Epilogue
EPILOGUE
AVA
ONE MONTH LATER
A farm full of people. Of laughter and chatter and bodies always moving. There’s never an empty room, and even nights are filled with creaks in the house for those staying in the living room. Or Kellen and his partner Tyler’s soft murmurs in Beth’s old art room below us or hushed voices that drift through the window from those nestled around the pump.
The temporary chaos since Kellen arrived has been strangely gratifying and comforting—the friends he and Tyler made on their harrowing journey, as well as Tyler’s brothers, who are now part of our lives. Part of our home.
“Ava—” Kellen grunts behind me. When I glance back, wiping the sweat from my brow, Kellen’s lifting a rafter beam over his head in the newly framed living room. “Can I get an assist?”
Smiling, I rise from mixing cement with Harper. “Of course.”
It turns out the Mayberry farm was damn near in ruins. Whether that’s the reason the family departed or the storms caused the damage afterward, the farmhouse is only bare bones now.
In a roundabout way, it works out for the best. We might not be ready to build a bunker large enough for over a dozen people, but we can remodel and reinforce the farmhouse and expand the cellar so it’s more than a hole in the dirt.
Grabbing the other end of the beam, I heave it up to Knox on the ladder for him and Tyler to secure.
“I think your muscles are bigger than mine now, Ava,” Kellen teases.
Though I laugh at the joke, Harper is practically offended. She drops the half empty bucket of water she was pouring into the cement mix. “What about mine?”
Knox winks at me, barely containing a grin. He has found immense entertainment observing Harper’s interactions with so many personalities over the past few weeks. Jesse, Tyler’s smartass younger brother being Harper’s favorite to verbally combat with. Even if she’d never admit it. Not to mention, a giant weight has been lifted from him since his brother’s return; it feels like I’m learning a whole new, light-hearted part of Knox I didn’t know existed.
“Wow.” Kellen whistles. “They are big.” He shakes his head with mock concern. “You should probably stop eating Beth’s spinach salad before they get too big.”
Harper’s haughty expression slackens to a frown. “What do you mean?”
“Spinach,” Jesse pipes up, grabbing a jug of water from beside our snack box to sate his thirst. After a few glugs, he gasps for breath and winks at Harper. “Everyone knows that your muscles will get so big, you won’t be able to pull your shirt sleeves over them.” He cocks his head to the side. “Or is it only canned spinach?” He looks at Tyler, who shrugs, biting back a smile of his own as he wisely decides not to get involved in their teasing.
“No,” Harper says, “that won’t happen.” But there’s a tinge of uncertainty in her voice as she glances at Knox for reassurance.
He shrugs. “It happened to Popeye.”
“Who’s that?”
“A guy from my childhood,” Knox says, a grin lifting his cheeks.
“Well—” Harper huffs. “I’m a girl, so it will be different for me.”
“Hmm.” Jesse taps his finger against his chin, thoughtful. “I don’t know...I had a friend once who?—”
“She’s a doctor, Jesse,” Knox tells him. “Or, at least she used to be. I think Harper would know best.”
Jesse is a good actor, and his crumpled brow and concerned expression douses any certainty Harper might’ve had that he was teasing her. “If you say so.”
I shake my head. When I was younger, the tall tale was that beer or coffee would put hair on your chest. I might’ve believed it, but Harper—well, the way she’s staring at her arms, I think she might never touch a green vegetable again.
I’m about to chime in to ease her panic when Beth walks up.
“Enough, you three.” She sets a few fresh jugs of water down to replace the empties. The loose blonde wisps of her ponytail catch in the breeze. “Don’t listen to them, sweetheart. They are only teasing you.”
Harper’s eyes narrow slightly, and Jesse grins, tossing his hands up. “My brothers told me that when I was your age. It only seemed fair.”
“Interesting,” she muses, and with a harrumph, Harper straightens her shoulders and follows Beth toward the horses, where they nibble on the dry grass sprouting along the cement slab. Her sassy walk gives Jesse pause.
“ Interesting ?” he repeats. “I’m going to regret that little lie. Aren’t I?”
“Oh, you definitely will,” I say with a laugh. “Harper is the queen of storytelling.”
“You mean Dr. Robinson ,” Knox counters .
Chuckling, I flash Jesse a warning look. “She’s clever, that kid. And you’ve not only given her more fuel but more ideas too.”
With a quiet curse, Jesse walks back to where he and his eldest brother Aaron are working on one of the room extensions, his head shaking the whole way.
“It’s weird,” Kellen says, his eyes flicking to his brother as he crouches down to help me finish mixing the cement.
Knox takes the nail from between his lips and hammers it into one of the beams above him. “What is?”
“Seeing you like this, teasing her. Teaching her how to ride horses. Tucking her in at night.” Kellen is thoughtful for a moment and pivots on his feet to meet Knox’s gaze. “It seems right, and yet, I don’t think I could have pictured it. Until now.”
Knox shifts his tool belt on his waist and climbs down the ladder. “I never imagined it either. I’ve never had a sister, but she doesn’t feel like a sister. Then again, she doesn’t feel like a daughter either,” he realizes. “I guess I’m whatever Harper needs me to be.” Our gazes flick to each other.
“For now,” Kellen says. Knox frowns. “You’re whatever she needs you to be for now. When she meets a guy, your parental side will take over.”
Knox pauses, mid-grab of a jug of water, and frowns. “Christ,” he mutters as if he hadn’t thought of that. “A guy in this world? No way.”
“Ha!” Kellen and I both bark a laugh. “As if you’ll have a choice,” he says. “She won’t be alone forever.”
I hold up my finger. “In all fairness, you and I wouldn’t be speaking now if it weren’t for this world ,” I remind Knox. “And Harper will be smarter than us. She’s lived through more and knows what this world is capable of.” I say it in full confidence.
“It’s not her I’m worried about,” Knox explains, as if his mind is already whirling, and Kellen winks at me with a smirk.
“How about,” I start, rising to my feet. I step up to Knox, peering into his eyes. “We worry about the farm right now, and we’ll worry about Harper when the time comes.”
With a glance at his brother’s smug expression, Knox nods and a wicked gleam lights his eyes. “You laugh at me, Kel,” Knox warns and he picks up a stack of two-by-fours. His arms flex under the weight of the wood. “But you’re her Uncle Kellen and second-in-command when she meets said guy.”
Kellen’s eyes widen, I laugh, and with the sounds of chatter, laughter, and hammering around us, we get back to work, rebuilding our lives. Together.
THE END