Epilogue
Marietta Courthouse
A few days later
Nate wore a suit. Sam wore a white dress Aly had found at a department store in Bozeman.
Nate knew she was irritated about the cast, but he had told her they could wait.
He was glad she didn’t want to. Getting married right away just felt right. Even if her arm was hurting her, and his leg was hurting him because he’d probably spent too much time fussing over her the past few days rather than taking care of himself.
Two broken peas in a pod.
But they’d found each other. And for all the doubts and struggles Nate and Sam had felt in accepting love and commitment and her believing in curses for a little while there, they didn’t have any doubts left.
He would fight for everything he’d found with Sam, and he knew she was ready to do the same. Too much bad had happened, so they were damn well going to enjoy every second of life together.
Married.
Everything about the courthouse ceremony was simple. Theirs. Just a promise. To love and cherish forever. He would have happily done it just the two of them, but Aly had been so offended by the idea that their little courthouse wedding was attended by all the Bennets and Harringtons.
The judge signed the certificate, and then so did Landon and Aly, acting as their witnesses.
And then they were married.
They had to field congratulations and Aly’s excitement that she’d convinced them to come up to the ranch for cake after, but Nate couldn’t resent it. Not when it was family. Not when it was joy.
Not when he knew they’d all rallied around Sam when he’d been in jail. When everyone had taken care of each other. It was almost too much to bear thinking about.
But as he helped Sam into the truck, careful of her arm, he knew that for all the ways life had kicked the shit out of him, he was still a lucky man.
He got into the driver’s seat, but before he turned the truck on, he turned to his wife. His wife. And told her the simplest truth he knew besides I love you. I will always love you.
“I’m glad you found me, dragged me home. It’s where I was always meant to be.”
“I don’t think I ever believed in meant-to-bes,” she said, her dark eyes searching his face. Her whole expression beaming. Happy. “But I do now.”
*
The Bennet Ranch
Aly bustled around the kitchen. She’d made a cake, which was the only thing Sam and Nate had allowed her to do. No dinner. Nothing fancy. Just a cake.
She might have gone all out on the cake, but who could blame her?
She stepped back and studied it. Four layers for seven people? Overkill. All the decorative touches she’d added and the little couple figurine she’d found at a thrift store that almost resembled Sam and Nate? Maybe overkill, but also adorable.
And they were going to take pictures, whether they liked it or not. Someday, they would appreciate her forcing them.
Someday. Nate and Sam married. Her and Landon having a baby. Jill and Cal sniffing around each other, even if nothing had happened in that department yet … it all left Aly feeling overwhelmed.
She blamed her filling eyes on hormones and tried to wipe them away before Landon came to check on her and got concerned.
But it was Sam who appeared first.
She wrinkled her nose at Aly. “Are you crying?” she demanded.
Aly waved a hand in front of her face. Since it was Sam, she had an excuse.
“Oh, it’s just hormones.” And maybe the fact that her first best friend, that she’d spent too many years at odds with, was her friend again and her sister-in-law to boot.
That they’d all been given the opportunity to heal so many broken things.
“Why don’t you just tell everybody?” Sam said. She tried to cross her arms over her chest, then winced. Still not quite used to not having full use of her injured arm.
Aly found herself wanting to do just that, but… “It’s your day, Sam.”
Sam shook her head. “No, it’s a happy day.” She grabbed Aly’s hand and tugged on it, dragging her into the living room where everyone was gathered. “Tell everybody.”
Everyone blinked up at her expectantly, and it made Aly want to cry even harder that no one looked wary, like they expected bad news. They were all happily enjoying the good for once.
Aly looked over at Landon, and he crossed the room. Wrapped his arm around her waist. And he smiled at his family. At their family. Happy.
Because they were happy. No matter what came.
“Hey, everyone. We have an announcement too.”
*
It was a lot of happiness. A lot of joy. A lot of relief.
And Cal found himself enjoying every last bit of it. He didn’t worry when it would end. He didn’t feel any of those weird, conflicted emotions about Landon and Aly having a baby—they both looked too happy, too settled, too ready for it.
It was … right. It was all exactly right. Maybe it had taken some wrong shit to get here, and he didn’t believe in trite platitudes like earning good things through hard things.
Or at least, his therapist was trying to get that through his hard head.
Good and bad happened, and all you could do was figure out how you were going to deal with it.
He was going to enjoy it.
After cake and toasts, Aly clearly starting to fade, and Sam and Nate heading home, Jill and Glenda helped clean up and then started to leave themselves.
Cal could leave it at that. He could leave too. But he figured … now was as good a time as any.
He got up and jogged after Jill and Glenda. Maybe he didn’t know what he was doing, but if there was anything he’d learned in this long, weird, awful year, it was that sitting still wasn’t it.
Sometimes a person had to reach out and grab for something.
“Jill?”
Jill and Glenda both turned back toward the house halfway to their truck. Cal took a few steps. He’d do it in front of Glenda if he had to, but he was pretty relieved when she gave Jill a pat on the shoulder, then kept walking to the truck.
He reached Jill, there in the yard of his childhood. Where terrible things had happened. And somehow his brother and his sister—in-law and of his heart—had turned that all around. Swept out the evil and were building something good.
He wanted to be brave enough to do that too. “Are you busy Friday? Friday night?”
Her eyebrows drew together. “Well, no.”
“How about dinner? At the Graff.” He almost said something about helping her with her book. He almost hedged.
But he didn’t.
“Well … okay,” she said slowly, like she wasn’t quite sure what he was asking.
So he made it clear. “Great. Then it’s a date.”
Her mouth curved softly upward. “All right. It’s a date.”
And he didn’t care that Glenda was watching from the truck or that Aly was no doubt peeking from the window, he leaned down and kissed her. Brief, casual, not at all what he wanted to do, but he thought taking things slow was the right thing to do.
He pulled away, rocked back on his heels. “I’ll see you then.”
She nodded, then turned and walked toward the truck and her grandmother.
Cal stayed where he was. Watched them go. Gave a wave as he stood there under the Montana starlight and let something brand new unfurl in his chest.
Hope.
Reaching out for a little good. Or a lot good, maybe.
Trusting that even through the bad life wanted to throw at them, they’d hold onto the good stuff.
And live.
The End