Page 6 of Forever in the Country

He’s given me a pass and so I give him the same grace he’s shown me. People think there’s this constant need to analyze and dissect someone’s life when all they need is that reassurance that someone is there when you’re ready.

I need Rhea to know I’m not ready, but I can’t ask her to wait.

But hell if I can let her go.

Swallowing down my own bullshit, I motion toward the far side of the building. “We’ll put kennels on these walls. There’s hookups for water in the back so we can put basins in to wash them down, maybe hire out a groomer a couple times a month.” Tanner nods so I continue, “I read a lot about acclimating dogs to living environments—like being on the street and then adjusting to a home.”

“Mock living spaces.”

“Yeah. I talked to a woman out in Nashville who has a rehabilitation facility that we can go take a look at. She gets funding through donations and grants.”

“Think Isla would give us a crash course? Maybe Cullen? I don’t speak grants.”

Isla is a powerhouse and a transplant from Chicago. She was a stranger in our little slice of backwoods heaven and she didn’t care one bit about fitting in. She wooed the Thayers and the whole damn town before Hank had fixed the dent she put in his truck.

She fell hard for the eldest Thayer brother but hell if he didn’t fall first. She loves our little town so much she moved her father here after he retired. A heart attack was the wake-up Cullen needed to reconnect with his daughter.

The thought makes my chest tight because I know, heart attack or not, there would never be a joyous reunion with my parents. It shouldn’t bother me after almost twenty years but it does.

“So what’s next?” Tanner asks as the silence stretches on between us.

“I have a list.”

“Of course you do,” he mutters and it has my lips twitching again. Hands on his hips, he turns in a slow circle and nods. “All right. Let’s do it. You can show me yourlistand we’ll divide things up. Why haven’t you talked to your brothers about this?”

He saysbrothersso casually, as if the Thayers are blood and not chosen. I guess that’s also something the military reinforced but they didn’t have to teach me. I’d chosen my family the minute I told my parents that I was taking Marlee and leaving Massachusetts.

“They all have their own things going on, and I can tolerate you well enough.”

He throws his head back and laughs. “Man, you say the nicest things. It’s no wonder everyone is drawn to you.”

“It’s a gift.”

“I bet it is,” he murmurs. “Let’s go get lunch and we can hash out what needs to be done and what our timeline is for opening and getting everything ready.” He looks around the room. “We’re going to let them help with the painting and construction, right?”

My knees creak, and a little jolt of pain shoots from my calf as I stand. “You already goin’ soft? Hell, you haven’t even been out that long.”

Despite the ribbing, I respect the hell out of Tanner. He’d come out to his wife, they’d divorced, he finished his contract, had been discharged from the military and uprooted his life to move here so they could coparent.

I’d been thrust into the past the first time I ever met Briggs. He’d been the same age Marlee had been when we first moved here, and that had damn near ripped my heart clean out of my chest. The circumstances were different, but the sentiment had been the same.

Life had changed and would continue to change, and I vowed to do everything in my power to make Briggs’s transition into life in Clementine Creek a good one.

“Fuck off.” He laughs as we make our way back outside. “I hate painting and like you said—I’m much better with paperwork.”

“Won’t get out of it that easy, Holiday, but yeah, we’ll get them to help. God knows I’ve helped the lot of them enough since I got back.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it.”

“What?”

“Family.”

“You and me both.”

SORREN

PRESENT DAY

---