Epilogue
Bailey, Six Weeks Later
“I don’t think you’re going to be able to shower tonight,” my brother says, staring at the boxes of my stuff crammed into Silas’s bathroom.
“He cleared out two shelves in his linen closet for me,” I say.
“And I ordered a utility cart and a big mirror to put in the office to do my makeup and stuff in there.” Silas moved his weights down to his unfinished basement, and I think I’m going to buy a treadmill for down there too.
It won’t be anything like my gym in the city, but that’s okay. I’ll get to watch Silas lift weights.
Hunter exaggerates a sigh. “He must really love you to tolerate—oof.”
He bends at the waist, holding his side where Silas pinched him. “I don’t tolerate anything,” Silas says firmly.
We’ve unloaded all of my stuff from my car and Kit’s van. Kit and Morgan had to duck out to get to their respective jobs, leaving us to unbox things.
Us and my parents, who arrived about fifteen minutes ago.
Dad’s pulling hangers of clothes from one of those wardrobe boxes and putting them in the closet of the bedroom.
Not all of it is going to fit, but that’s fine.
Eventually I’ll cull my work clothes since I’ll be working remotely more often, but I’ll still need outfits for when I do go into the office or travel.
I go to check on my mom in the kitchen, Hunter and Silas right behind me, and catch her throwing something into the trash can.
“Mom, stop throwing stuff away. I already cleaned out what I don’t want to keep.”
She shows me the package of marshmallows, as if I don’t know exactly what I packed for my move. “Honey, you shouldn’t be eating this kind of junk. Especially now that you’re out here. The closest gym is half an hour away, you’ll never burn that weight off if you keep eating like this.”
Hunter’s jaw tightens, and he and Silas exchange a look. We’d already had A Talk about how we were going to handle my parents with me moving back, and I’d told them both to leave it to me. And my therapist.
I take the bag from Mom. “I am an adult and I make my own decisions about what I eat.”
“Don’t act like that. I just want you to be healthy.”
“I am healthy. And if you can’t see that, then we’re not going to spend time together.”
Mom reels back like I’ve slapped her. “What does that mean?”
“That means that if you say anything negative about my eating or my body—or yours—one of us is leaving.”
Mom huffs and acts put out, but she stops throwing my things away. They leave not long after, and as soon as the door shut on their asses, Hunter whoops and squeezes me so hard my back pops.
“Fuck yeah! You told her.” Hunter sets me down and ninja-chops the air. “It’s called setting boundaries, Mom. You can shove it.”
Silas also sweeps me into a hug, this one with a big, smacking kiss. “I’m so proud of you. How did that feel?”
“Good,” I say, nodding. “Better than I thought it would.” My therapist and I have talked about what I really fear when I accept the things my mom says, and I came to the realization that I feared she would stop loving me.
But I wondered if she ever worried that I would stop loving her when she says those things.
I also am learning that loving myself is more important, and that I can still love my mom, even if I didn’t allow her to behave that way around me anymore. Or even be around me anymore.
We get back to work, and sometime around six Silas declares we’ve unpacked enough for the night and we need to go celebrate. We follow Hunter to his house, where he pops in to feed Raven, and we leave our car parked so we can enjoy the nice early June evening weather with a walk.
It’s really lovely out. Sunny and crisp, a bite in the air.
It’s the kind of day that would draw New Yorkers out to the parks en masse even though it’s still chilly.
It’s about a twenty-minute walk from Hunter’s to the bar, and we pass Kinnara and Chapter Morgan returns to his place across from the biker chick and that’s gonna be our entertainment for the night, I can already tell) Hunter gets up to check with Paul about the secret menu for the day.
I look around for Silas and he’s pretending to study one of the menus at one of the booths. Thankfully, Meredith’s group isn’t paying him any attention. Silas comes back and takes the seat next to me.
“What’d you hear?” I say, leaning in.
“I think they’re looking at financials. Do you know what an e-bidet is?”
