Epilogue
One Year Later
Winkles buzzes with Friday night energy. Brady and I head over to the bar where Jesse, Jordan, and Gabriel are having beers.
“Crusher,” Jesse yells, and they greet with bumps and light punches.
Gabriel hands us beers and we clink bottles with the group. We haven’t done a Winkles Friday since the wedding in June.
We’ve either been traveling or putting the finishing touches on the main house for next week’s opening of Bearclaw Lake Retreat.
We held the wedding at the retreat while it was still unfurnished. For the ceremony, we built a flower trellis by the lake, which is now a permanent fixture.
After Lara settled into the second grade routine, Brady and I took Josh Iverson up on his offer to spend a week at his digital detox resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.
It was one of the wildest weeks of my life. I can’t stop replaying the adventures we had in the cabins deep in the woods.
I clink bottles with Brenna, the owner and chef of Sugar and Pine, the best bakery in the country as far as I, and every person in Whispering Pines, is concerned. She baked Brady and I an amazing raspberry cake with buttercream icing for the wedding.
She smiles warmly. “Did I miss something? Or did you and Brady just get back from a very long honeymoon?”
I tell her about the honeymoon in Vancouver in July and the trip we took with Lara to Lake Tahoe at the beginning of August. I decide against going into detail about the digital detox resort in Virginia.
Brenna is about fifteen years younger than I am and has a wholesomeness that I don't wish to corrupt.
“We just got back from Virginia where we were staying at a digital detox resort. I finally got to put a dent in my reading list. Brady spent a lot of time on the golf course.”
“How’s his leg healing?”
“Good, I think. I spend more time worrying about his leg than he does. He misses fighting the fires. It’s hard for him to watch from the sidelines while the guys tackle the fires without him.”
I tell her about how he’s instructing at the Fire Authority, and in De Clair, and working with me to get the retreat up and running.
On our way out the door, Brady slings an arm around my shoulder.
I furrow my brow in concern. “Is your leg okay?” I worry that he’s leaning on me for support after standing up for so long at Winkles.
“It’s fine for now. I was thinking since Lara’s at your parents’ place, and we’ve got the house all to ourselves, how about we take ourselves a midnight bath?”
I giggle at the memory of us in the bathing cabin at the digital detox resort.
It was the first time either of us had bathed naked with other people.
And those other people weren’t just bathing.
For that matter, neither were we. “It’ll be pretty lonely just the two of us. We had so many friends at the resort.”
Brady’s laugh comes out in a puff against the chilly night air. “You know, I barely looked at the other people. There was only you.”
I elbow him in the ribs. “You were talking about that oral sex daisy chain for days.”
“It was complex. I was impressed.” He shrugs, which makes me giggle.
We reach the Telluride. On a warmer night, we’d have walked from our place in Pines Harbor to Winkles. But we’ve already had the first frost of the year. I buckle up and take in the sharp angles of Brady’s cheek and jaw in the shadow of the streetlight. “Tonight, we might conceive.”
He turns to me, wide-eyed, a smile stretched across his face. “It’s that time?”
“Yep.”
He takes my hand as he heads down the main drag. “I used to think baseball was my life. Then I thought firefighting was. I thought if had a wife and kids, they’d make my life complete. Like they’d be a nice addition. They’d exist for me in a way my sport and my job couldn’t.”
He glances over at me with that look of love he gets when he talks about us.
“But that’s not how it works. The work, friendships, projects and investments are meant for the edges.
The life we’ve got with Lara, and maybe other children.
is the center of everything. Without it, none of the other things matter. ”
I tear up at the beautiful truth of what he said. “You have a way with words. Thank you for being so wise and honest.”
He runs his thumb against the back of my hand. “Always.”
“Always and forever,” I say like we do each night when we tell each other I love you.
We turn onto the road to Pines Harbor. The moon bathes the forest in a slivery glow, showing off its quiet persistence and unfailing strength.