Epilogue
Caroline stayed through Drew’s graduation before packing her belongings and leaving River Bend. The investigation didn’t find her guilty of anything other than infidelity. The town gossip spread like a case of the flu, especially when it came to light that Joseph Ward . . . trusted sheriff of River Bend . . . was just as guilty as Caroline for their transgressions.
Standing beside Drew and her deputy, Karl, Gill held Jo’s hand during the graduation ceremonies of River Bend High.
They were a strange family, one born of lies and deceit. But Jo was happy for it.
Jo had a brother. While she never thought she was missing something in her life, she realized when he became more than just another kid on the field, another attitude-filled teen, she missed a whole lot.
Gill insisted on staying with her the week that followed.
Mel and Zoe moved into the role of reunion alumni committee without having any connection with the class that had graduated three years after them.
The six of them stood around the bar, listening to Principal Mason score free drinks off the graduating class of ten years before. With little to entertain the small town, many showed up regardless of the fact that several of them had graduated more than twenty years before.
“Can you believe this? Thirteen years since we left this school,” Zoe said as she leaned on Luke’s arm.
“I don’t feel like I’ve ever left, and this isn’t where I grew up,” Wyatt said, laughing.
“So, Zoe,” Jo said. “What are you going to do with the family home?” Zoe’s siblings had been paid for their portion, her mother was still serving time, and her father was dead. But the house that had haunted Jo’s BFF still stood.
“Felix had a great idea,” she told them. Felix was her longtime director and friend.
“Oh?”
“Yeah . . . we’re gonna blow it up.”
Jo paused. Gill squeezed her hand.
“Blow it up?” Gill asked.
“Kitchen disasters. You know. The typical ‘I blew up my kitchen cooking a turkey’ episode.”
Mel frowned. “No one blows up a kitchen cooking a turkey.”
Wyatt nudged her.
“I didn’t blow up anything. That stove was defective!”
They all laughed.
The music slowed, and Luke pulled Zoe onto the dance floor.
Mel and Wyatt followed.
“Wanna dance?” Gill asked.
Jo put the drink in her hand down and shook her head. “No. Dancing isn’t what I want to do.”
Gill raised an eyebrow and grinned.
Two hours later, as they rolled over on the bed long after they’d exercised every possible muscle either of them owned, Jo snuggled into the crook of Gill’s arm.
“I’ve been thinking,” Gill said.
“Sounds like trouble.”
He laughed. “There’s a promotion available for me with the bureau.”
“That’s a good thing, right?”
“It is. I wouldn’t have to leave Eugene.”
She didn’t even realize she’d been holding her breath. “Are you taking it?”
“I’m thinking about it. Which means that Shauna will need a new partner.”
Jo shifted her weight, damn shoulder still ached, even though the sling had been off for less than a week. “Sucks for her.”
He paused. “Unless it’s you.”
Jo lay perfectly still. “Me?”
“Well, I mean . . . you’d have to apply, pass the agility, which you’d ace. You might be eligible with your years of experience as a sheriff, and if not, a few classes to get your degree can work.”
Jo leaned up on an elbow. “You think I need to go back to school?”
“If the agent thing interests you.”
Her heartbeat pulsed in her head. “I don’t think I ever thought about it.”
“You have some time. I wouldn’t take the promotion until after the first of the year.”
“You think they’d hire me?”
Gill tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “They’d be fools not to.”
Could she? Was she capable? “The FBI,” she whispered.
“Something to think about.”
Jo looked around the room. Her father’s room, albeit a different color with different furniture.
“You’ve made things right here in River Bend, JoAnne. Maybe it’s time for you to make things right for you.”
She was smiling as she slipped back into the crook of his arm. “I’d have to live in Eugene.”
“Yeah. But I have that part covered,” he told her.
“How’s that?”
“You’d live with me.”
They already bunked up whenever they were in the same town.
“Live with you?”
“Of course. Where else would you live?” The foregone conclusion laced the tone in his voice.
“My own place . . . an apartment?”
It was Gill’s turn to pull away and make sure she saw his eyes. “Why?”
“I don’t know—”
“No. You live with me. You’ve burned through three lives since we met. I don’t trust you on your own.”
“Don’t trust me?”
“Nope. Sorry. So you move in with me. We can visit here on the weekends—”
“Whoa, back up. I have a life here.”
“No. You’ve been living here. Your life is with me.”
“My life has been in River Bend.”
He hesitated. “I’d make a really bad deputy sheriff.”
The thought of him in her uniform made her laugh.
“See.”
“You would suck.”
“But you.” He kissed her nose. “You’d make a stellar agent.”
Jo placed a fist on his chest, rested her chin on it. “Stellar, huh?”
“You kicked ass at Quantico.”
“All my friends are here, Miss Gina . . .”
“And you’ll only be two hours away and you’d visit often.”
She sighed, already halfway making up her mind. She’d never had the option before. “I’ll consider it.”
His smile was a slow, easy grin. “So . . . shack up, get married?”
Jo narrowed her eyes. “Was that a proposal?”
He rolled his eyes. Which Jo wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him do before. “It’s a conversation before a proposal. It isn’t like we’ve been outside of a hospital long enough to know that’s what we want.”
“True.”
His hand lingered on the skin of her naked back as they spoke. “I like the idea of getting married,” he told her as if he had just figured that out. “My parents did it the other way, but I don’t know . . . maybe—”
“Wait, wait . . . your parents aren’t married?”
Gill shook his head. “God, no. Hippies to the core. Miss Gina would love them.”
“And that worked?”
“Worked for . . .” Gill looked at the ceiling for the answer. “Going on thirty-six years now.”
Jo blew out a breath.
“As far as I see it, when two people love each other, a piece of paper is just that. But if you want it, I get it.”
“I don’t think that was a proposal either.” She was teasing him, and his words of love hadn’t escaped her.
“So you’re a proposal girl . . .” He winked. “Got it.”
“Well, I want a ring at least.”
“Duh. I can’t have men hitting on you,” he said.
“Oh, they’re gonna hit on me.”
He frowned. “Good thing I’m a big man.” His hand moved over the curve of her ass and squeezed.
“You know I love you,” she told him for the first time.
“I know. And I, my sexy sheriff, love you. But you know that, too.”
She crawled up his chest, intending to make sure he knew just how deep her affection was, when the sound of something soft hit the side of the house.
They both stiffened.
Jo relaxed first.
“I’ll get my gun.” Gill tried to move her off of him.
“Don’t you dare,” she told him, pinning him back to the bed.
“Someone is outside.”
She nodded. “Yep.”
He tried moving her again.
“You can’t shoot my brother.”
“Drew?”
“Yeah . . . it’s reunion night.”
“What does that mean?”
“You’ll see . . .” Jo pressed her lips to Gill’s and made him forget all about the noise outside the walls of her father’s home.
The next morning, when she and Gill stood outside in a sea of toilet paper–laden trees, he turned to her and said, “We are moving to Eugene.”
“Fine. But I’m keeping the house.”
“And I’m using the cabin.”
“It will be a great place to take kids.”
Gill squeezed her close. “I really hope you’re talking about our kids.”
She sighed. “I think I’m gonna need that proposal before we talk about children.”
He kissed the side of her head as moist, sodden toilet paper dripped from the roof.
Rocco, her rottweiler pup, barked at their heels.