Page 144 of Fire and Icing

“So, if they offered you a deal, a full-blown record deal with tour dates and exposure, and a life you’ve always secretly dreamed of, you’d turn that down? Just to stay in Waterford and be the rookie firefighter and pick up donuts from my shop every other day and go to dances at The Grange and live a simple, relatively boring life here in Waterford?”

She crosses her arms over her chest and pops her hip out slightly as if she already knows my answer.

“Honestly?”

Emberleigh nods.

“I don’t know. That life you described doesn’t sound bad to me. Living here in this town with you, fighting fires, eating your donuts, hanging out on a porch swing at night, taking you on dates, fixing things around Mrs. Holt’s … It sounds pretty awesome, actually—if you’re in it with me.

“But will I turn this opportunity down? If it grows into more, I can’t say with one hundred percent certainty that I would walk away. I can promise you this. We’ll talk. I will not make that decision alone. And your vote will matter as much as mine. And we’ll consider all the angles and options—together. I would not walk out of this town, away from you, without a serious conversation and a plan as to how we were going to make that work. Because what I want for my future includes you.”

I search her eyes.

She stares right at me. Her brows raise. Every emotion and uncertainty is written on her face.

“I’m not leaving Waterford,” she says with certainty. “That may sound stubborn and closed-minded. But I know myself. I’m not one of those people with wanderlust. My bucket list doesn’t involve seeing all fifty states before I die, or climbing Mount Everest, or even visiting the Eiffel Tower and walking down the Champs-Elysee. I like my simple life in the town where I grew up, where the kids I babysat eight years ago return to mybakery over summer break to get their favorite cookies—from me. I wish I could be different—for you. But I’m me. And I can’t change something as fundamental as whether I adapt well to new places.”

“I wouldn’t change anything about you, Emberleigh.”

I reach for her, instinctively, extending my hand. She looks down at my hand and reluctantly places hers in mine.

“And I won’t be the reason you give up a life-long dream,” she says, looking in my eyes with such resolve. She’s so vulnerable in this moment. Raw, honest, struggling.

“So what does this mean for us?” I ask her.

“I don’t know yet.” her voice is soft, pleading.

“Okay. That’s fair. I don’t know either.”

We stand there, quietly searching one another’s eyes, our hands connected over the threshold like a cantilever bridge between two islands.

“You can say no, but I have to ask. May I come in and hang out for a bit? I miss you.”

“You just saw me yesterday.”

“I still miss you.”

Emberleigh smiles a soft smile. “Yes. You may come in. I’m about to cook dinner now that I have my kitchen back. Are you hungry?”

She steps aside and I start to walk in past her, but I pause when I’m only less than a foot away from her.

“Am I hungry? I herded cattle today.”

“You did?”

“We all went out to Cody’s and helped relocate the herd.”

“You … Wow. Okay then, I better feed you.”

“May I give you a hug first?”

She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and looks up at me.

I normally wouldn’t have to ask. Last week I could have come here and she’d have opened the door and leapt into my arms.

We’ll come back to one another. Mom said it. I believe it.

Emberleigh nods softly. I take a step toward her. She meets me halfway and I pull her in. There will never be words for what it feels like to have her back in my arms. She leans in, gripping me, wrapping her arms around me like she’d tether me to this spot, this moment, if she could.

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