CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Autumn
“I’m a little nervous.” I’m holding Olivia’s hand, standing at the door of this cabin up in the middle of nowhere, outside of West Bend, in the mountains somewhere. Olivia is bundled up in her bright pink puffy jacket, the hood on her head lined with fur. She looks up at me, her cheeks pink even though we’ve only just gotten out of the car and have been in the cold air for all of five minutes.
“Are you kidding?” Luke asks. “You shot Jed Easton – the town sheriff and the mayor’s son. You’re pretty much already a legend. A legend I’m totally in love with.”
The door opens before I can answer, and I stand there with my mouth hanging open, Luke’s words still echoing in my head.
A legend I’m totally in love with.
“You must be Autumn,” River Andrews says. And she holds her arms out. For a hug.
I’m hugging a movie star. And Luke just told me he loves me. Holy shit.
Luke just laughs. “Let’s go in,” he says, taking Olivia’s hand.
The cabin is gorgeous inside, like a private mountain resort. And it looks totally normal, people sitting on sofas playing a card game and hanging out – except for the row of computers on a table in the corner. The guy who’s obviously busy at the computers glances up, gives me a cursory wave, then promptly returns to whatever he’s doing.
“Don’t worry about him,” Luke says. “That’s Emir. He’s like that, I guess. He gets engrossed in what he’s doing.”
“Is this little Olivia?” An older man, wearing a tweed suit jacket despite the fact that we’re in the middle of the woods, squats down to say hello to Olivia. Then he reaches behind her ear, magically producing a flower in his hand. “Here you are, darling.”
“Daisy!” Olivia says, her voice loud. She smiles broadly, grasping it in her chubby little hand before she notices a set of toy cars in the middle of the floor.
“Wait, Olivia, your jacket!” I unzip her before she goes careening toward the cars. “Did you bring the cars for her?”
“Nope,” Luke says, taking my hand. “I believe that was River’s doing, actually.”
I thank her, before I’m whisked over to the sofa to become the center of attention. Oscar pours champagne and toasts our good fortune. “And to Autumn’s skills with a shotgun.”
“And to the fact that Tempest is an excellent attorney,” I say, raising my glass.
“About that…” Tempest says, smiling.
“You’re not an attorney,” I say, suddenly feeling like a total idiot. The woman who met with the District Attorney, had me released on my own recognizance instead of being arrested -- despite the fact that I admitted to shooting the town sheriff -- was not a lawyer at all.
“I’m not an attorney,” Tempest says. “But my alter ego Molly McAdams is, and she has a bar card and everything.” She holds up a glass of champagne. “And Molly is an excellent attorney, if I do say so myself.”
“She is quite skilled in the art of threatening to start a media scandal, isn’t she?” Iver says.
“It’s her specialty,” Tempest agrees.
“You were a very convincing lawyer,” I say. After the shooting, Luke tried to persuade me to let him take the fall for it, but I refused. There was no need to, since Jed Easton immediately confessed to the arson on my property and to attempted murder. He even admitted to taking bribes, and implicated the mayor in his crimes.
“It helped that Jed Easton confessed to everything,” Tempest says. “Not that I don’t deserve all your praise and accolades, though. Feel free to keep those coming.”
Oscar laughs. “I guess Jed and his father knew what they were getting into with the mining company,” he says. “The only way Jed could see to keep the mining company from taking them out was to confess and wind up in prison.”
“That’s fairly short-sighted, isn’t it?” I ask. “If the mining company has mafia connections, they’ll be able to reach them in prison, won’t they?”
“I think the District Attorney will push for solitary confinement, given the fact that they’re law enforcement,” Tempest says.
“They won’t make it a day in prison, even in solitary,” Luke says.
“How do you know?” I ask.
Silas smirks. “If the mining company doesn’t have Jed taken care of, the biker club will.”
“What biker club?” I ask, remembering that June’s husband Cade used to be a member of a biker club.
“Someone from a biker club out in California has an old beef with Jed Easton,” Oscar says, waving his hand dismissively. “There’s a bounty on his head. But that’s neither here nor there. Let’s talk about happier things. Like our good fortune with the mining company.”
“We recovered all of the land the company had purchased,” Iver says.
“So you’re sitting on a small fortune,” I realize. “Since the land is actually loaded with europium.”
“My dear, there’s nothing small about this fortune,” Oscar says. “And the property will go back to the rightful owners.”
