I nodded, unsure of what else to say or do. He was a ticking timebomb, ready to explode at any second. I certainly didn’t want to get trapped in those crosshairs, but at the same time, I wouldn’t be able to look at myself in the mirror knowing I’d literally dumped all this in his lap and then fled. He needed a friend, and regardless of how volatile he acted, I felt this strong pull to be that person for him.
“Well, thanks. I appreciate the truth. Sorry you came all this way for such a short trip, but be thankful no one tried to choke you during your visit. I can say that from experience.” That was a total screw-you comment.
I had never really been one to cry, but the backs of my eyes burned with the threat of tears. I wasn’t sure if it was his rejection or anger or the guilt I had for it being my family who’d caused him such pain. Either way, I needed to go before he bore witness to my weakest moment.
Thankfully, it was a decent hike from the dock to my car, which had allowed me the time to clear my face and thoughts. I was able to steel my emotions and lock them away—at least until the solitary drive home, where I would have all the time in the world to sort through them. But when I made the turn from the path to the parking lot, I nearly tripped over my own feet.
The last person I expected to see there was Drew. Yet there he was, leaning against the trunk of my car with his hands casually tucked into the front pockets of his shorts. I assumed he’d come back for round two, so I didn’t bother giving him an opening. If he had something to say, he could do so without a prompt.
“I was thinking…” Somehow, in the time it took me to walk a quarter of a mile, his demeanor had completely changed. Gone was the hateful stranger, and in his place was the Drew Wheeler I’d met a month ago. “Do you know what this means?”
“What what means? You thinking? I’m slightly afraid to answer that.”
He laughed and shook his head. “No, what all of this means.” He circled his hand in the air, gesturing to everything around us, including him and me. “You said so yourself that the chances of the two of us coming together after the history between our families were small. Yet that’s what happened.”
“What are you implying?”
“Our grandparents lost their chance to be together. And here we are.”
I needed him to spell it out for me. “I still don’t understand.”
“I’ve said it before, but I don’t think you believed me. Well, now you don’t have a choice, because it’s staring us in the face. Fate will always win and make things right. It’s giving us the chance that was stolen from our grandparents.”
I think I needed longer than a moment between witnessing his anger on the dock and…whatever this was. It gave me whiplash and left my head spinning. Part of me held my breath, waiting for the nasty comments to resume. But a bigger part of me wanted to close my eyes and hide, utterly fearful of this moment not being real.
“Kenny…” His raspy voice sounded closer, so close, in fact, I could’ve sworn I felt the heat of my name across my face.
It wasn’t until he held my arms that I realized I had actually closed my eyes. And when I opened them, he was right there. In my space. In my bubble. Reassuring me with gentle eyes and a calming touch.
“What happened, Drew? You basically told me to leave, and now you’re acting like that conversation never even took place.”
His lips curled, and his eyes glistened. “What can I say? I can’t help myself. This land is cursed. It makes me want to kiss you all the time and touch you constantly. It makes me want to beg you to stay and never leave.”
“Then do it.”
His smile went from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye. “Don’t leave.”
Fisting the front of his shirt, I lifted myself onto my tiptoes and ever-so-softly brushed my lips against his as I whispered, “Okay.”
Epilogue
Drew
I pressed my back against the pole on the dock and watched as the fireworks lit up the night sky over the glass top of the lake. Two short years ago, I was convinced that I’d never find happiness, and that I’d be stuck here forever. Well, I was technically still here, but I wasn’t stuck.
I couldn’t help but laugh at myself for how dramatic I had been. Granted, after spending nearly my entire life seeing how lonely and depressed my dad was, it wasn’t that far of a stretch to assume I’d be right where he was in another twenty-plus years. But all that felt like a lifetime ago. Because right now, I was happier than I ever thought possible.
“Are you getting nervous?” Kenny asked with a hint of concern in her tone.
“No, why?”
She smiled, igniting a fireball in my chest, and did her best to shrug around the sleeping one-year-old in her arms. “You’re rubbing my foot harder than normal, and you usually only ever do that when you’re working through something in your head. So I assumed you might’ve been getting a little anxious over the grand opening next week.”
I glanced down at her bare foot where it rested in my lap and quickly let up on my unintentional tight grip. “Nah, that’s not it—although I do have concerns about the opening, but none you aren’t aware of.”
“You’re still worried about that?”
I rolled my eyes at her and shook my head with exasperation. We’d spoken about this a dozen times; she knew it still bothered me. “Of course I am, Kenny. We’re about to have a bunch of addicts coming to stay here. In the woods. Where my wife and child are. I’m pretty sure most men would have an issue with that.”
It’d only taken two months of Kenny staying with me for her to wind up pregnant. Turns out, the birth control that she’d had so much confidence in wasn’t as good as she thought. Either that or my guys were better. Regardless, we welcomed our son into the world one year ago today. He’d held on long enough for his mother and me to watch the fireworks, and as soon as it was over, he’d demanded to be born. That was the moment I learned what true fear was. It was when I discovered a whole new love, and the undeniable need to protect my family. Which was why this had been such a back-and-forth argument with Kenny.
“Stop acting like they’re all violent criminals.”
I should’ve let it go, but the words came out before I could stop them. “What else am I supposed to think? Your grandfather wasn’t the best example of a recovering addict, was he?”
Kenny was quiet for a moment, like I knew she would be. Ever since becoming a mom, she’d take a moment before defending herself. The problem with that was it offered her time to properly organize her argument. Which meant game over—she was the queen of valid reasoning.
“I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean that,” I apologized, hoping to spare myself a tongue-lashing.
Even though it would’ve been deserved.
I knew she believed that her grandfather’s addiction was his way of either numbing or punishing himself for the thing he regretted most, and I also knew how badly she wanted to help those suffering from similar pain. She desperately wanted to give those who struggled with this illness a chance to release their demons so they wouldn’t have to carry them around until their dying breath like her grandfather had.