New Year’s Eve on Wenniway Island was typically celebrated inside at various locations, but this year things were a little different. Gigi had some dead husbands to launch into the sky, and so some of the festivities were being held outside. Bonfires crackled along the beach, the smoke thick and white against the dark sky. Lawn chairs had been hauled out from various sheds, and people wrapped in wool and fleece blankets waited while sipping peppermint schnapps and hot chocolate. On the lake, not far from the shore, sat a boat with an assortment of fireworks. The first to go up would be my grandfather, John Callaghan.
I huddled up next to Chloe with Emily and Ryan on the other side of her. Lilly hadn’t made it back to Trillium Bay for Christmas, and missing her was a sharp pain inside me. I welcomed it, though, because missing her was a nice distraction from missing Leo. She’d sent me a text last week saying she wasn’t ready to give up on Tag yet. Love doesn’t always make sense, her note had said. Maybe it never makes sense, but when it’s good, it’s soooo good. I wasn’t sure how to respond to that because I had nothing to compare it to. Love hadn’t been good to me. Not ever, but if it was good to her, then I was glad.
Everyone was talking and laughing as snow came down in big, fat clumps. My dad arrived to stand next to me. Gigi was in front of us wrapped in a big, downy blanket, a paper New Year’s Eve hat perched on top of her knit winter cap. Gus was standing off to the side, respectfully giving her a chance to say goodbye while surrounded by her family.
“Are you sure you want to do this, Mom?” my dad asked. “It’s not too late to put these guys in the cemetery where they belong. Or we could just, you know, dump them all back into their jars.” I could tell he was teasing. He still didn’t love this idea, but he’d come around to it.
“I’m certain. Your father is going to love this, Harlan. Stop being a party pooper.”
“Ooookay,” he said, and took a hearty swig from a flask in his hand. Moments later the sound of bagpipes floated over the crowd, and up went my grandfather, followed by Bert and Conroy. The swishes and the pops were nearly instantaneous as the pyrotechnics exploded up above. And damn if my grandmother wasn’t right. This was a beautiful shimmering display filling the night sky. I tried not to think about all those ashes floating overhead as everyone oohed and aahed. A bunch of other fireworks went up next, just to make a real show of it. There was applause muffled by mittens and more conversation and laughter. The sky shimmered gold and pink and green. Maybe being sent up into the sky wasn’t such a bad way to go. It really did look pretty.
“I’m thinking about hiring a new assistant deputy,” my dad said as the last firework faded from view and people started making their way to the pubs to welcome the new year in warmth. We were headed to the Palomino. “I have one candidate in mind,” my dad continued. “Seems like a pretty good guy. Maybe you’ll like him.”
I shook my head vehemently at my father’s attempt at matchmaking.
“No, thanks. I won’t like him. Not if he’s Captain America, Tony Stark, and Thor all rolled into one.” Maybe someday I’d give that whole dating thing another try, but certainly not now. Not yet. And anyway, I was busy being mayor.
“Okay,” he said, and let it drop.
We stepped inside the pub, and Gloria hugged me, her belly starting to plump with that Kloosterman baby. There were the Drunk Puzzle Night girls and Emily’s construction crew. Gertie and the O’Douls. Lots of friendly, happy faces. Seemed that everyone wanted to say hello to me tonight, and they wanted to congratulate me, too, because word of the donation had spread, no doubt embellished by Dmitri, and suddenly everyone had a hazy memory of maybe having met Mrs. Wellington here during that nonexistent visit she’d never taken to Trillium Bay. Funny how that worked.
I got a drink and mingled a bit, finding a nice warm spot near the back. It was standing room only, and the crowd was ready to celebrate.
“Did you make any New Year’s resolutions?”
The voice was low in my ear, but I knew it in an instant. My heart burst like one of those fireworks. Filled with a dead guy. How appropriate. Something beautiful and shimmery and magnificent that fades away to ash, and then you realize it was made of something rather unpleasant. Leo was back.
Leo was back.
I could ignore him. Pretend I hadn’t heard, but I wasn’t a teenager. I didn’t need to play games. I just needed to be honest with him and ask him to take his questions and the rest of himself elsewhere. I turned to do just that, but I made the mistake of making eye contact, forgetting, somehow, just how blue and hypnotic his eyes were.
“What are you doing here?” I’d meant to sound standoffish and impersonal, so that tone of hopefulness in my voice was completely misplaced. I didn’t want him here. I didn’t want him back. But here he was. Standing before me cloaked in all his Leo-esque charm. He’d gotten a haircut and was clean-shaven, to better showcase his dimples, no doubt. So unfair.
“I’m here because I missed you and you won’t return my calls.”
I’d missed him, too. So much, but I’d stuffed that down, like the way you bank a fire. I knew the heat was down there, but from the surface, it just looked cold and gray, and I wasn’t prepared to admit anything to him. No stoking allowed.
“Um, I haven’t answered your calls because I don’t want to talk to you. We don’t have anything to say to each other.”
“I do. I need to tell you some things, Brooke. Will you at least listen?”
I didn’t want to. Not because I was mean or unforgiving but because I wasn’t. Truth be told, I had forgiven him. I’d forgiven Dmitri for a lifetime of deceit; I could certainly give Leo a pass for just doing his job. But telling him that would only complicate this misery. Because he didn’t live here. Because if the jewel thief issue hadn’t broken us apart, something else would have, but my hesitation in answering seemed to offer enough encouragement for him to continue.
“Christmas sucked,” he said. “And do you know why?”
“You got coal in your stocking?”