I wrinkle my nose. “Like a toilet?”
“Uhhh . . .”
It clicks in my head. “Oh. EBITDA. Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization. It’s a metric to measure potential cash flow and earnings for a business. Holy shit. They are talking about buying the lodge.”
“Yeah,” Silas says. “And one of the people is wearing a shirt with—”
“Okay.” Hunter interrupts from the other side of the bar. He’s leaning on his elbows, and he ticks off Paul’s specials with his fingers.
We order, and Silas whispers the name of a big skiing conglomerate. My heart sinks. This company is known for treating their employees like crap and unhappy guest experiences.
What would happen to Here if this company buys the lodge?
They leave not long after, and the bar gets busier. Herevians come and go and we spend the night playing darts, enjoying the food, and watching Morgan make a fool of himself while the biker—whose name is Rory—continues to be unimpressed.
Or at least acts like she is.
I like Sunday nights at On the Rocks the best, I decide.
The tourists—the few ones that visit in the summer—have mostly left and it’s just the Herevians.
Morgan and Hunter run a happy hour special, Paul’s secret menu is barely a secret, and it’s quiet enough that I can hang out with my brother and my live-in boyfriend.
Although I think my brother is deeply regretting his decision to be cool with me and Silas getting together.
“Could you at least not suck my sister’s neck in front of me?” he complains from the barstool while we’re playing darts.
“Distracting her is the only chance I have of winning,” Silas tells him, taking his first shot at the board. “Besides, we have a bet going that I’m still trying to win where—”
Hunter holds up a hand. “I don’t think I want to know.”
“Probably not,” I agree.
“And you.” He points at me. “Could you please stop feeling him up in public?”
I look at Silas. “We could go feel each other up in private?”
Hunter groans.
“Definitely.” Silas hands Hunter the last dart.
“We’re in the middle of Cut-Throat. You’re in the middle of your turn.”
Silas shrugs at him, hands up to the sides.
Hunter looks at me.
I mimic Silas’s gesture.
“Fine,” my brother grumbles. He grudgingly accepts my hug and the two of them do their best-friend handshake.
We wave goodbye to various people as we leave—including Morgan, who’s still got heart eyes for Rory—and when we get outside, the air is noticeably cooler.
I check my phone and it’s almost eight thirty.
The sun’s just set somewhere behind the mountains and everything is a dusky blue.
“That was fun,” Silas says, slinging an arm around my shoulders and pulling me close. “We could do that every Sunday, maybe.”
I look up at him. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
We walk back to Hunter’s house and get in the car, talking the whole way. The lights on Main have turned on, the sidewalk dining at Kinnara is empty. Chapter & Song is shuttered and the street is quiet.
When we open the door to his—I mean, our—house, Echo comes running in from the bedroom meowing at Silas to get her special hug and kisses.
No, wait. She’s meowing at me. She stands on the back of the couch, her paw raised, making that pitiful noise that makes you think no one has ever loved her and she’s going to expire for lack of kisses.
I step over to her and she climbs into my arms, her head butting my chin and her butt settling into the crook of my arm.
“Traitor,” Silas teases, scratching her chin and bending down to kiss her. I kiss her too, and Echo’s little purr machine goes wild.
Muah, muah, muah, muah.
When I finally pull back, Silas has his arms around me and his cat, looking at me with so much love it takes my breath away.
“Have I told you today that you’re beautiful?” he asks, tilting his head.
“About twenty times,” I tease.
“Well, then I’ve got number twenty-one coming up,” he says. With Echo sandwiched between us, Silas cups my cheek in his hand and stares right into my eyes. “You are beautiful.” Then he presses his lips to mine. “And I love you.”
He kisses me again before I can respond, slow and lazy, making me melt.
When we break apart, I gaze up at him. “I love you too.”
He kisses my nose. “Good. You are the best thing that happened to me twenty years ago when I first met you and Hunter. Just don’t tell your brother I said that.”
And what do you know? I do belong Here.
The End