“Wait!” Bowie waved his hands in front of me as I teed up with the sledgehammer. “How do we know you’re not going to hit some kind of plumbing or electrical?”

“Because your sister already did some exploratory hole poking. That’s why there’s a big ol’ X on the wall,” I explained patiently.

I eyed up Mr. Bodine. He was studying the plaster wall over his second cup of coffee. His pajama pants, a black and red-checkered lumberjack pattern, hung low on his hips. The untied drawstring was mighty distracting.

“You’re not nervous, are you?” I cocked my hip, resting the sledgehammer on my shoulder.

“I just want to make sure you want a commitment in the form of a hole in the wall rather than a nice something sparkly on your ring finger,” he said, giving me that heart-melting, boyish grin that had done me in when we were kids.

“Let’s try this whole ‘living together’ thing first. What if I can’t stand the way you blow your nose? Or you get all disenchanted with the way I do laundry?” It was, in small part, a bluff. Of course I wanted Bowie to get down on one knee and make a fuss about how much he loved me. I wanted to plan a wedding with him. To throw our loved ones a party that no one would forget. Make a couple of babies and complain about time flying too fast.

But first, I wanted to date the man. I wanted an honest-to-goodness relationship. Arguments over dishes, inside jokes, hand-holding in public. I wanted the whole shebang with Bowie Bodine.

A ruckus came from the stairs on Bowie’s side of the double, and Jonah appeared in the open doorway. He was carting a suitcase and another cardboard box.

“You don’t have to move out immediately, you know,” Bowie told him.

Jonah gave us the once-over. “Y’all are sharing a set of pajamas. I know when I’m intruding. Besides, June’s giving me a good deal on rent.”

I still couldn’t believe my sister had voluntarily opened her home to another human being. She was notoriously persnickety about, well, everything.

“Aw!” I crooned. “It’s your first ‘y’all’!”

He flashed me a grin. “I’m learning. Slowly.”

“Don’t be a stranger,” I told him. “And don’t let June be too weird.”

“I’m gonna help Jonah carry some stuff out to the car,” Bowie said, handing me his coffee and dropping a kiss on my cheek.

They trooped out the front door and left me in stillness.

It was snowing again. I was drawn to the window.

Fat flakes that floated down like feathers from the white sky. It was a new year, and I was looking forward to everything that entailed. Eddie wove himself between my feet like a snake on his way to his food dish. This was the first year I’d woken up to Bowie on Christmas morning.

We’d made the most of waking up early together and then gone to my parents’ for a lazy brunch. The social obligations wrapped with an early, rowdy Bodine dinner at Jameson and Leah Mae’s.

I caught a whiff of flowers. The riotous bouquet of red and white flowers and glossy green leaves had arrived Christmas evening, hand-delivered by Sybil, Clay, and baby Melly, who had made a complete recovery.

Family. Friends. And Bowie.

I was back to work and everything felt…right.

The investigation still hung over our heads. Connie Bodine’s car had been hauled off to a forensics lab in Charleston, and we were once again playing a waiting game. But this time around, things would be different. I was serving the Bodines just like I was serving the Kendalls and the rest of Bootleg Springs.

I wouldn’t be perfect, but I’d be better.

“Whatcha see?” Bowie asked, coming up behind me to press a kiss on the side of my neck.

“Maybe a bit of the future,” I mused, turning to wrap my arms around him. I could hug and kiss Bowie Bodine anytime I wanted. That wouldn’t get old anytime soon.

“Speaking of,” he said reaching into his pants pocket.

“What are you after?”

“Before we put a hole in our wall, I’d like to make another commitment.” He sank down on one knee.

“You better stand yourself back up, buddy,” I warned him.

He produced a ring, a delicate band of interwoven diamonds and gold. “It’s not an engagement ring. It’s a promise.”

I bit my lip and felt my heart kick up a notch. “What kind of a promise?”

“I know you’re not ready for the real thing yet. But I want to make you a promise to be a solid partner to you. To have your back and be your right hand. To never give up on us. To give you my best every day. I’m in this for forever, Cass. You’re who I’ve been waiting for my whole life.”

My throat felt awfully tight all of a sudden. “It’s beautiful, Bow.”

“You’re the sparkle to my gold, Cassidy Ann,” he said sliding the ring on my finger. “And the minute you’re ready for something a little more permanent, you let me know.”

“How about six months?” I suggested, feeling flutters in my stomach.

He stood back up. “How about three?”

I laughed.

“I know you’re the one,” he said, rubbing his thumb over the band on my finger. I liked the way it looked there. Like it belonged. “There’s no one else walking this earth that I’d want to share my life with.”

“We have wasted a lot of time,” I said.

He grinned down at me. “We won’t be wasting any more of our time,” he promised. “And that’s why I’ve got something else for you.”

I was already feeling swoony and delirious. I didn’t know if I could handle much more.

He removed a folded-up piece of paper from his pocket with as much reverence as he had the ring.

“Go on,” he coaxed, handing it over.

I hesitated, sensing that to Bowie whatever was on this piece of paper was somehow bigger.

There were two addresses scrawled across the notebook paper.

“What are these?”

“Those are the last two destinations recorded in my mom’s old-ass GPS.”

My lips quirked. “I remember when you kids gave it to her. She hated it.”

Bowie gave a soft laugh. “Said she didn’t need technology to tell her she wasn’t going nowhere.”

“But apparently she used it,” I said.

He tapped the top address. “This is where she went on the day she died. And this,” he said, touching the second listing, “is where my dad went after Callie disappeared. The dates line up.”

My gaze whipped up to his.

“I found the GPS under the passenger seat while you were digging out the dream catcher,” he said. “Didn’t think anything of it. Until one night I couldn’t sleep. Gibs’s pickup still has a cigarette lighter, so I drove it out there yesterday.”

I felt the familiar thrum in my blood. Answers. We were getting closer.

“Go ahead,” Bowie said. “You can get excited. I’ve got the GPS bagged up for you to take to the lieutenant.”

“I don’t know what to say,” I confessed.

Bowie tipped my chin up, so I was looking into those earnest gray eyes. “I gave you my promise. And I want one in return.”

“What’s that?” I’d promise him anything. I knew that. And I’d find a way to make it happen, no matter what.

“I want you to find the answers for me. What happened to my mom? What did my dad have to do with Callie Kendall’s disappearance?”

I swallowed hard. “Are you sure?”

He nodded. “I want closure. And I want you to help me get it.”

“Okay,” I agreed.

“Thank you,” he said softly.

I threw my arms around his neck. “I love you, Bowie. There’s no one else I’d rather share pajamas with.”

He stroked those big, capable hands down my back and breathed in the scent of my shampoo. “I love you, Cass. Always have. Now, let’s put a big hole in this here wall and get to joining our halves.”

I handed him the sledgehammer. “You take the first swing.”

He wound up and swung. The plaster crumbled and sent up a shower of dust.

“Hmm. I wonder if Jonah’s streak is about to come to an end or if he’ll triumph,” I mused.

“What streak?”

“Everyone he moves in with falls in love and gets paired off.”

“You think Juney’s up next?” Bowie asked.

I shrugged. “Stranger things have happened.”

He handed me the hammer. “Your turn, trouble. Make me proud.”

I swung for the fences, hitting in exactly the same spot. When I pulled the sledgehammer out, I could see light on the other side.

“I think three months might work,” I told him.

Heedless of the dust and mess, Bowie caught me up in a fierce embrace, and when his mouth found mine, I had no doubts, no barriers. Just love.