“Where do you want to put them?”
Sierra looks at Dolly in my arms, and her smile turns into a grin. “I’ve sketched the whole thing out. Let me show you.”
I follow her to the stairs. We make it up when someone knocks on the door. I set Dolly on the ground and jog down the stairs to see who’s here. Sierra is behind me, still cuddling Tink.
Lisa stands on the porch, holding a bag of food and a bottle of wine. Her eyes go from me to Sierra, and her shoulders are timidly pulled in. It makes sense things are tense between the two of them.
“I brought tacos,” she says, holding out the bag. “I hear we have reason to celebrate tonight.”
Sierra takes the bag and steps aside, welcoming Lisa in. “We do.”
Relief washes over Lisa’s face. Sierra takes the wine and tacos into the kitchen, and Lisa grabs my arm.
“Chase,” she starts, looking at the ground.
“It’s okay,” I say, surprising myself. “We want to move past everything.”
“Right, and okay. Good idea.” Then she looks up with a smile. “And about the bookstore…Sierra told me what you did. Thank you.”
Chapter 35
Sierra
My father leans over the table, eyes drilling into Chase. It’s Sunday evening, and we’re all sitting around the table for dinner. The first course has been served, but Dad hasn’t taken a single bite.
“What’s the most valuable thing you’ve recovered?” he asks Chase, completely fascinated by Chase’s past as a bounty hunter.
“That depends,” Chase says and rests his hand on my thigh, “on what you consider valuable.”
“You should tell him about the boat in Scotland,” I say and take a drink of wine.
“That was fun,” Chase says and goes into detail, starting with the sketchy plane ride in a small aircraft. My entire family is enamored, not eating as they listen to Chase talk about his crazy adventures.
Across the table, Lisa catches my eye. She picks up her wine and gives me a small toast. I relax in my chair and put my hand on top of Chase’s. He’s still not ‘ideal’ as my mother told me just hours ago, but knowing the truth behind his record has cleared the tension. And now Dad won’t leave Chase alone and keeps firing off question after question.
We have dessert on the patio and the kids swim while the adults sip drinks. I watch my nieces and nephew splashing in the water, laughing and having the time of their lives. My mom and sister are in the pool with them, laughing just as much. It’s one of the rare times I see my mother let loose and act like a normal human being, not caring about her hair or makeup, or the opinions of others.
Will I be able to interact with my mother like that when I have kids? Maybe we’ll get along better when we can bond over the baby. It might be wrong, but I feel like she’ll like me better if I give her more grandchildren.
“You’ll have one someday,” Chase says, reading my mind. He’s not supposed to go swimming yet, so we’re sitting by the edge of the pool with our feet in the water.
“Someday,” I repeat, feeling the painful tug on my heart. What could have been weighs heavily on me, and perhaps it always will. Though this time, there is a promise of happiness in the future.
He puts his arm around me and kisses my forehead. “I hope we have a girl. And she looks just like you.”
I smile. “I’d like that. And if we have a boy, I imagine him looking just like you. But no tattoos until he’s thirty.”
Chase laughs. “You won’t be happy to know I got my first tattoo when I was fifteen.”
“That’s not legal, is it?”
“No. A friend’s brother did it in his garage. It was terrible.”
“Can I see it?”
“Kind of.” He pulls the sleeve up his left shoulder. “It’s been covered up. That’s how bad it was.”
I laugh and bring my face to his, running a hand through his wavy hair. We stay at my parents’ until everyone leaves and go back to my house for the night.
“Now that you’re the owner of The Book Bag,” Chase starts, pulling down the sheets and getting into bed, “are you going to set different hours? You’re not exactly an early riser,” he teases.
“I totally would. But I think most people would argue ten o’clock isn’t early.”
“It’s not. I’ll come in with you. As your business partner, I’ll make a sacrifice and get up along with you.”
“You better, or you’re fired.” I get under the covers next to Chase. The Book Bag is going on, business as usual, just with a new owner. Chase is going to help me get things started and will work the register so I can handle the legal parts of becoming a shop owner.
He reaches over and takes two books off the nightstand and hands one to me. I take a minute to admire him and let this moment sink in. We’ve been through a lot together in a short amount of time. I might never find a reason to explain why the bad things happened, or why the good ones continue to come. The loss is still painful for the both of us. The mistakes we’ve both made saliently sit just below the surface, reminding us that we’re both human.
Bad things happen.
But good things do too.
There are no reasons. No way to know why life unfolds the way it does.
All I know is right here, right now in this moment…things are as close to perfect as they are going to get. Chase is in my bed with a good book. I don’t think I’m ever getting out.
And I’m okay with that.
Chapter 36
Chase
“What about this one?” I ask Dakota.
“I have it.”
“This one?”
“Uhhh. Have it.”
I pick another book from the shelf. “There’s no way you have this one.”
Dakota laughs. “I do!”
I’m purposely picking books she already has because she finds it funny. It’s Monday evening, and Sierra is getting ready to close the store for the night. She’s standing at the front of the store, holding baby Aaron as she talks to Melissa.
“You pick one,” I tell my niece, who’s giggling like crazy. She gets very serious and thumbs through the books, picking one about a princess who fights dragons at night when the kingdom is sleeping. I pull a twenty from my wallet and give it to her, making her even more excited that she gets to pay for her own book. She skips her way to the register.
“As far as grand romantic gestures go,” Josh starts, walking down the aisle, trying to get Noah to sleep, “you’ve set the rest of us up to fail. There aren’t enough stores for sale in Summer Hill.”
I laugh and stand, putting the books Dakota and I looked at back on the shelf. “I’ll consider that more next time. Though next time, I’m going bigger. Like a house.”
Josh laughs. “I don’t know what happened.” He looks at Sierra and back at me. “But don’t let it happen again.”
My eyes settle on Sierra. “It won’t.”
Four months later…