“No, it sucked because for the first time in years I had somebody I wanted to spend it with, and I couldn’t. Gina told me I should man up and get over it, but I realized something. I don’t want to get over it, Brooke. I don’t want to get over you. If missing you is all I have left of us, then I guess that’s what I’ll hang on to, but I’m hoping to turn things around.”
“Hey, kid,” Dmitri said, appearing at my elbow and handing me a much-appreciated gin and tonic. His interruption gave me a chance to absorb Leo’s words.
“Mr. Krushnic,” Leo answered. “It’s good to see you. Especially without the hat.”
“The hat served its purpose faithfully but has recently been retired. I find myself no longer needing it.”
Leo raised his bottle of beer in a toast. “I’m glad to hear that, and speaking of retirement, you might be interested to know that I escorted an old friend of yours back to his previous place of residency. He’ll be living there for quite some time, I’d imagine. Sort of a forced retirement from the glamorous life he’d aspired to.”
He meant Mick, of course, and I couldn’t deny the sense of relief I felt at hearing that he was back in prison. I don’t think he ever would have shot me, but in the weeks since that incident I’d woken up more than once from the grip of a nightmare in a cold sweat. Ironic, really. The most dramatic moment of my life, and I couldn’t even tell anyone. Just like I couldn’t tell anyone the real reason Leo had left so suddenly. Now he was back, and here we all were, chatting like friends on the surface while underneath my emotions were churning and erupting like an active volcano.
“I also delivered that package you were holding on to, and the recipient was very happy to get it back,” Leo said.
Dmitri smiled. “So I gathered. She sent a note of appreciation to the mayor.”
Leo glanced at me. “She did?”
“Twenty-five thousand notes, to be exact,” Dmitri added.
Leo’s gaze turned to surprise. “Seriously? Well, she’s a very generous person. In fact, she was so generous to me that I can afford to take a break from working. I’ve decided to try my hand at writing that novel after all. I heard that winters here are the perfect time and place.”
He looked over at me, observing as the words sank in.
“I’ll just be going now,” Dmitri said. “Seems like you two crazy kids might have some other things to chat about.”
My heart raced as I watched Dmitri melt into the crowd. Reluctantly I looked back at Leo. “I’m not falling for that a second time,” I said. “And you can’t just come back here and expect everything to fall into place. It doesn’t work that way.”
He looked around. “It’s crowded in here. Will you go outside with me?”
“It’s freezing outside.”
“Please?”
Well . . . shit. He had said please, and it was a little stuffy in the pub. Maybe a bit of fresh air wouldn’t be so bad. We made our way to the front door and stepped out into the frigid air. The moon was high in the cloudless sky, and the stars were bright and twinkling. A perfect setting to fall in love, if only it wasn’t ten degrees out. And if only my heart wasn’t locked up inside a steel box and wrapped in chains.
Leo turned to face me, and I let him clasp my hands in his. You know, because it was cold. His eyes were warm on my skin, his expression wary but hopeful. “I did a shitty thing, Brooke. Regardless of my reasons, I hurt you and I can’t take that back. I just need to know how to make it up to you. Will you let me try?”
“Why? I mean, what happens after you finish that book? What if you give it a try and decide you don’t like it here and realize you need to move back to Chicago or Washington, or just anyplace but Trillium Bay?”
He sighed, his breath misty in the cold air. “I don’t want to make specific promises about that, Brooke, because I’m not certain. But what I do know for certain is that the way my life felt before I met you wasn’t half as good as the way my life felt when I was with you. And now my life is just plain miserable, and I want to change that. I do like it here, and I like you. In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that I might even be in love with you. I probably am. Gina says I am, by the way, and she finds it completely annoying.”
Gina. Maybe she wasn’t so bad after all. Still, I needed more information.
“Are you really here to write a novel?”
“I am. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I’ve also been offered a job here. Turns out the chief of police is looking for an assistant deputy.”
Ohmygosh. He didn’t. My father offered Leo a job just to get him back here for me? That was either the most pathetic attempt at landing me a husband or the sweetest thing ever. Who knew that under Harlan’s gruff exterior beat the heart of a true romantic?
“I believe my father may have offered you that job under false pretenses.”
“I don’t care. All I know is that it gives me another excuse to hang out around here because, as of yet, you have not asked me to come back.”
The chains around the locked box of my heart rattled in my chest and fell away. “I’m not going to ask you to come back. I don’t need you, Leo. I’m pretty happy being the mayor. However, if you do decide to come back . . . I might be willing to go out with you again.” Ah, what the hell. What was one more broken heart? I guessed I was willing to jump just one more time.
“You would? Does that mean you’ve forgiven me?” He gave my hands a squeeze.
“It means I’m willing to consider it. Because I do like you, and in the spirit of full disclosure, I have a sneaking suspicion I might actually fall in love with you, if you play your cards right. But you should know, Leo Walker, I’m not looking for temporary. I’m looking for forever.”
“That’s okay.” He smiled and pulled me close. “I like the sound of that. I think I’d like your kind of forever.”
The hurt I’d been cloaked in melted away. Leo was back. And he’d come back just for me. Because I wasn’t just someone special. I was someone special to him. It was nearly midnight, but I couldn’t wait for the countdown. Leo was in front of me, and he probably loved me. I probably loved him, too, so no sense waiting for the ten, nine, eight . . .
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders. “If we jump, there’s just no telling where we’ll land, you know.”
“I know,” he said, pulling me tight against his chest. “But no matter what, we’ll land together.”
And then he kissed me.
Cheers erupted from inside the Palomino Pub, and in the back of my mind, I wondered if midnight had struck, but it hadn’t. They were cheering for us, faces pressed against the windows, watching. So much for keeping this a secret. But I didn’t want to keep it a secret, anyway. This time I wanted everyone to know. Brooke Therese Callaghan was about to take a lover.