He’d said all he wanted to say.
I stood straight in his absence, a new fire burning between my ribs at the last words he’d left me with. I’d needed to let Dani go, and in turn I thought the same was true of Wren. But that was before Ron took every complication I saw between us and made them seem so small, so insignificant. I felt like an idiot that I’d even considered them as true obstacles at all.
I was falling in love with her.
It didn’t hit me as a shock or a grand revelation because I’d already known it. I couldn’t even put a finger on the exact moment I’d stepped off the cliff and started the fall, but I didn’t need to. All that mattered was that I faced the truth.
I didn’t want to lose her.
And if I didn’t want to lose her, I had to fight to keep her.
In three short days, she’d be packing up her SUV to drive away from Gold Bar. I needed to show her we could make it, that I needed her, that I could be what she needed, too.
The only question now was how?
ELICIT
ih-LISS-it
Verb
To draw forth or bring out
“No, no, Ron, it needs to be higher. On the left. Just the left. No, the other left. Oh, for heaven’s sake.”
Momma Von threw her hands in the air before jogging down the front steps of my porch and out down my drive where Ron and Tucker were perched on ladders attempting to hang the sign she and Yvette had made for me. It was all white with bright coral letters, a color they said reminded them of me. It said the words that suddenly made me realize the day had actually come.
We’ll Miss You, Wren!
I smiled, though my stomach dipped like I’d just hit the bottom of the roller coaster before barreling back up again. Three months had come and gone in what felt like just seconds, and now it was time to head back to the city.
Adrian was ecstatic. I’d found a temporary apartment in Belltown right by the boutique, but it wouldn’t be ready for another two weeks, so I was going to stay with Adrian until then. He wanted to see my sketches and talk about next year’s summer line, but I barely had anything to show. He had to know, because if it was something I was excited about, I would have called him by now.
Regardless, it was time to go back—back to Seattle, back to work, back to life.
I took a pulse check, my heart healed and yet sore. I would miss waking up to the sound of the river and falling asleep to the sound of Rev’s purr. I would miss the people, too—perhaps even more than the scenery. I hadn’t expected to find them here at all, but they were what had made the experience what it was.
I walked to the edge of the first stair on the porch, my eyes tracing the letters on the sign again before roaming the rest of my front yard. Yvette and Benjamin were playing on a blanket spread out near the garage while Davie prepped the ribs he’d bought to barbecue.
The grill was already fired up, and Julie was just finishing setting up the long table we’d all eat at. She smoothed a hand over the table cloth, placing rocks on each corner to keep the breeze from blowing it off and away. I took a seat at the top stair just as she finished and she smiled up at me, making her way over.
“You guys host quite the going-away feast,” I said with a smile as Julie used the railing to help lower herself down next to me.
Her big curls were tied back in a braid today, the freckles on the apples of her cheeks more pronounced than they had been at the beginning of the summer. Days in the sun had slightly tanned her, and though she had a glow, she seemed sad today.
“We do for the people we care about,” she said.
We both sat in silence for a second, just watching everyone in the yard. Ron dropped his corner of the sign and it flopped down onto the driveway, Tucker nearly losing his balance on his ladder trying to hold his end up while Momma Von chastised them both.
Julie and I just laughed.
“Are you excited to go back?” she asked.
I took a deep breath, memorizing the way the air in Gold Bar felt in my lungs. “I don’t think that’s the right word. I’m ready, I suppose. Ready to get back to work and back to the boutique. I miss having that routine every day, and I definitely miss my team. They’ve been holding down the fort for too long.”
Julie smiled at that. “You’re going to miss us, though?”
“Terribly.”
Julie grinned wider, but then her smile fell and she plucked a stray weed from between the boards of the porch and picked at it with her fingers. “You know, I think you’re really brave, Wren.”
I tilted my head toward her, resting my cheek on my knee. “Why’s that?”
“You never met my mom this summer,” she said, still picking at the small flower. “She doesn’t go outside the cabin much. Not because she doesn’t want to, but because of my dad. I love him, I do, but he’s an awful husband.”
Julie shook her head, keeping her eyes trained on her hands as she continued.
“He’s always so mean to her. He yells at her to cook more or clean more, and then when she does, it’s never good enough for him. The steaks are too done or the floors are still dirty. He goes to work all day but doesn’t want her to leave to go make friends or spend time with the few she has. He expects her to stay home and handle the house, even though I’m grown now and there’s nothing much for her to handle.”
My heart ached, because I realized my life with Keith hadn’t been too far from that of her mom’s. But maybe that kind of life was okay for her. I reached out and squeezed Julie’s wrist. “I’m sure your mom is happy. I’m sure she loves your dad.”
“She does love him,” she agreed. “But that’s the problem. She should have left him years ago, Wren. Maybe even before I was born. Definitely after. There’s been nights where she’s crawled into my bed and we’ve cried together. I’ve begged her to leave. I told her I would go with her. But she loves him, and she knows he won’t be able to take care of himself if she leaves. So, she just sacrifices everything she loves to do and everything she wants to be to make him happy. Or try to, I should say.” Julie shook her head. “I wish she had the courage you did, to make a life of her own... to find her happiness. I wish she could have met you.”
My throat squeezed and I forced a swallow, both saddened and honored by how Julie saw me. “I don’t know that I’d say I’m brave.”
“I would,” she said without hesitation. This time she turned to face me, too. “Zeek and I got in a fight.”
“I wondered why he wasn’t here. What happened?”
Julie took a deep breath, exhaling it through flat lips. “He’s mad at me because I applied to a bunch of different colleges. Not one of them is near here. He’s going into his junior year and I’m going into my senior year, so he thinks I’m going to leave him next summer and we’ll break up.”