Anthony had spent a whole lot of his life in the what-if phase. Starting at a young age. What if Mom never comes back? He’d carried that concern with him ever since.

What if Ruth leaves? Which she had. What if Elsie leaves? Well, that happened too. It seemed as if he spent his life chasing people away with doubt and fear.

His mind drifted back to a quote Pops had framed and placed on his dresser. 1 John 4:18. “Perfect love casts out fear.”

Anthony hadn’t understood it back then. Yet somewhere between losing his dad, meeting Kira, and falling deeply in love with her, he’d learned to give up that fear. Not that his love for her would ever be perfect or his trust, for that matter. But he’d grown in both aspects. Just in time to love Kira the way she needed to be loved. He hadn’t done it alone. Besides the good Lord, Anthony figured that Pops and Angelo had something to do with it. After all, how else could he explain the chain of events that had unfolded over the last few months?

A deeper relationship with Kira. The job offer that came along—the one that led Kira to the woman she met in Barcelona at the tail end of her trip just two days ago. Turned out Finny and Python were sold on the goal of making amends, and were thrilled to assist his mother’s effort to do that very thing.

Anthony couldn’t get his leg to stop bouncing. Seated in the same place he and Kira sat a month-and-a-half ago, the exact bench, even, he waited to see the two most important women in his life. One who was destined to be a daily part of his future—she’d assured him of that before leaving, and every day since. The other woman, whom he hadn’t seen in twenty years … well, only time would tell what she planned to do. He hoped his mother would stick around and be a part of their lives, but he wouldn’t press her on it. Kira had chosen Cobble Creek. She’d chosen him. And as far as he was concerned, the rest was gravy.

He shifted his gaze back to the screen, noticing that the flight had landed. He stood and paced behind the bench, his eyes flicking from the scuff-marked floor to the arrival gate then back again. A crowd of people filtered through. A large family with everything from teenagers to babies. An older couple with sunburns and visors. Probably been somewhere tropical.

“Hey there, handsome,” came that sultry voice he loved.

Anthony stopped walking, yanked his gaze off the moving crowd, and glanced behind him. “How did you …”

“I snuck under the dividers.” Kira rushed in and threw her arms around him. “Your mom went to the ladies’ room to freshen up.”

A mixture of emotions flowed through him. In mere moments, he’d see his mother for the first time in twenty years. But first … he lifted Kira off the ground and spun her in place. Home at last. Warm and loving and everything he wanted in a woman. Kira had come back to him, just as he’d known she would. He breathed in her sweet strawberry scent and sighed. “I missed you so much.”

Kira pulled back and grinned. “I missed you too.” Suddenly she was kissing his face. Cheeks, forehead, the tip of his nose. Covering every inch in short, hurried kisses. “Mwah. Mwah. Mwah. And …” She brought her lips to his mouth and pressed a kiss there too. “Mwah! Hi,” she breathed against his lips.

“Hi,” he rasped.

“This feels so good,” Kira said, nuzzling into his neck. “I missed your face and your voice and your smell.”

Anthony tipped his head back. “My smell?”

“Yes,” Kira crooned in that sultry voice that drove him mad. She lowered her chin and looked at him through fluttering lashes. “I’m so happy to be back in Cobble Creek.”

Kira slipped her palms down Anthony’s arm and sandwiched his hand between hers. “She’ll be coming out that doorway any minute. Can you believe it?” She nodded toward a nearby lavatory, the wide walkway adjacent to the men’s room.

The noise and chaos might have marched on, but Anthony tuned it all out. Channeling the few memories he had of the woman. Loving memories. Her lovely face as she slid a root beer float across the bar, the foamy layer tilting like sea foam on an ocean tide. “It’s all yours, Tony boy.”

And then there was the memory of being at the pond with her. She’d spread out a blanket so the two could watch ducks bathe in the water. The memory centered around one particular moment when she tossed her arms over her head and declared, “Watch out, world, here I come!” And then she plopped back onto the blanket, grinning wide. “Come on, Tony boy. Try it.” In his memory, he’d done just that. Tossed his arms up, hollered those same words, and then flattened onto his back, where the two giggled. He couldn’t remember what came next. But he used to imagine that she reached out to test all those ticklish spots Dad used to poke at to make him laugh whether he felt like it or not.

Through the vision of his musings, a woman striding from the indicated doorway came into clear focus. Black hair. Oval-shaped face. And a lifetime of mystery behind her eyes. Her. It was unmistakably her. The face from those memories.

“Oh, my Tony boy,” she whispered as she neared. With trembling hands, she reached out to him, patted his face as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Do you mind … I mean, is it okay if I hug you?”

He nodded, working to hold back emotions of his own.

At once her arms were wrapped solidly around him. “I’m so sorry,” she cried. “I’m so sorry for leaving you.” She held on to him as she wept a moment more, then seemed to remember herself. When she pulled away, she patted his arm before glancing over at Kira.

“How about we grab our luggage and get to the car,” Kira suggested. “We can catch up some more there.”

They did that very thing, the conversation flowing comfortably between Kira and his mother. Simple things. A joke about the contrast between the private jet that had taken them from Barcelona to LA, and the commercial flight they’d taken to come to Wyoming. It struck him just how human his mother really was. Crazy.

In the truck, she started up where she’d left off. Seated in the far passenger seat while Kira sat buckled in the center, Maria spoke of her regret.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here when your father died. You don’t know what it did to me when Kira told me he’d passed.” She wiped tears from her face as she said it, her words choked out by sobs. She explained that for the first few years, she was caught up in herself. But for the last thirteen-plus years, she thought about coming back every day, yet feared it was too late. That he and his dad would hate her.

Anthony stopped her there. “We never could’ve hated you.” It might have come out low and mumbled, but he’d meant it.

His mother had offered words that would take years for Anthony to digest. But in the moment, among all the emotions and tears, one word stood out like it’d been wrapped in construction orange: fear. He hadn’t been the only one held back by it over the years.

Yesterday, while telling the guys about Kira’s discovery, Benny asked if Anthony was mad at his mother. The answer hadn’t been simple. After struggling over the question for a bit, Anthony finally said that he wasn’t sure.

But now, with the woman he loved by his side, expelling awkward tension like there’d never been such thing, a strong spirit of forgiveness took over. When they had more time to talk, he’d make sure Maria understood that very important truth. He wasn’t interested in holding grudges and dwelling on the past. Instead, Anthony was focused on his future.