Chapter 15 Hall
Hall
The lights were on inside the RV.
But I found her around back, sitting cross-legged on the ground with an instruction manual spread across her lap and parts of a compound miter saw scattered around her like puzzle pieces.
A work light cast harsh shadows across her face, highlighting the furrow between her brows as she squinted at the tiny diagrams.
Cassidy hadn’t heard me approach.
I just stood there for a moment, watching her. Taking her in.
She was wearing old jeans and the flannel shirt I’d let her borrow on her first night at my place, her hair pulled back in a messy ponytail. Sawdust clung to her sleeves, and there was a smudge of dirt on her cheek.
She stole my shirt.
For some reason that filled my heart so much it started overflowing.
This woman hadn’t just stolen my shirt, she’d stolen my heart. This stubborn woman who’d lost everything and was still fighting to rebuild it again. Who’d chosen to stay in this broken-down farmhouse instead of running back to the life she’d left behind in Abeline.
She was the light in my darkness. The only woman I wanted to share my Kit-Kat bars with. The only person who’d ever made my cabin feel like a home instead of a hiding place.
And I’d almost let her slip away because I was too scared to reach for what I wanted.
“You’re holding it upside down,” I rumbled.
She jumped, the manual flying from her hands. “Hall! What are you—how long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to see you’re in over your head.”
I crouched down, picking up the scattered pieces of the saw. My hands knew what to do even if my mouth didn’t. I started assembling it, fitting the parts together with the ease of long practice.
“You came,” she whispered. “You got my message?”
“Naw. My phone was dead.” I didn’t look at her. Couldn’t. If I looked at her, I’d lose my nerve. “But I had to come see how you’re doing.”
She sniffled and wiped away a tiny tear. “I called earlier today but never heard back. I thought you didn’t want to see me anymore.”
A shy smile landed on my lips. “And I thought you didn’t need me. Aren’t we a pair?”
We were both quiet for a moment. The only sound was the click of metal as I finished assembling the saw.
“There.” I stood, brushing sawdust from my knees. “What are you trying to cut?”
“These trim boards for the kitchen doorframe.”
I measured, marked, and cut them while she held the pieces steady. Then I set down the saw and turned to face her.
She was watching me with those big brown eyes, sawdust in her hair, hope and fear warring in her expression.
We were both broken.
We had wounded, tender hearts that only fit with each other.
I struggled to find the right words to express myself to her.
Finally, I managed to say, “I can install these tomorrow after work. You don’t have to do this alone.” The words came out rough, too raw.
“Thanks, I’d appreciate that.”
"I can gather up some of my buddies to help finish the work. Zane and Davis will come out for me."
"Th-that's nice. Don't feel obligated though."
"I don't," I kicked at the ground, shuffling the dirt around under my feet. Why were words so hard for me?
Then I finally managed to tell her what I really meant. “Stay. With me.”
Her breath caught. “Hall…”
The floodgates opened, and everything I felt finally poured out of me. “I know it’s fast. But I’ve spent my whole life watching from a distance, telling myself I don’t deserve the things I want.”
I stepped closer, close enough to touch her. “I don’t want to watch anymore. I want to be in this world with you.”
Tears spilled down her cheeks. “I thought I was just a fling. A warm body that fell into your life.”
“You were never a fling.” I cupped her face in my hands, wiping the tears away with my thumbs. “You were the first thing that made me want to come down from that mountain in years.”
I wasn’t good with words, but I forced a few more out. “You’re the first person who made me feel like maybe I wasn’t too much. Like maybe I was exactly enough.”
She let out a sound that was half laugh, half sob. “I love you, you ridiculous man. I’ve loved you since you climbed through my window like a wild mountain beast.”
“You do?” My heart skipped a beat as a blur of emotions whipped around inside my chest.
She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me, and it tasted like tears and forever.
When we finally broke apart, I told her breathlessly, “I l-love you too, Cassidy.”
It came out easier this time. Almost natural. “I think I loved you before I even met you. When you were just a light in the darkness.”
She nestled into my arms. “So what happens now?”
We were both covered in sawdust, working on an old home that should have been retired years ago.
I thought about my cabin on the mountain and her farmhouse here in the valley. The distance between them now felt like an obstacle. I didn’t care where I lived as long as it was with her.
So I told her, “We’ll figure it out.” I dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Together.”
“Together,” she agreed.
Then her face lit up into the most gorgeous smile I’d ever seen.
And sitting there in the wreckage of her old life, holding the woman who’d become my whole world, I finally understood what I’d been missing all those years alone on the mountain.
Cassidy.
She was what I’d been waiting for.
And now that I had her, I was never letting her go.