Page 109 of Our Lips Are Sealed
“Perhaps it should be you, Mr. Fairweather, who goes with Evie into the forest,” Dr. Lowell had suggested to Ben during one of their joint family sessions. “You can take her when you visit Laura Jean.”
Ben admitted he never went out there. “Before the incident last spring, I hadn’t been to the graveyard since I buried Laura Jean’s ashes.”
“How interesting,” Dr. Lowell had mused. “It seems these woods are something you and Evie need to tackle together.”
Ben passed on the idea while Evie continued to try. Samuel kept his father informed of any progress she made, and on the anniversary of her mother’s death, Ben sent her a text.
Fireworks are overrated. Let’s take a walk instead.
Excited, she messaged him back, saying she would meet him at Haven House. Samuel went with her, of course, and the three of them stood at the trail’s entrance for an eternity while Evie worked up her nerve.
Taking Ben’s arm, she went in, with Samuel staying a few feet behind. Things weren’t so bad in the beginning, but she ended up freezing in place as soon as the graveyard came into view.
“That place is a mess,” Ben had said when they returned to the house. “Your mother deserves something better. How about I fix it up?”
As with all of Ben’s promises, he kept his word, turning the graveyard into a special place worthy of the people it held. On his next visit home from Texas, they tried again, and just as the panic rose in her, Evie turned the corner on the trail and let out a gasp. Most of the overgrowth had been cleared away, with the fencing and archway already repaired.
“It’s a start,” Ben told her as they approached. “Abe’s going to work on a landscaping design. I’ve got a company coming out to reinforce the path for him to get out here and supervise.”
“Abe will do it justice.”
“I told him to make sure he planted lots of flowering vegetation and maybe add a bench.”
The incentive to see the progress drove Evie to continue her visits, even when Ben was away. Now, she came regularly, sitting on the bench he’d installed by her mother’s grave.
Whenever she was alone, Evie would talk to Laura Jean, whispering the secrets of her life. She found out later that Jamison did the same. Her sister would stop in every so often to have long overdue mother-daughter chats.
“I think Jamison already brought Mom some poinsettias yesterday,” Evie said as they crossed the forest threshold. “Or maybe it was lilies.”
Ben gazed up at the midday winter sun shining streaks of light through the canopy. “I like him.”
“Who?”
“Cohen.”
“Good, because he asked her to move in with him.”
Since moving to Texas last September, Jamison spent all her free time whining to anyone who would listen about how much she missed Cohen. The feeling was obviously mutual, with Liam using his father’s connections within the Bureau to secure a quick transfer to Houston.
“Maybe we’ll have another wedding soon,” Evie teased. “Which means all three of your children will have settled down.”
Ben bumped her shoulder with his. “All four,” he corrected. “Leave it to you to get me a two-for-one deal.”
“What can I say? I know how you enjoy a good bargain.”
“Well, let’s just hope Jamison doesn’t force us into a beach wedding.”
“You have yet to say thank you for that,” she pointed out.
“Thanks, kid.”
On the drive back from their spring road trip to the cabin, Samuel informed Evie he had no intention of prolonging their engagement. He wanted to marry her as soon as they arrived home and suggested they do it on the beach behind their house.
“Absolutely not,” Evie had scoffed at his demand. “I would walk through the pits of hell barefoot to marry you, but I draw the damn line at walking through sand.”
In the end, they agreed to marry under what was now affectionately known as The Marriage Oak at Haven House. The day had been all she’d ever dreamed, and she was even able to wear the gown her mother married Albie in, thanks to Simone keeping it safely stored all these years.
Ben walked her down the aisle, and when he came up to her room to take her out to the ceremony, he’d paused in the doorway with a hand over his heart. “The first time I ever laid eyes on your mother, she was wearing that dress. She called me charming, and I thought she was crazy,” he said, his pain so close to the surface that day. “God, how I wish she and Albie could see you now. They would be so proud.”