“Another happy ending,” Iver says, raising his glass. “To many more happy endings. But grifter happy endings – to taking the bad guys and never getting caught.”
I lean over to whisper to Luke. “They toast a lot.”
“You have no idea,” he whispers, taking my hand in his.
“Did you mean what you said earlier?” I ask.
“About what?” he asks, his voice innocently. But he’s smiling, obviously pleased with himself.
“You know,” I whisper. “The L-word you used.”
He leans close, his mouth near my ear. “I totally meant to use that word,” he says. “With everything I have.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Luke
Six months later
“There you go!” I yell, clapping loudly. “You did such a great job!” Olivia runs with the unsteady gait of a two-year-old, back across the field toward me, totally forgetting about the soccer ball she just kicked in the opposite direction.
“I did it!” she yells.
“You did it!” I look over toward the front porch, the fresh coat of white paint gleaming in the sun. We had to have the kitchen and the porch redone after the fire, but now both are pristine. And now the place has a full gourmet kitchen, which is good for me.
Autumn waves back at both of us. “Lemonade?” she calls.
“Yes!” Olivia yells, running across the driveway toward her mother. “I kicked! Kicked!”
“I saw you kick, Liv,” Autumn says, wrapping her arms around her. “That was so awesome!”
I stand there, a few feet away, watching the two of them for a moment. My family.
Hell, that’s something I never imagined I’d have, not in a million years. But here I am, staying in one place – the one place I never thought I’d return to. And I’m with Autumn and Olivia.
It’s more than I could have ever hoped for. I finally understand what it means to have people in your life that depend on you, and what it’s like to depend on them.
“Luke?” Autumn asks, smiling. “Are you going to stand there all day, staring at me?”
I can’t help but grin. “I could, you know.”
Her cheeks flush, like they do when she’s embarrassed or when she’s self-conscious. I can’t get enough of that. I can’t get enough of her, either. And that’s what I want her to know, every day.
I slide my hand around her waist and walk with her inside the house.
“Do you want me to help prep for tonight?” she asks.
“Nope,” I tell her. “I’m forbidding you to even lift a finger.”
“You’re just saying that because you think I’ll burn something,” Autumn says, laughing.
“I know for certain you’ll burn something,” I tell her, swatting her on the butt as she walks away, with Olivia’s hand in hers.
“Let’s get all cleaned up for lunch, Liv,” she says.
“No! No wash
hands!” Olivia protests, as she disappears around the corner with Autumn.
“If you don’t wash your hands, then you can’t eat lunch.”
I listen to their chatter as I grab food for lunch. It makes me happy, hearing them, the noise of their laughter echoing through the house. I never thought I could be still, and yet, now that I am, I can’t imagine things being any different than the way they are now.
Except better. There’s only one thing that would make things better, and that’s why all of our friends and family are coming to dinner tonight.
I take the box from my pocket, and pop it open again, just to see the ring. I never thought I’d be asking this question of anyone, and I feel like the luckiest man on earth, getting to ask it of Autumn.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Autumn
“Is this super lame?” I whirl around so I can see June’s reaction. She’s holding Callie in her arms, bouncing her because she’s fussy from teething, while Cade and Luke keep an eye on Stan and Olivia, who are most likely in the middle of trashing the playroom.
“The dress?” she asks. “No, I love it. That’s not new, is it?”
“No, not the dress,” I say. “The box. This.” I hold out the gift bag, pink and blue patterned, the only thing the drug store two towns over had in stock that wasn’t plastered with “happy birthday” wishes all over it. I had to drive thirty minutes to make sure I didn’t let on about this secret before I told Luke.
June looks at me and then at the bag. “It’s…oh. Oh!” she says. “You’re pregnant!” She wraps her arm around me, hugging me, the baby between us. “Is that for Luke?”
“Yeah,” I tell her. “It’s not going to be completely lame, is it?”
“Are you kidding?” she asks. “He’s going to be over the moon. He’ll love it, whatever is in the bag.”
“I’m nervous about this,” I tell her. The butterflies in the pit of my stomach aren’t going away anytime soon. I haven’t exactly had the best of luck with pregnancy announcements, after all.
“It’s going to be great,” she says. “I’m so thrilled for you.”
“I never thought it would end up this way,” I tell her. “It’s more than I hoped for.”
June smiles. “Everything works out in the end,” she says. “Even if it takes some time.”
“Is that how it was for you and Cade?” I ask.
She laughs. “Honey, our road was definitely a winding one.”
