Page 81 of Revelry
“So show her that it can,” Ron insisted. “It’s okay that she’s still figuring out who she is. So are you. So are all of us, if I’m being honest. It’s not like she’s going to find the answer in an empty bed in Seattle. My bet is on the fact that she’s learned more about what makes her happy in the time she’s spent with you, because believe it or not, Anderson, you’ve got lessons to teach, too.”
I braced my hands on the hood of the truck, shoulders slumped and head hanging between them. I wasn’t sure I believed what he’d said, but I knew for a fact I believed the next words that came from his mouth.
“And don’t play down what you feel, either.Whatever it isis love, Anderson. I know because I’ve seen it before. I’ve lived it,” he reminded me, and this time it was his voice that was thick with emotion.
He waited for me to look at him, and when I saw the gloss over his eyes, it took my hands on the hood of the truck to keep my knees from buckling.
His bottom lip quivered a bit as he continued. “And let me tell you, if I’d had the chance to fight for my Margie, to go even one round with Death before he took her away... well, let’s just say either she’d still be here or I wouldn’t be. Because I wouldn’t have stopped fighting until she was in my arms or I was in hers.”
He sniffed, rubbing the back of his wrist under his nose before shaking his head just once. It was the most I’d ever heard him say, and he looked exhausted now that he’d said it. His eyelids were heavy, shoulders sagging, and he gave me one last pointed look before clapping me on the shoulder and disappearing inside his cabin.
He’d said all he wanted to say.
I stood straight in his absence, a new fire burning between my ribs at the last words he’d left me with. I’d needed to let Dani go, and in turn I thought the same was true of Wren. But that was before Ron took every complication I saw between us and made them seem so small, so insignificant. I felt like an idiot that I’d even considered them as true obstacles at all.
I was falling in love with her.
It didn’t hit me as a shock or a grand revelation because I’d already known it. I couldn’t even put a finger on the exact moment I’d stepped off the cliff and started the fall, but I didn’t need to. All that mattered was that I faced the truth.
I didn’t want to lose her.
And if I didn’t want to lose her, I had to fight to keep her.
In three short days, she’d be packing up her SUV to drive away from Gold Bar. I needed to show her we could make it, that I needed her, that I could be what she needed, too.
The only question now was how?
ELICIT
ih-LISS-it
Verb
To draw forth or bring out
“No, no, Ron, it needs to be higher. On the left. Just the left. No, theotherleft. Oh, for heaven’s sake.”
Momma Von threw her hands in the air before jogging down the front steps of my porch and out down my drive where Ron and Tucker were perched on ladders attempting to hang the sign she and Yvette had made for me. It was all white with bright coral letters, a color they said reminded them of me. It said the words that suddenly made me realize the day had actually come.
We’ll Miss You, Wren!
I smiled, though my stomach dipped like I’d just hit the bottom of the roller coaster before barreling back up again. Three months had come and gone in what felt like just seconds, and now it was time to head back to the city.
Adrian was ecstatic. I’d found a temporary apartment in Belltown right by the boutique, but it wouldn’t be ready for another two weeks, so I was going to stay with Adrian until then. He wanted to see my sketches and talk about next year’s summer line, but I barely had anything to show. He had to know, because if it was something I was excited about, I would have called him by now.
Regardless, it was time to go back—back to Seattle, back to work, back to life.
I took a pulse check, my heart healed and yet sore. I would miss waking up to the sound of the river and falling asleep to the sound of Rev’s purr. I would miss the people, too—perhaps even more than the scenery. I hadn’t expected to find them here at all, but they were what had made the experience what it was.
I walked to the edge of the first stair on the porch, my eyes tracing the letters on the sign again before roaming the rest of my front yard. Yvette and Benjamin were playing on a blanket spread out near the garage while Davie prepped the ribs he’d bought to barbecue.
The grill was already fired up, and Julie was just finishing setting up the long table we’d all eat at. She smoothed a hand over the table cloth, placing rocks on each corner to keep the breeze from blowing it off and away. I took a seat at the top stair just as she finished and she smiled up at me, making her way over.
“You guys host quite the going-away feast,” I said with a smile as Julie used the railing to help lower herself down next to me.
Her big curls were tied back in a braid today, the freckles on the apples of her cheeks more pronounced than they had been at the beginning of the summer. Days in the sun had slightly tanned her, and though she had a glow, she seemed sad today.
“We do for the people we care about,” she said.
