Chapter Twenty-Three
It was Christmas Eve, and she’d got a text from the bar manager that she needed to come down because there was a leak in a
pipe. And Sheena was mad, because the only reason that the bar manager would’ve been contacted instead of her was that Denver
didn’t want to deal with her, and he was being a little bitch.
On Christmas Eve.
Abigail and Alejandro left, and they had been reluctant to do so. But they had plans to spend Christmas Eve with his parents,
and they were engaged now, and Sheena was insistent that they not linger just because she was sad. In fact, she sort of wished
Sarah and Whitney had somewhere to be too. Just so she didn’t have to perform Christmas when she was this upset.
She walked out of her bedroom into the living room. And saw that the house had been transformed.
“What is this?”
There were decorations everywhere, and there was a plate piled high with cinnamon rolls.
“We decided that we were going to be in charge of Christmas,” said Sarah.
“Because you’ve done it for us for so many years.”
“So tonight, we’re making duck a l’orange.”
“Do you know how to make duck?” she asked.
“No,” said Sarah cheerfully. “But like I told Michael Danforth sophomore year, I’m sure we’ll figure it out.”
“I . . . Never mind. I have to go deal with a ranch emergency.” She looked around. “I can’t believe you did this for me.”
“You’ve done a lot for us Sheena. And I think we got so busy living our lives that we didn’t stop to really look at why we
have those lives. It’s because of you. And everything that you sacrificed. We love you.”
That felt so good to her bruised soul. “Well. At least somebody loves me.”
She walked over to her sisters and pulled them in for hugs.
“You should break his windshield when you go over there,” Whitney said.
“Maybe I will,” said Sheena, smiling.
Her smile faded as soon as she got in her car.
She was . . . Well, that moment had given her a window into what her life was. It was pretty damned good, all things considered.
She felt herself tensing up as she got closer and closer to the ranch. Because it was just so hard right now. She associated
it, all of it, with Denver. With how much she loved him. With how hurt she was. She really did kind of want to break his windshield.
No. You are healed.
Trailer park Sheena did not agree.
When she got to the stretch of road that went past the event space, she saw Bix, standing there, waving her arms.
She pulled over, afraid there was some kind of emergency. “What’s going on?”
“There’s something in the event space that you need to see,” said Bix.
“What?”
“Just . . . pull over for a second.”
She was too confused to argue. So she put the car in Park, and left it running, getting out and walking toward the event space.
“After you,” said Bix. “I’ll just wait out here.”
“What?” But she found herself ushered inside, and then the door was closed firmly behind her.
It took her a moment to realize what she was looking at. The whole thing was filled with Christmas trees, all wrapped in white
lights. It was like an enchanted forest inside.
She started to walk slowly through the trees, and then she heard footsteps. Coming toward her.
And then, emerging from that forest, was Denver.
He was wearing a black suit, and a black cowboy hat. He looked so gorgeous it made her heart stop.
“Denver,” she said. “What is this?”
“It’s a grand gesture. At least, that’s what I was told.”
“Why?” she asked, her voice a whisper.
“Because my brothers told me that when you mess up on the level that I messed up, the gesture has to be grand.”
“Please don’t . . . Please don’t tease me. Please don’t . . .”
“I love you. I’ll say that first, and then I have a whole lot else to say, but I just want you to know that I love you.”
Her heart was beating so hard it made her dizzy. “I keyed your truck,” she said.
“You did,” he said. “But I deserved it. And I have insurance. It’s fine.
I . . . I was scared. You’re right. I spent my whole childhood doing things that I knew were wrong, somewhere, deep in my soul, because it was the only way to please my father.
And a man my age should be over that. But I never got over it.
Because I piled so many other stories on top of it.
You were right about that. All those stories kept me from figuring out what I was really afraid of, which was just that if I stopped doing things, if I quit making myself useful, there would be no reason for somebody to love me.
I kept people at a distance, the people that I work with here, my own family.
I made myself into something unknowable so that I could build a buffer around myself, but you got through it.
I didn’t want to keep you at a distance, and that was the first time I was ever really compelled to put that emotional safety at risk so that I could be with somebody.
But you . . .” He shook his head. “My brother told me that this is about trust. We have both been knocked around so badly by this world. I don’t trust the world.
But I do trust you, Sheena Patrick. I trust you to be the person that I let all the way close.
I trust you to be the one who knows me, even when I don’t know myself. Because you did that.”
Tears were falling down her cheeks again, she hadn’t cried this much in . . . Maybe ever. But this was love. It was the softening
of her.
She realized right then that was one of the gifts of loving him. She didn’t have to be so relentlessly strong. Because he
was there to hold some of it. To hold her.
“I don’t want to be the last man standing. Not anymore. I want you. I trust you. I hope that someday you’ll trust me.”
“I do,” she said. “I do because I knew even then it wasn’t what you really felt. It wasn’t what you really wanted.”
“No,” he said.
He reached into his pocket, and he pulled out a silver box. It looked so much like the one he had given her that night.
“Oh, Denver, I threw the necklace . . .”
“I know.”
She took the silver box, and she opened it up. There were two boxes inside. A flat, black velvet box, just like the one the
necklace had been in. When she opened it, the necklace was there.
“I found it,” he said.
She nodded, a lump in her throat. And then she let herself look at the other box. Small, black velvet just like the other
one.
“Denver,” she said.
He picked the box up, and he opened it for her. And inside was a ring. The band was like a twining vine, the stone in the
center purple.
“You are the most extraordinary woman I’ve ever known,” he said. “More than that, you’re the most extraordinary person I’ve
ever known. I never wanted to get married, I never wanted to have kids. I want to marry you. I want to have kids with you.
After raising my siblings I never wanted that. Not until you. I could never see a future like that. And now that I love you,
it’s the only future that I want.”
Everything in her broke open. All of the desires, the hopes, the dreams that she had ever held back.
They could have babies. They could be married.
They could have forever.
“I love that you’re strong. But with me you won’t always have to be.”
She threw her arms around his neck. “Yes,” she said. “Denver, let’s get a dog.”
“A dog?”
“Yes. A dog. I loved my dog, and then I lost him and I didn’t want to ever lose anything I loved again but that’s not me anymore.
I want more. I want everything. You and babies and . . .”
“Yes, Sheena, all of that. And a dog.”
He pulled away from her and got down on one knee, then he took the ring out and slipped it onto her finger.
It was the most beautiful, lovely, normal thing that had ever happened to her. The kind of thing she had thought she would
never be allowed to have.
But here she was. Having it with him.
Because of him.
The first time she thought he was beautiful, her world was falling apart.
But really, and in the strangest way, that moment she’d seen him was the beginning of her world being put back together.
Leading to this moment, and all the days after.
And one thing Sheena knew for sure . . .
She knew what happiness felt like now.