“Nope, it’s still crooked. Might need to drop that right side about a centimeter.” Lynn elbows me in the side, stifling a giggle. It’s the third time she’s asked Dane to adjust the sign hanging over the entrance to her store.
“You sure you’re growing a baby in there and not a future tyrant?” Dane snipes over his shoulder, wiping sweat off his brow. August in Tennessee is stifling, but the view isn’t half-bad. He’s up on a ladder, his hip resting against the top while he adjusts the sign that proudly announces the name of Lynn’s new shop: Reclaim. Lynn and I have been directing the manpower for the past few hours, and this is the final bullet on the to-do list for her store opening this weekend. As for the rest of the designing . . .
“Are y’all getting anything done out here besides harassment?” Serena goads through the glass door. Her eyes are narrowed shrewdly, but I’ve come to accept that’s just her standard expression, especially when it comes to dealing with me.
“Did you bring us those popsicles I asked for from the store?” Lynn shoots back, eyebrows arched in defiance. It’s a face-off I would not like to be caught in the middle of, though I know they’re only messing around. Mostly. Lynn took to Serena instantly, Serena’s sharp remarks rolling right off her thick, couldn’t-give-a-damn skin, but the clash of their strong personalities sometimes makes for terrifying confrontations.
“Like hell I did. The last thing we need is a popsicle party pushing back this opening, and the way you two are moving, I don’t think we’ll even need the popsicles for that to happen.” Serena lets the door slam behind her, disappearing into the shop.
“She is a force to be reckoned with,” Dane murmurs, dusting off his pants. He ascends the ladder and wipes his face with the hem of his shirt, giving us an eyeful of toned abdomen. After two months of mostly-uninterrupted, somewhat-normal dating, I can’t say I’m tired of him yet. I take that as a good sign.
I nod in agreement. “Truer words have never been spoken.”
After Lynn gave Serena her wholehearted approval for the designs, Serena dove into planning mode. She gave us input on different rental spaces and presentation ideas, and when I asked her to be here to help prepare for the opening, it seemed to seal the deal on our new-and-improved relationship. There is no changing her smug, I-know-better-than-you attitude, but I won’t be greedy. It’s a miracle we’ve come this far.
Serena emerges through the door, carrying a crate. “Here, make yourself useful,” she says, handing it off to me. “Those are for the ladder. Make it look pretty. And Dane, can you help me with something inside?”
Dane makes a face behind her back, and I eye the little plants nestled inside the crate in their miniature pots, scowling. This is so not my thing.
“Just do your best,” she says, then retreats into the air conditioning. That statement being one of the nicest things she’s ever said to me soothes the burn of her giving me the only job left to do in this hellacious heat.
Just as Dane passes by me to follow her, I nudge him with my elbow. “Everything good?”
A tired grin spreads across his face, and he gives me a little nod. “Yes.” When he bends down to kiss me, he purposely wipes his forehead sweat against my cheek before meeting my lips.
I didn’t expect any other answer. Although Dane doesn’t let on that what he’s going through is hard on him, I can tell. No matter what Trey was, he was his brother, and I know Dane wishes things had turned out differently.
Instead of prying, I nod at him, and he goes off to find Serena while I start on the ladder. Lynn found it at a flea market and bought it to use as a display piece.
She interrupts my task to bring me a bottle of water. “I’m just about finished. You can go back inside and cool down if you want,” I tell her when she rests against the wall, pulling her shirt away from her growing belly.
“You’re about to leave me for North Carolina, so I won’t have anyone but Adam to bestow my hormonal affections on. I’m doing this for me”
“So kind of you.” I straighten the Welcome sign on the top shelf. “That explains all this free labor.”
“I know a good deal when I see one.” She rubs her stomach absentmindedly for a few moments. “So, you and Dane Cross. You sure about this?”
I drop the empty crate on the ground and prop myself against the wall beside her. “No, I’m not, but when has being sure of anything ever changed the outcome?”
“True, but that doesn’t mean you have to move in with him. You could always take it slow. He’d understand.”
“He would.” I nod in agreement. “But it’s always been all or nothing with us. I can’t imagine doing things differently.”
“Well, if you need a place to come back to, you’re always welcome here. You could give Heronwood another shot.”
I give her a look to make sure she’s joking. “Because that’s worked so well before.”
“You’re right, I’m just being jealous. You’re headed out on the adventure of a lifetime, and I’m here, getting hugely pregnant and fighting off the underhanded compliments from the Bobs.”
I reach over and squeeze her hand reassuringly. “You have the store. It’ll keep you busy, and it will be great.”
“True, but it’s not the secluded cabin sex-fest you’ll be having. Promise to fill me in on all the dirty details?”
“We’ll see,” I crack, hiding my flushing cheeks while fetching the crate and stashing it inside the door.
“You’ll come back, won’t you?” she asks, softer, and I see a rare flicker of concern in her eyes.
