I get in the truck and make my second stop of the day. I pull up and park behind his truck and walk up the steps, opening the door. There is no one sitting at the front desk, and then Grady comes out from the back. “Well, look at this,” he says, looking at me, and I just smile at him.
“Hi, is Jacob here?” I ask, and he nods.
“Follow me,” he says, and I follow him back to Jacob’s office.
He looks up from his desk and smiles when he sees me, getting up. “Hey there.” Walking to me, he kisses me. “What are you doing here?”
“I’ll be at my desk,” Grady says and closes the door behind him.
“Are you okay?’ Jacob asks, and I look down.
“I went to see Savannah,” I say, and he picks up my hand and kisses it, “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before I went. I just.”
“Baby,” he says softly.
“I just wanted her to know that I’m not going anywhere and that no matter how I feel about her”—I let out a big breath—“that Ethan will never feel it from me.”
“You’re amazing,” he tells me, and right before he kisses me, a siren goes off.
Grady shouts, “Shots fired at Casey’s house!”
Find out what happens with Casey & Olivia in
Southern Comfort
Epilogue One
Jacob
Five months later
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Ethan asks from beside me as he watches me climb the ladder against the tree.
“Yeah,” I huff out, holding on to the ladder that tethers left and right, making me hold my breath while it wobbles.
“If you fall and break something, Kallie is going to freak out, Dad,” Ethan says. I don’t need him to tell me that this is crazy right now. I also don’t need him to tell me that if I do break something, Kallie will do more than freak out.
“You are not helping, Ethan,” I say between clenched teeth as I throw the light over one branch, letting it fall over swinging. Ethan walks to it to stop it and keep it in place.
“That’s one,” he says, “only a million more to go.”
“Not a million,” I mumble, “just two more dozen.” I climb up another step and toss another cord, and he stops it also. When I had this idea, it played out a lot better in my head. How hard could it be, I thought to myself, and now that I’m five minutes in, I should have gone with rose petals in the middle of the living room.
Except I didn’t wait all this time to propose to her and have it be mediocre. No, my girl deserves the best. I just hope I can do it in one piece. I move the ladder over slowly, ever so fucking slowly. When I finally step back down on the ground and walk over to the switch, I look over at Ethan. “Do they not work?” he asks.
“I don’t know. Let me flip the switch,” I say, and when I do, the lights illuminate. The light bulbs hanging on their power cord hang from the branches of the trees.
“It’s cool, Dad,” he says, and I look at it.
“It is, but it’s not done,” I say and grab the white sheet of lace I have and place it over two branches and let it hang. “Just a few more touches.”
“I’m going to go sit on the rock,” he says, grabbing my phone and going over to sit on the rock that I brought here all those years ago for Kallie. The same rock that not so long ago she wanted off her property. The same rock where I told her I loved her for the first time. I place the other two pieces of lace around the tree with the seven white lanterns on them. I take the battery-operated candles from the bag and turn on the switch on the bottom, and the tips light up.
“Okay, kiddo,” I say, looking over my shoulder at him. “How does it look?”
“She’ll like it,” he says. It’s been over six months, and Kallie has made our house a home. She is on top of everything that has to do with Ethan, she has taken him into her heart, and it’s just flourished. He didn’t just get Kallie. He got Charlotte and Billy, who treat him as if he’s theirs, and I guess in a little way he is a part of all of us.
“Okay, let’s get home before she suspects something,” I say and walk back to the truck.
“She’s going to know right away,” Ethan says. “She smells trouble, and she also smells when you’re fibbing.” I look over at him and know that he’s tried to get one over on her many times, but she has a way of knowing.
“She does,” I say and wait for him to get into the truck before I get in and start the truck. “You are going to behave for Gammy Charlotte and Gramps Billy, right?” I ask, and he just nods.
“Gramps Billy said he’s going to take me fishing,” he says with a huge smile on his face. With all this shit around us, my boy finally got himself a grandfather who would die for him without batting an eye. If it’s the weekend, you know that Ethan is going to be with Billy any day he can. The two are thicker than thieves.
“Did he?” I ask him as I pull up to the house and see that Charlotte is sitting on one of the rocking chairs she put outside with Billy next to her. The both of them are smiling when they see my truck. Billy is the first one to get up and walk down the two steps toward the truck.
Ethan opens the door as soon as I put it in park and turn off the engine. “Gramps,” he calls him, “I’m here.”
“That you are, my boy,” he says, leaning down and kissing him on the head. Charlotte is coming down now.
“Now, don’t you give him all the love,” she says, and Ethan walks over to her and hugs her around her waist and looks up at her. “I think you’ve gotten taller,” she says, and he nods his head. “It’s a good thing I just put the pie in the oven.”
His eyes light up. “Is it apple?”
She looks at him. “Is there any other kind of pie?”
“Nope,” he says, and she kisses him. I grab his bag and hand it to him. “Bye, Dad,” he says to me and comes to give me a kiss before running back to Billy, who takes his hand and walks inside.
“Is everything set?” Charlotte asks, and I nod.
“I think so,” I say, and she smiles at me, coming to kiss my cheek.
“It’s a long time coming,” she says, and I nod to her as she turns to walk into the house after Ethan.
When I walk into the house, I yell for Kallie right away. “I’m in the kitchen!” she yells, and I find her putting away the groceries. “Well, hello there.” She smiles when she sees me, and I walk over to her and take her in my arms.
“Hello there,” I say, and my lips find hers. Since the first day she came over, she hasn’t left. I mean, she tried to, and well, she lost that battle.
“Did you drop off Ethan?” she asks, always wondering about him, just another reason to love her.
“I did,” I say. “Your father is taking him fishing.”
“Oh, he’s going to love that,” she says. “What did you want to do for dinner?”
“I was thinking that we can lay low.” I push her hair away from her face and kiss her neck. “And then maybe just …”
She looks at me, and her eyes squint as though she’s not sure about something. “What are you up to?”