Page 155 of Again, In Autumn

I walk up the lawn, past the hot grill where Diego puts another patty on the fire. He says, “Hamburgers will be ready soon.”

Inside the house, the blender roars again, blasting the noise through the kitchen. Caroline sets out plastic cups and Maggie pours margaritas in them. Heddy pushes Copper down when he puts his paws on the table of food.

“Someone get this dog outside!” she orders.

Grayson squeezes his juice box and says, “Come on Copper, come on boy!” They run out the door together.

I frown, searching the kitchen and the living room for a specific someone. Everyone else is accounted for. I thought he was helping Diego on the grill.

I open the front door, the heat of summer on my bare arms, the sun pounding into my eyes. Someone walks down the street with a large box in his arms. Will I ever not feel a surge of emotion when I see him?

Shaking my head, I ask Adam, “What are you doing with that?”

He smiles. “It’s a secret.”

“It’s fireworks.”

“Yeah, and these are the big ones. Not those baby sticks Dave got.”

“He told you not to get any,” I say. “He’s too scared.”

Adam moves his hair to the side, longer and floppier than ever before, and rubs his scratchy beard on my cheek. The box falls to the ground. He kisses my jaw and catches my hips in his hands.

“I’m not afraid,” he says. “And I’ll be damned if these kids don’t get the summer of their dreams.”

I hang my arms around his shoulders. “The kids?”

“Yes.”

“I think you mean the summer of your dreams. That danger box is purely selfish.”

“Fine,” he growls into the crook of my neck. He pulls back and smirks. “Although, I don’t need anything in this box to make fireworks. I can make my own. You know the ones. You love my fireworks.”

“Adam,” I warn, motioning to the open front door. Then: “Aren’t fireworks bad for the environment and the wildlife?”

His eyes roll around, thinking. “Yes. If I was able to do a drone display, I would. But I can’t. I’m more of an eighty, twenty kind of guy anyway.”

“I’m not going to report you to an environmentalist group,” I say.

“Last summer of fireworks, I promise.” He grimaces. “I just really like fire.”

“Don’t tell that to the man who’s already afraid you’re going to burn the house down.”

He chuckles and swings me into the air. “And for the record, this is the best summer of my life, Vee.”

I’m suspended in the air, his arms under my hips. I trace my fingertips around his face. “Even better than fourteen years ago?” I ask.

He leans up to kiss me. “Yes. Because now I can do that and let everyone see.” He puts me back down, and we go inside for dinner.

After wards, David reluctantly lets Adam set off his fireworks. For dessert, I have leftover cookies from a birthday party I catered last week and a new layered ice cream recipe I’m trying. On the kitchen counter, I set out some brownies and tarts from the last batch of goods I delivered to the market in Loxley.

Heddy has me running Minerals And Magic since she caught the former manager stealing crystals. The living room in my apartment is packed with the teaching supplies I didn’t sell. Only those things and some furniture remain in Atlanta. Adam and I filled boxes into his truck and they’re sitting in the basement here until I decide where to go next. For right now, I have a home I don’t ever need to leave, a lease that’s up in a month, a job that’s mine until I want it and a budding catering business I call, Rose Bakehouse.

The kids will stay another month with me up here, while Heddy, David, and Francesca come and go when they have the time off. I’ll take Alice to dance camp next week. Grayson has soccer on Tuesday and Thursday.

Adam will be with me and the kids at the lake through July, until my birthday. Before I know it, we will have spent a year together. A year I wouldn’t have thought existed last summer.

His new album is about to come out. He spent all of January writing and recording at a studio in Atlanta. During the day, that is. At night, he’d come home to me and Copper. We walked to coffee shops and dinner. I met friends from his high school, and he met my friends from work. A few times we were photographed together, he’s recognized all of the time, but things between us and outside world have been relatively normal.

---