I scratch my fingers against her baby bump, speaking directly to the little boy growing inside. “You couldn’t keep me away.”
Dane’s fingers drum a beat on my leg, and I’m not sure I’ve ever felt more grateful for something as simple as an innocent idiosyncrasy. We’re heading east on I40, bound for a little cabin in North Carolina. A U-haul trailer sways into sight in the side mirror, carrying the entirety of our belongings. Soon, Tennessee will be nothing more than a horizon line in the rearview mirror and a distant memory in our minds. I’m torn about whether to celebrate or mourn that fact. I guess I’ll be doing a little of both.
The opening of Reclaim was the perfect going-away event. Neither Dane or I wanted to do anything official, preferring to leave town quietly instead fueling the rumor mill, so it was a nice opportunity for us to spend a whole day with the people we care most about and kick off what I hope will be a successful business venture for Lynn and Adam. We’ve all grown closer over the past couple months, and maybe that makes it even more difficult to leave, but I can’t deny how thankful I am that I found them when I couldn’t have felt more lost. They were a light at the end of a long, oftentimes lonely, tunnel, and I know our friendship will prevail over the distance.
There’s still a long way to go to wrap things up with the case against Trey and Mike. And the investigation into Dalton Briggs’s murder will, in turn, lead to an impossibly tangled web of criminal activity with no end in sight. Ben Cross vowed to remain in Heronwood and cooperate fully for as long as he’s needed. I’m not sure what charges will be brought against him for his involvement in the drug trade, or what kind of deal his information will secure for him, but I hope everyone involved receives the closure they deserve. Whatever happens, I’m sure he’s looking forward to putting his legacy to bed after what happened to Trey.
As for Dane, he’s more ready than ever to leave his hometown behind. We are both headed for uncertainty, but, somewhere amid the chaos, my head and my heart have agreed that Dane is worth taking that risk for. I’ve learned many valuable lessons over the last year, and one of them is this: that some people love with their words and hopes and promises, and some people live their love; exude it with every action. Dane, I discovered, is the latter. There is never a time in the day when I doubt him because he demonstrates how he feels in everything he does. Even after all he’s been through, his love feels pure. Forthcoming and honest. Unconditional. With each day that passes, a little more of his generous, unrestrained love rubs off on me. And I no longer fight it. No longer fear it. We’ve discussed getting separate places wherever we decide to settle down following a two-week recuperation in a cabin on the lake, but only time will tell where our relationship will lead. Lord knows it’s been anything but standard thus far.
I can still see the tongues of flame in my mind sometimes. In my dreams I smell the burning, and I often wake up in fear that the room around me will be reduced to ash. And each time, as my eyes adjust and my heart rate slows, I take in the man stretched out beside me, sheets warm from his body, and it settles in my heart that things will be okay. The nightmares are irregular, but each time, Dane stirs from sleep and pulls me into him, leaving no space between us for those fears to exist.
I reflexively reach for him, twisting my fingers in his.
“Everything good?” he asks. It’s become a code phrase of sorts. Not much can be worse than some of the things we experienced two months ago, but he always uses it to check on me and the state of my heart.
“Yeah.” I smile tightly. He knows better, but right now, there isn’t much in our current world to complain about. “Hey, what did you have to go back to get? In the house?” I can’t believe I only just thought of it. That night, there were more dangers in those woods than just the burning house, and since then, we’ve been preoccupied with clearing Dane’s name and resurrecting a life after it seemed everything had been burned to cinders.
Dane turns to me, dividing his focus between me and the road. “Something I had to save. Something very important to me.”
“It must’ve been, if it was worth risking your life for.” My tone is light but scolding. The house could’ve caved in at any second. Gulliver raises his head from the center console, giving our hands a lick. He’s our reluctant passenger, as he hardly fits in the backseat.
“It was. It is. One day you’ll understand.” Dane’s smile is forlorn. When he squeezes my hand, I squeeze back. His kisses my knuckles and I am satisfied. Like all things, I know Dane will tell me about it eventually. I suspect it has something to do with his mother. He doesn’t have many of her things, and I know he values what he has left.
It brings a tear to my eyes, his love for his mother, and the demonstration that love in general can prevail. How just when you think all might be lost, it resurges with a vengeance and shows you just how brightly it can burn. I saw it vividly several times in only a few months. I saw it when Dane pursued my hidden heart and extended his generosity with a firm yet gentle persistence. I saw it when he emerged from the fire carrying his precious best friend, and when his father risked his freedom to save our lives. I saw it when Serena forgave me after all our years of sisterly strife, and when my parents offered their home to Dane and I, if we needed somewhere to go. And I see it in action each day when Dane spends every waking moment telling me I’m enough, that what we have is strong enough to withstand the trials and the triumphs.
Some love burns brightly for a short time before it goes up in smoke, and some burns steadily for the long haul, through frigid winters and pleasant summers and everything in between. Luckily for me, I believe Dane and I have found the latter.
The End