Page 24 of Happy After All

I go to sleep determined about that.

Chapter Six

Enemies to Lovers—a popular romance cliché where two characters destined to become lovers start out disliking one another.

Just enemies.

Over the next couple of weeks, the smoke that hung so thick in the air dissipates, but the aftereffects of the fire remain.

Many of my residents have lingering coughs, and a sense of fear and agitation underlies the community.

Elise’s cousin Solis and her husband, Juan, plus their two children, Sofia and Angel, have moved into one of the family suites at the very end of the motel, and I’ve promised that they can stay until they have new housing.

There are motor homes being brought in by the government, filling empty fields on the outskirts of town. Temporary housing solutions for those who aren’t simply moving to a different location in the aftermath of the destruction.

I drove through the burned end of town and I nearly choked on my grief. The hollow, black skeletons that were once houses and businesses are too awful to bear. I don’t know how anyone who lost their possessions, their home, their safety, is managing it.

The resilience of children is one of the most amazing things to watch. Emma and her cousins fill the courtyard with laughter, and Eliseworries about how awful they’ll feel when they are supposed to go back to school in September, only to realize that school doesn’t exist.

There is talk about temporary schooling happening in an old Walmart building on the edge of town.

That’s the dominant conversation around the motel. The changes. The plans. The initial crisis is over. No lives were lost, no one was injured. The evacuation notice did its job. All that’s left is grappling with the massive loss of property.

Which is no small feat at all. It’s still too hot, and now the heat feels like an enemy. Not just a discomfort.

I’ve seen Nathan more since the fire than all the time he’s stayed here in the previous summers combined.

He’s helped manage donations and make deliveries. He’s even helped manage barbecues. I’ve decided to continue feeding the community. My guests have donated money for us to make extra food so anyone displaced by the fire can come and have a good meal and a movie and swim in the pool.

Sometimes it’s so crowded the place is overflowing, but it’s healing something. Or at least it’s trying to. I’ve done grief and isolation. Sadness by myself.

This feeling of wanting to rebuild the community is so much more powerful when we all come together.

I’m always surprised no one else seems to realize that Nathan Hart is Jacob Coulter. But then, they would have to be fans intense enough to stare at the author photo in the back of his book and watch all the extras for his show, the five-minute interviews he gave.

Also, they would have to stare at him as intently in person as I have.

I realize I recognized him because his looks captivated me even when they were just an author photo. Those green eyes. They’re unmistakable to me.

They keep showing up in my books.

Despite my best efforts.

But the antipathy I felt toward him has faded. How can I have negative feelings about a man who has done so many wonderful things?

Yes, it’s easy for me to get wounded by the almost kiss, and to be mortified by the ways my meddling residents have tried to push us together. But he ... he’s a good man. He just is.

The sky is blue again, and it feels like a miracle, even as the heat continues to be a menace.

Alice and Ruth are singing again, this time by the pool, for the benefit of all our guests and those who have come by for dinner tonight.

There is something beautiful about it. Having the same music that was going on when the fire started. It’s defiant.

We won’t be burned to the ground.

Nathan is on the edge of the festivities. He helped cook, and he helped serve food, but I can see he’s considering leaving immediately.

Wilma seems to notice this too, and she stops him. “May I have this dance, darlin’?”

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