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This Close to Okay by Leesa Cross-Smith

Contemporary fiction

This Close to Okay

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by Leesa Cross-Smith

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Quick take

A near-tragedy brings together two lonely strangers who might just have the ability to save each other's lives.

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  • Illustrated icon, Multiple_Viewpoints

    Multiple viewpoints

  • Illustrated icon, Inspirational

    Inspirational

  • Illustrated icon, Sad

    Sad

  • Illustrated icon, Literary

    Literary

Synopsis

On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home from work when she spots a man precariously standing on the side of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally shares his name: Emmett.

Over the course of the emotionally charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe space for Emmett, though she hesitates to confess that this is also her day job. But what she doesn't realize is that he's not the only one who needs healing—and she's not the only one with secrets.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of This Close to Okay.

This Close to Okay

Part One

Thursday
Tallie

Tallie saw him drop his backpack and climb over the metal railing, the bridge. The gray Ohio River below them, a swift-rippling ribbon. She was driving slowly because of the rain, the crepuscular light. She didn’t give herself time to think. Pulled over, lowered the passenger-side window, and said hey.

Hey!

Hey!

The heys increased in frequency, volume. To her left, the blur of traffic. She punched her hazards, climbed over the armrest and out of her car, leaving the passenger door peeled open.

“Hey! I see you! You don’t know me, but I care about you! Don’t jump!” she said, loud enough for him to hear, but she didn’t want to startle him, either. The cars and trucks were loud, the rain was loud, the sky was loud, the bridge was loud—all those sounds echoing off it, rattling down and back up. The world was so loud.

He turned slightly, his face wet with rain.

“Hi. I’m Tallie,” she said. “I don’t want you to do this. Is there somewhere I can take you instead? And I could take your backpack. What’s your name?” She was reluctant to touch the backpack. It was dark green and dirty. She reached for it.

“Don’t touch it,” he said softly. Far too softly for someone who was about to jump to his death. Why bother speaking softly when death is slipping its hand in your pocket?

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Why I love it

It’s no secret to say that we are living in difficult times. And in a holiday season where so many of us are isolated from friends and family, I suspect many of us are yearning for a sense of connection. That’s part of why Leesa Cross-Smith's new novel spoke so powerfully to me. This Close to Okay is a love story, but not in the usual sense of romantic love. Rather, it's a story about one wounded soul reaching out to another in a moment of love and compassion, changing both of their lives forever.

When we meet Tallie and Emmett, they are resigned to their fates—her to living a life of loneliness and disappointment after a failed marriage, and him to ending a life of pain. But when Tallie stops on a bridge one rainy night to rescue a stranger, making the arguably reckless decision to welcome the secretive and suicidal Emmett into her home, the two share a cathartic weekend that reaffirms their humanity.

This is undoubtedly a story about grief and pain. But it is also a story of two people who, in the process of getting to know one another, rediscover the healing power of love, family, and community. Now, more than ever, my heart needed a story about starting over and choosing hope over despair. This is that story.

Member ratings (12,564)

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View all
What Does It Feel Like?
The Life Impossible
The Love Elixir of Augusta Stern
The Same Bright Stars
Joe Nuthin’s Guide to Life
Did I Ever Tell You?
The Last Love Note
The Many Lives of Mama Love
The Connellys of County Down
The Collected Regrets of Clover
A Quiet Life
The Circus Train
We Are the Light
The Fortunes of Jaded Women
The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle
Bittersweet
The Unsinkable Greta James
Peach Blossom Spring
Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?
Somebody's Daughter
Will
The Choice
A Little Hope
Send for Me
More Myself
This Close to Okay
The Last Story of Mina Lee
The Beauty in Breaking
The Boyfriend Project
Untamed
Yes No Maybe So
Throw Like a Girl
Full Disclosure
Color Me In
Symptoms of a Heartbreak
Things You Save in a Fire
All the Light We Cannot See
The Girl Who Smiled Beads
The Great Alone
The Heart’s Invisible Furies
The Moor's Account