Page 84 of Harrison Hyde and the Runaway Bride

Their enthusiasm for the place was helping him work up to the question he needed to ask them. “So you guys… would you be willing to… live here?”

They looked at each other, his dad and sister, grinning like Cheshire cats then they looked back at him. Hyram said, “What do you want to do, son?”

“Marry her,” he said.

They both came right up out of their seats and were hugging him before he finished speaking. Then they let him go, and his dad was pulling something from under his shirt. A chain. With— oh, God— his parents’ rings on it.

Hyram unhooked the chain, removed the engagement ring, and said, “Your mom wanted you to have this when the time came, if the girl was worthy. This one sure is.”

“Thanks, Dad.” He looked at the ring and tried not to tear up at the thought of his mother’s ring on Maria’s finger. But then he looked at his sister. “But maybe Lily should have it?—”

“I get the wedding bands,” she said. “Mom and I talked about this before she… moved on.”

“If you’re sure.”

His dad refastened the chain, wedding bands still dangling, around his neck. He’d stopped wearing his wedding band because his finger had grown too thin to keep it from falling off. Harrison said, “I’ve been meaning to ask you something else, Dad.”

“Anything, son.”

“You remember that little burial ground? The family plot on the northern end of the Texas Brand.”

“I do. It reminded me of a picture your mom drew once. She said it was a place she’d seen in a dream, right after her diagnosis. No gravestones, but the benches and the plants, the trees, and the pond. Even that little stone building— match the drawing to a tee. She said she thought that’s what heaven must look like. Wait, I took a picture of that sketch.” He took out his phone. “It was years ago, I hope I can…” He trailed off, scrolling for a long moment, while Harrison and his sister exchanged curious looks. Then finally, he said, “Idostill have it. Here, see for yourself.” He passed the phone.

Harrison looked at the photo of his mother’s drawing and felt his brows arch in surprise. “It’s almost identical. Even the vista.” He showed his sister.

“I never saw a spot that matched it,” his father said. “But that one sure did.”

Harrison nodded. “Ethan’s birth mother is buried there. Garrett moved her for him. Chelsea said that’s what she would’ve wanted.”

“Oh.” Lily clearly knew where the conversation was going.

He forced himself to go on. “Do you think Mom?—”

His dad interrupted. “I think your mom would want to be wherever we are,” he said. “And I think she is, regardless of where her body rests. But I wouldn’t object to moving her.”

Lily sighed audibly. “That would make me feelsomuch better about wanting to move down here,” she said. “And I hear the local hospitals offer nice sign-on bonuses, too.”

Harrison raised an eyebrow. “Where’d you hear that?”

“Ethan keeps texting me listings.”

“You, too, huh?” he asked, and they all laughed.

“I love it here, too, son,” his father said. “I can find a place, and?—”

“You’ll stay with me,” Harrison said. “Me and Maria.”

“Or me and myself,” Lily added, but she was smiling wide. Then she asked in her best Texas twang, “So?Harry? When you fixin’ to ask her?”

“‘Don’t give up on me, okay?’ What the heck did he mean by that?” Maria demanded.

Willow shrugged. “It means there’s still hope, right? What else could it mean?”

They were at the Texas Brand. It was the weekend. There was a long picnic table packed full of food and the grill was still smoking.

“All week long,” she went on, “we’ve been livin’ like honeymooners out at my place. Oh gosh, I love it so much. Did I tell you?”

“Ten times,” Willow said.

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