Page 57 of Snowbound

This is the end of my career.

No matter what happens next, it looks like I’m taking the small-town wedding gig professional, whether I want to or not.

I should be upset, but instead it feels like a great weight falls off my shoulders, like my heart is rising.

Like a new life is opening up in front of me.

The next thing I have to do is tell Gabe. But this time, I’m stopping on the way there.

CHAPTER31

GABE

The ache in my back makes me feel like an old man when I finally finish crawling around on the floor. Someone brought their car in after a crash, and I’ve spent most of the day trying to hammer out dents from the metal.

I stretch for a while before I get into the car, but eventually I get bored with that. I just want to go home, sit by the fire and watch some TV. I’ve been thinking about getting a cat.

A cat seems like it would be good company, the kind of creature that minds its own business ninety-nine percent of the time and only bothers you for food and the occasional affection. Sounds just like my kind of animal.

Anything to make the house seem less quiet, less lonely.

I go into autopilot as I drive home, my mind wandering as I think about repairs and tools. What jobs can I give Phoebe tomorrow? She’s always begging for more work, so this will be something good for her.

I turn onto my street and have to slam on the brakes as I approach my driveway because a tiny, battered silver car is in the driveway where I usually park. I very nearly rear-end it, and under any other circumstances I’d be angry. But my heart leaps to see the Pennsylvania plates.

Surely this is a figment of my imagination.

There’s no way that the one person I want to see more than anyone else on earth has come back for me. She wouldn’t do that without calling.

Would she?

I jump out of the car and run slightly too fast for the door. There on the doorstep, wearing a huge puffer jacket and wooly hat, is a girl resting her face on her fist, waiting for me to get home.

It’s like an image from a dream to see her. It’s like I’m hallucinating, like I’ve worked too hard and finally, I’m succumbing to madness.

But when she sees me, she jumps to her feet and gives me that smile, and I know that every inch of her is real, as real as she was when she left me.

I stand frozen for a second, and before I can think, my feet are moving, running towards her. I open my arms, and she jumps into them. I squeeze her close to me and swing her around, overwhelmed by how delighted I am to see her.

“Carly? Is it really you?”

“It is,” she grins, and her eyes start filling up.

“Don’t start that,” I scoff but don’t let go of her. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I came to see you.”

“Me? Why?”

“Because I love you, Gabe. Because I shouldn’t have ever left. Because I should have told you before how I felt. I’m so sorry that I was too stupid to see it then. I’ve let you down, so I’ll understand if you don’t want me back. I really will. And I’m hoping that all this means that you do, but?—”

“I’m sorry too,” I interrupt. “I shouldn’t have let you leave. I should have said something. I should have…” I take a deep breath, lavender perfume filling my lungs.

She loves me. She just said it out loud, brazenly, like it was nothing.

She loves me.

It goes against my nature, but I can’t let her down again.

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