Page 52 of How a Vampire Falls

Ryker was calling her.

Leslie hadn’t stopped crying for the last hour. Her head ached, and she’d gone through half a box of Kleenex. Her heart felt like a ratty old dishrag wrung out too many times, and every new twist hurt.

His face filled her phone screen. He wanted a video call.

She couldn’t talk to him.

Yes, she could. She knew what had to be said, and she could say it.

If he said,“I think you’ll really love city life if you’ll give it a chance,”she had to say no.

If he said,“I’ll move to Harmony Ridge for you,”she had to say no.

Leslie swiped to accept the call and let him see her face. Her too-pale, tearstained face and her eyes, which wouldn’t stop shifting from gray to indigo to gray again—a weird distress signal she’d noticed when she went to the bathroom for more Kleenex and caught sight of herself in the mirror.

Ryker hadn’t been crying, but his eyes were a flat blue, devoid of silver. His mouth was a thin-pressed line in his face. A crinkle formed between his eyes when he saw her.

“Will you hear me out?” he said.

She nodded. She could listen to him now. She wouldn’t let him sway her from what she knew was best for both of them.

“I have a plan—just bones right now, but we can flesh it out.”

Another nod. Here it was. He wanted her to move.

“The concept is simple. We split our time. Plenty of people do it when their jobs require it. Half the month, we live in Tennessee. Half the month, we’re in Virginia. And it can be flexible. If you’ve got a big art event coming up, maybe I’m there longer. If I’ve got a tough case, maybe you’re here longer. But generally speaking, we make sure we both have time in the place we love.”

At the wordssplit our time, her brain nearly glitched out, but she forced herself to listen all the way through his pitch. His incredible, fairy-tale pitch.

“Two houses?” No one got to have two houses. That was a fantasy lived out by the wealthiest of the wealthy. Wasn’t it?

“We’ll have the financial means to keep both. We don’t have to sell one.”

“We—we don’t?”

“I never expected you to give up your home for me, Leslie. Never.”

She had to keep saying it to believe it. “I can keep my home…and keep you too?”

“I know what those mountains mean to you, what that town means to you. I’ve been thinking this through for weeks now. I just wasn’t sure when to bring it up.”

“I can keep my home.”

He brought his face closer to the screen, and a few sparks of silver surfaced in his eyes. “I promise you can.”

She bowed her head and cried while he stayed on the call with her. She cradled her phone and wished he was here so she could hold him and be held by him. She couldn’t stop crying. She didn’t have to choose between the home she loved and the man she loved. She’d never had to choose. At last she swiped her free palm over her cheeks and looked up, and he was still there, looking like he wanted to come through the phone to be with her.

“I felt like my chest was cracking open,” she whispered.

“Same.”

“I kept thinking of that question on the match test. ‘Would you be willing to seek a new job for a home in your dream location?’ And you didn’t say ‘no.’ You said, ‘of course not.’ So I knew I could never ask you to leave Virginia and the job you love.”

“You’re right.”

She nodded. Of course she was right—about this part anyway.

“Like you and your mountains, giving up my work would break me. It would turn me into somebody else.”

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