thank you." He ran his hand over the headstone and said, "I know we'll both come talk to you again soon."

He then wrapped his arm around me and gave me a small smile.

I then said goodbye to Harrison.

"I love you, honey. I'll come see you again. I'll tell you all about the grand reopening of the bookstore...Bye." I leaned forward and gave the headstone a kiss.

I wiped the few tears that had fallen and stood up alongside Jon.

He took my hand and asked, "Ready to go?"

I nodded and leaned into him as we began walking away.

I felt really good.

It may have been sad as well, but I was happy I did this. I needed it. And I knew I would be coming back many more times. I would never stop coming.

Harrison meant too much to me to stop.

____________

One week after visiting Harrison's grave, it was finally time for the grand reopening of Beau's Books.

Jon was obviously here with me. My whole family was coming, as well as Ethan and Katie.

There were banners hanging outside, alerting people to the grand reopening. I had put ads in the paper and online about it. I had even found an old mailing list on Harrison's computer with a number of email addresses that he would send out news about the store and sales notifications to, so I used those to notify people we were opening again as well.

But I was incredibly nervous that no one would show up.

I wondered if Harrison had that same fear when he first opened the store.

The place was freshly dusted this morning even though I had spent the last month cleaning it from top to bottom.

I had purchased a tons of new releases and put them on the specified shelves. The books that had been sitting there for the past year were placed on the older shelves according to genre and author.