Nineteen-year-old Lily excitedly told her mother about a boy she had just met on the Massachusetts subway. Their conversation started near Harvard Station, and by the time they reached South Station, they had exchanged numbers. Convinced she had found her dream guy, Lily eagerly showed off a selfie they had taken together.
The moment her mother saw the photo, she froze. The young man looked almost identical to Marcus, her college sweetheart from more than twenty years earlier. His hazel eyes, crooked smile, and dark curls were impossible to ignore.
She tried to convince herself it was only a coincidence. After all, Boston is a large city, and people can resemble one another. But then Lily showed another picture, and everything changed.
Hanging from the young man’s backpack was a faded blue felt teddy bear keychain with mismatched button eyes. It was a handmade keepsake her mother recognized instantly from her past with Marcus.
The familiar keychain erased any doubt. This was no ordinary look-alike. Somehow, the stranger her daughter had met was connected to the man she had never truly forgotten.
As memories she had buried for decades came rushing back, Lily’s exciting new romance suddenly became something much bigger. Her mother realized the answers she had spent years searching for might be standing right in front of her.