A thought hit her, then, making her heart drop. Shane really did look like he’d been through hell. “Is Grady okay?” she asked.
Shane’s eyes flickered with emotion. “Yeah. He’ll be in the hospital for a few more days, but he’s recovering. They moved him out of the ICU today, and he got to eat some normal food. He said it’s definitely not your lasagna, but it would do.”
Even though Bellamy tried to resist the urge, a faint smile found her lips. “I’m so glad. I’ve been thinking about him.” She clutched the stem of her glass, the wine turning slightly sticky in her palm.
“Me, too. I’ve been thinking about a lot of things, actually.”
There’s nothing he can say that will make things different, her pride whispered.
Shane straightened, taking a small step toward her. “I owe you an apology, Bellamy. I never should have kept anything from you, and I’m so, so sorry.”
Except maybe that.
“But you did keep things from me. Important things,” she whispered.
“I did, and I wish I could change it. I was…foolish.” He paused. “I was scared you wouldn’t understand. Hell, I didn’t even understand it. And it turns out the whole thing was pretty stupid, anyway.”
Her brows lifted in surprise, but she didn’t interrupt.
Shane said, “I was afraid of coming back to a place that I thought would define me, but really, everything that defines me has been here all along.” Shane brushed a hand over his chest and took another step toward her. “You taught me that.”
Her head sprang up, sloshing another trickle of wine over the rim of the glass. “I did?”
He gave her a half-smile. “Yeah, you did. You kind of snuck up on me, with all that honesty. It threw me for a loop at first, but then it made me realize what an idiot I’ve been. I just didn’t know it until it was too late.”
Bellamy felt a tremble work its way from the center of her body outward. “So, you came all the way out here to tell me that? Why didn’t you just call me?”
The half-smile became a familiar chuckle. “Because you’d have hung up on me, which I’d have deserved. And because I wanted to come here, to the city. To you. I don’t want to be without you, even if that means being here. I don’t want to leave Pine Mountain, I really don’t, but I don’t want to be without you more. So, whatever I have to do to make that happen, I’m going to do, even if it means being here.”
Shane met her eyes, unwavering and strong. “You want to know who I really am? I’m the guy who’s in love with you, Bellamy. I’ll do whatever it takes. Just trust that you really do know me and give me a chance. Please?”
Bellamy stood, speechless, in the middle of the floor, measuring the words in her head very carefully.
“Truth?” she asked, not letting go of his dark gaze.
Shane exhaled a shaky breath, but locked his eyes on hers. “Of course.”
“I do know you, and I trust you. Pride be damned, I love you, Shane Griffin, and the last twenty-four hours have been miserable. So, if you could please come here, I would really like for you to hold me and not let go for a really long time.”
His eyes went wide, and she cracked a grin as he processed her words.
“You…hold on…you…”
“Yes. I’m waiting.” She laughed, and Shane closed the space between them in two long strides. He threw his arms around her, and she buried her face in the gorgeous angle of his shoulder, inhaling the scent of him down to her toes.
“God, I love you. And I really mean it. I’ll come here on the weekends, we’ll figure something out. I can’t be without you,” Shane said, bending down to kiss the damp crown of her hair.
Bellamy laughed again, pulling back to peer up at him. “Oh, you don’t have to. As a matter of fact, you might be able to help me out. See, just today I was offered this great new job in Pine Mountain, working in the kitchen with Carly di Matisse. Maybe you’ve heard of her?” she said with a wink. “Anyway, I start next week, but I don’t have a place to stay. Can you recommend anything?”
“Oh, I think I can help you out. Whenever you want to go, my door is always open.” Shane dipped his mouth to hers, brushing her lips.
“Good. But let’s not hit the road just yet. I’m pretty sure I spilled an entire glass of wine down the back of your jacket, so you may want to take it off and stay a while.”
“Tell you what,” he said, his eyes going dark with a look Bellamy knew all too well. “How about I take off more than my jacket, and stay with you—wherever that may be—forever?”
Bellamy smiled, and eased her hands around his face to look him right in the eye.
“I say forever sounds great.”
30
Five months later
Somewhere amid the jangly throng of eight-penny nails in his tool belt, Jackson Carter’s cell phone was making one hell of a racket. He slid his hammer into the fraying loop on his hip and palmed his phone, grinning at the caller ID.
“Hey, Luke. What’s up?” Jackson wiped his brow with a bare forearm. Man, this weather was a far cry from the nasty rainstorms they’d had a couple days ago. Although considering June was half over, it was really about time for some heat.
“You tell me. How’s Mrs. Teasdale’s fence coming?” his boss replied.
Jackson took a step back to double-check his work, inhaling the crisp scent of the pine boards he’d been hammering into place for the better part of two days. “Your timing is perfect, actually. I just finished the build. All it needs is stain and seal coat, and it’ll be good to go.”
“I’m going to send Micah out there to finish it. I need you on another job, and it looks like a doozy.” The unspoken apology hung in Luke’s voice, and Jackson fought the urge to groan.
“Why does that sound like a disaster right off the bat?”
“Because it probably is. I just got a call from old man Logan about that bungalow he rents out. You know the one, off Rural Route Four?”
Jackson had lived in Pine Mountain since the beginning of his double-digit days, plus he’d done local contracting work for Luke for nearly a decade. If Jackson didn’t know every property in Pine Mountain by now, then shame on him.
“Yeah. It’s the log cabin-looking place, right?” He walked the length of freshly built fence to make sure he hadn’t missed anything before doubling back to the front of Mrs. Teasdale’s aging cottage.
“That’s the one. Well, apparently that storm we had the other night was a bit too much for one of the old oak trees on his property, and the wind actually uprooted the damned thing.”
Jackson let out a stunned whistle as he popped the locks on his pickup truck. “Did it hit the house?” Those trees had to be sixty feet tall. Oh, man, this job was going to suck.
Luke snorted. “Relax, I’m not sending you on a demolition. The tree fell across the backyard, but it wiped out part of the deck in the process. The arborists just got done hauling away the last of the tree, and now that we can get a good look at the damage, Logan wants us to see if anything can be salvaged. I told him not to get his hopes up, but if anyone could do it, it’d be you.”