Chapter Thirty-Four
It was finally done.
Jamie walked through the house, feeling a sort of satisfaction he hadn’t felt in a while, that of a hard, physical job well done. Months of either back-breaking or drudgery, and it was done. Aunt Millie’s house—his house—was repaired, clean, furnished, and now, finally, newly painted inside and out, and he’d done most of it himself. The garden still needed some work to return it to its former beauty, but he was going to need help with that. Plants had never been his strong point. It would happen, and in the meantime the house looked like a home again.
Now he just had to make it one.
Even as he thought it he heard a car on the drive. A quick look and a flash of green told him the main element necessary to do that had just arrived.
He practically ran out to greet her. She was looking around, as if searching for something.
“You’re just in time. It’s official.”
There was an oddly tense, silent moment before she said, “It is?”
“Yep.” He waved a hand at the house. “Finished the last of the painting and cleanup this morning. Come on.”
“The house. You meant the house.”
He looked at her quizzically. “Well, yeah. What else?”
“I thought…you had company.”
“Rob?” His brow furrowed. “How’d you hear—” He broke off, laughed. “Never mind. I forgot you went into town. Martha?”
She nodded.
“He mentioned he’d stopped in for directions. And got an earful, I’m sure. But he left an hour ago.” Jamie grinned. “I think he was afraid I was going to make him move furniture.”
“That was quick.”
“Didn’t take long,” he said. And Rob hadn’t been happy.
Zee smiled, but not enough. “You didn’t mention he was coming.”
He drew back slightly, puzzled by the tightness in her voice. “I didn’t know. He just showed up.”
“You didn’t call him?”
He frowned, still puzzled. “No. Why?”
She shrugged. “After Boots showed up again, and then Leigh, I thought maybe you’d asked him to come. Because…the music is back.”
It hit him then. He stared at her, not sure how he felt. “You thought I was…going back? You still don’t trust me?”
“I trust you. You aren’t—and never were—the problem.” She seemed to draw herself up straighter. “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.”
“Sometimes you do too much. You need to know—”
She held up a hand to stop him. “It’s all right,” she repeated. “I finally realized that it was my fault. I was the one who threw us away when you left. Because I was afraid to go with you when you asked.”
He wasn’t sure where she was going with this, but he had no doubt that this was…momentous somehow. He fought down the tension that was building in his gut. Managed to keep his voice even as he said, “Turned out for the best. True needed you, when Amanda got sick.”
“Yes. And that tragedy should have taught me how little control I had. But I was still afraid that if I wasn’t here, I’d lose what little I had left of my old life.” She gave a half-hearted laugh. “I never realized before how ingrained in me it is, to hold on, to try and keep everything the same.”
“I get that,” he said, softly now. He’d never looked at her need to stay in quite that way, but the moment she said it, he understood. “You were right about one thing. Rob was here to ask me to come back to L.A., put the band back together.”
She waited, silently. Asking without asking. And anger kicked in him for a moment. She should know.
And you should have known how she felt when you left.
And then Aunt Millie’s words rang in his mind. Cut your Zinnia Rose some slack. She’ll get there.
He steadied his voice. “Boots, on the other hand, was here to tell me he’d gotten another gig. And Leigh? She came to tell me she was pregnant and they were heading home.”
“Oh.”
She sounded odd, and for some reason he was remembering all the times he’d found her hiding in a corner, her back to the walls, much as he had been in the emergency room that night.
It was stupid of me to think everyone grieved in the same way. And arrogant to think that way was my way.
She had ever had the grace to apologize when she was wrong, and better, unlike some people, she truly did learn from it.
“You want to know why Rob’s visit was so short? Because it doesn’t take long to say no.”
“But the music—”
He cut her off this time. “I’m not going back to L.A., Zee. It was a grand ride, but it turned out I didn’t like the guy I was there very much.”
“You’re not…still quitting? Music, I mean? You can’t,” she said, sounding urgent. “You’re yourself again. It’s who you are, and the world needs it.”
“That might be just a little bit grandiose,” he said wryly.
“No. It’s not.”
She said it so firmly he nearly smiled. And the last bit of the anger that had spiked faded. “I’m not quitting. I’m just changing home base. To where it should have been all along.” He gave her a lopsided grin. “Rumor has it Texas has a pretty damned fine music scene.”
“Of course it does. But touring is—”
“Essential these days. I know. But I made an interesting discovery. It’s a heck of a lot easier to get to the rest of the country from Texas than from one of the coasts. And…” His voice trailed off; even now he was almost afraid to ask. Which made him look at the fear that had driven her out here a little differently.
“And?”
“I was hoping this time you might come along. As long as you knew we’d always come home.”
She let out a shaky breath. “I was afraid this time you wouldn’t ask.”
He swallowed. “Is that a yes?”
“It’s a hell, yes,” she whispered.
He pulled her into his arms. He couldn’t regret the tangled path they’d trod to get to here, because he didn’t know if they would have gotten here any other way. He just wanted the road to be bright and clear from here on.
After a while he gave her Aunt Millie’s letter to read. And watched as she had the same reaction he’d had, crying and laughing at the same time. “And she was right. I did get there.”
“Yes. She was. You did,” he said, and kissed her.
Much later, in the bed they had decided had to be used despite the smell of fresh paint, he held her close as he said, “I got some very wise advice once, although I was too young and stupid to take it at the time. From an old hand who came off the road and has his own venue now. He told me if there was someone who made me want to fly right, I should grab her and hang on. You’re that for me. You always have been.”
“And if I hadn’t loved you so much, it would never have hurt for so long. And I wouldn’t have been so angry.” She nestled against him. “Sometimes I think I had to grow up so fast in some ways that I missed a couple of others.”
He rolled onto his side, grinned at her as he cupped a breast. “I dunno. I think you grew up pretty darned perfect.”
“I don’t need to be perfect,” she said, sliding her hand down his body. “Just yours.”
He muttered a heartfelt oath as her fingers curled around him. “Always.”
The darkness just before dawn found them on the limestone ledge over the river, waiting for the sunrise.
“I’m going to need somebody to handle bookings,” he said. “I got a call from one of the guys who runs the music end of South by Southwest in Austin,” he said, referring to the one-time local music festival that had grown into something huge and widely known. “And I talked to somebody from Gruene Hall. And a couple of other places.”
“So, you just want me for my organizational skills,” she teased.
“There is something to be said for your…thorough and detailed approach,” he said, nuzzling the nape of her neck. She had demonstrated that last night; he didn’t think there was an inch of his body she’d missed, and the attention she’d paid to some particular inches were etched into his memory forever.
“So I’m a bit of an organization freak.”
“A bit?” he said with exaggerated shock. She punched him lightly. He laughed. “I can live with that, as long as it doesn’t spill over into my music room.”
“Music room?”
“The one I’m going to add on,” he said. “And I can guarantee it won’t be organized.”
“Out of chaos comes creativity?”
“Something like that.”
“I can live with that,” she said in turn.
He hesitated for one long breath. “Will you?” She turned to look at him as the first light began to brighten the sky. “I know you and True have that place and—”
She cut him off with a finger to his lips. “My brother needed me close then. He doesn’t now.”
“I do. I always will.”
“And I you.” She turned her head to glance at the house, the windows beginning to reflect the light of the rising sun. “I think Aunt Millie would like us being here.”
“Yes. Because we’re proving she was right. We were meant to be.”
The sun flared over the horizon and turned the river to flowing gold. He felt the warmth of it as if it were flowing straight into his heart.
Jamie Templeton was home at last.
The End