Page 127 of After All The Wreckage
“If you want to come home, I need you to promise that you won’t try to see our futures on purpose. And if you accidentally see something, you still have to stay no matter what it is you see. If you can’t make those promises to me, then I can’t let you intotheir lives again. It’s my job to protect them now, so you’ll do it my way or no way.”
She started to say something, and I shook my head. “No. Don’t answer me right now. You’re going to be here for a few days at least and then in a rehabilitation clinic for a while. Just think about it. Really and truly consider what I’m saying, and then we’ll talk.”
A knock on the doorframe brought my eyes to Rory. I wondered how much she’d heard. Her eyes were large and sad, but they’d been that way for what felt like days now. The only time I’d seen her light up was when we were teasing each other or kissing or making love. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but the FBI is here. They want to debrief us.”
I nodded.
“Can I see them?” Demi asked. I knew she was talking about my siblings, but there was no way I was letting them in here without me.
“Yes. If I’m here too. So, it’ll have to wait until after I’ve talked with the FBI.”
Demi accepted my decision, eyes shutting.
I headed for the door, and as we stepped outside, Rory wrapped me in her arms, squeezing me tight.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I rested my cheek on her head. “No. But I will be. All of us will.”
I didn’t mean just my family. I meant her too, and she must have understood it because she moved, rising on her toes to kiss me softly. It was a brief, barely there kiss, but it was full of caring and comfort. A peace I’d only found in Rory.
And for the first time in days—maybe years—I felt the truth of my words. We really were going to be okay. I’d been focusing on the present because I’d been full of pain from my past and uncertainty over my future, but I hadn’t really been living either.
I promised myself to be better at it. To live in the now because it was all we were guaranteed. To live in the now so I could fully experience the love and joy that were offered to me. To give that love freely in return, with no reservations. I didn’t need tomorrow or yesterday. I just needed the beautiful moments I’d make with Rory and my family today.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Rory
OPEN ARMS
Performed by Journey
The daysafter the shoot-out at the warehouse were a blur that included multiple debriefings with the FBI and the Lovato task force for Gage, Dad, Demi, and me. Good to his word, Dad made the arrangements for Mom’s funeral, and Gage offered the bar for a celebration of life ceremony on a Sunday.
The normally closed bar was packed to the brim with people who’d loved my mom. The 5-H club, clients, and people she’d cultivated as contacts in D.C., many of whom were also mine and Dad’s.
I’d been surprised when Casada had shown up. I’d called him after everything had happened at the warehouse, and he said he’d come to pay his respects to my mom. He thanked me again for uncovering Argento Skies’ ties to the Lovatos as it meant the end to the company’s cloud seeding around his town.
But the damage to his community would take decades to heal. He’d offered me the money he’d been saving for my mom’s investigation, and I’d declined, telling him to use it to help the people in his town who needed it more.
When classes resumed after the break, my head was barely there, but I finished the semester without screwing up my grades too much. I’d finally earned my bachelor’s degree but didn’t know what I would do with it.
Guilt still tore through me on a regular basis as Nan and I grieved. Our lives had a gaping hole in it. Not just because Mom was truly gone, but because so much of our time over the last year had been spent taking care of her. I had hours at my disposal that I hadn’t had before. Not only because I wasn’t spending all my free time at Shady Lane, but because I wasn’t taking on any new cases.
I kept up with the background checks for the DoD, but that was it. No cheaters. No deadbeat parents. No missing kids. Instead, I divided my time between Nan’s cottage and the Palmers’ apartment. I even helped out in the bar a few times as Gage went back and forth to D.C. to visit Demi in the hospital and then the rehabilitation clinic.
To my surprise, Dad began showing up several times a week in Cherry Bay, bringing takeout to Nan and me or just to visit for a few hours. It was the start of repairing a relationship we’d spent ten years forcing behind a glass wall. I was surprised by how much I truly wanted to fix it. To keep close the one parent I had left.
By some unspoken agreement, we didn’t talk about his work or my work, and it allowed us to mostly get along. In fact, the only time we fought was when he found out I had no intention of attending the winter term graduation ceremony.
“Hallie would have wanted to see you in a cap and gown getting your diploma.”
“You know it’s not a real diploma, right? They mail it to you later.”
He huffed. “That’s not the point.”
“I’ve never been a normal college student, Dad. Trying to force me into that box now would be stupid even if I wasn’t grieving. I don’t feel like celebrating. Not yet.”