I check my hair quickly in the mirror, tucking a loose strand behind my ear, and take a deep breath. “Cade is a good man,” I say.
“So is Luke,” she says. “We’re both lucky.”
“Cade still has friends in his motorcycle club,” I say, choosing my words carefully. I don’t know what happened, or how Cade is connected to it, but the rumor is that a biker club from California took out Jed Easton, after he made it to prison.
“He does, indeed,” June says. “And if a motorcycle club saw fit to be involved with that terrible prison murder, well then, I’d probably guess that Sherriff Easton had done something so wrong that he deserved it.”
“He was a bad man,” I say. In two years, June hasn’t told me much about her past. But I guess we all have secrets that are sometimes better left alone, and that’s okay. “Hey, we should go down there now, and at least make sure the children haven’t completely destroyed the house.”
At dinner, we sit around the farmhouse table in the middle of the kitchen – totally renovated and completely gourmet now, a positive side effect of the fire, I suppose. It’s Luke’s domain – and I’ve gained ten pounds from being the test subject of all of his dishes. He’s cooking for June’s bed and breakfast now, and has been inundated with so many catering requests that he can’t keep up with them. He’s looking into opening a restaurant in town in the next few months, and I know that with his cooking skills, it’s sure to be wildly successful.
I look around at the people sitting around the table, talking and laughing over cider and wine and beer and passing platefuls of food from one person to another. Everyone who means something to us is here – Elias and River, Silas and Tempest, Cade and June. Even Killian is here, off the oil-rig and back in West Bend. He’s seeing a girl, I think, or at least that’s what Luke says, but he hasn’t mentioned anything to me yet. Killian is the quiet type – kind of brooding, but a good guy. He doesn’t like to admit that he has a soft side, but it’s obvious to me that Olivia and Stan already have him wrapped around their little fingers.
Luke stands, tapping his fork against his wine glass. “I didn’t just bring you here for dinner,” he says. “I’m afraid I had an ulterior motive. I have an announcement to make.”
I clear my throat, reaching down into my purse for my gift bag and standing. “I actually have an announcement, too.”
Silas laughs. “You both should do them at the same time,” he says.
“Let Autumn go first,” June says. “She has a big announcement.”
“Same time, same time,” Elias chants.
I grin at Luke from across the table. “Same time?” I ask, keeping the bag behind my back. “I’ll show you yours if you show me mine.”
Luke sighs in mock exasperation, but he can’t hide his smile. “Fine,” he says. “Even though I had a whole speech prepared.”
I hold the bag in front of me, watching as Luke brings a small box from behind his back and opens it. And then I start crying, full-on sobbing, tears streaming down my cheeks.
“Mommy! Mommy!” Olivia yells, trying to get out of her booster seat.
“Happy tears, Olivia,” I say, wiping my cheeks. “I’m crying because I’m happy.”
“What’s in the package?” Elias asks, and River slaps him playfully on the arm.
“Hush, Elias,” she says. “She’s having a moment.”
Luke walks around the table to stand in front of me, and I set the bag on the table, wiping the tears from my cheeks. Taking my hands in his, he kneels down, as everyone at the table collectively utters a huge “awwwww.” Except for Olivia and Stan, who are blowing raspberries at each other and then laughing hysterically.
“Autumn Mayburn,” he says, and the formality makes me giggle because it’s so not Luke. Now I just look like I’m losing my mind, as I try to stifle nervous laughter, the rims of my eyes red from crying. “I’ve never wanted to be tied down. The best I’d hoped for in my life was to keep moving, keep going, with no ties to anyone and no responsibilities. Then I met you – and you’re the most stubborn, smart-mouthed woman I’ve ever met.”
“Is this supposed to be a proposal?” I ask, laughing. “This is starting to sound like a list of my flaws.”
“Hush, woman,” he says. “Those are the reasons I love you. I love you and I love Olivia and I love this life we have.”
“I love love,” Silas says, snickering, and from the corner of my eye, I see Killian slug him in the arm.
“So, I’m asking if you and Olivia will have me,” he says.
“Of course,” I say, as he stands to slip the ring on my finger. He slides his arm around my waist and kisses me, full on the lips, and everything in the world stands still for a moment. He only pulls away when Elias groans.
“Get a room, you two,” Elias says, feigning disgust.
“I can’t answer for Olivia, though,” I say. “Would you like Luke to stay with us?”
“I got ice cream for dessert,” Luke says.
“Ice cream!” she yells.