Chapter 18
A couple of weeks later, Cade is out of bed and back in action. At the moment, he’s seated at the largest table of my section of the Pub.
With him are his parents, two of his friends from his hometown, Nell, three couples who run the most productive of the local farms, and the town’s mayor before Impact.
Cade has been going since early this morning, and he looks tired.
I want to tell him to save this conversation for tomorrow, but everyone wants to get it ironed out now.
The region has been in upheaval since we took the militia compound and ran the survivors who wouldn’t submit out of the county.
While chaos and upheaval might be the state of the world right now, it’s not good for the security and smooth running of a community.
So the time has come to make some decisions.
I pass around the table the beers Pete just poured out for me at the bar. Then I lean against a nearby wall to hear what’s being said.
Because I want to listen, and because I can.
“Everyone knows you’re gonna be the new mayor,” one of the farmers says to Cade. “I’m all for democracy and all that, but it seems like a lot of trouble for nothing.”
“We can do it without much trouble,” Nell says. “I can think of a few different ways to make taking votes easy.”
“Now that the militia is gone, the county’s been cut in half in population.” That’s Cade’s father, who has a similar gruff persona as Cade as well as his soft heart. “Not all that many of us left around. Counting votes won’t be hard.”
“No,” Cade agrees. “It won’t. And I’m not accepting an elected position without an election.” He glances over at Nell. “Would you mind working on a system for us to use?”
Nell agrees, and the conversation transitions to setting up guard posts and perimeter patrols in case more gangs move in or what’s left of the militia regroups and attempts to strike back.
Pete got Danny to cover the bar for him so he could come over to listen too. He’s leaning against the opposite wall from me, observing in his laid-back way but missing absolutely nothing. He makes one suggestion about how to layer the guard rotations but otherwise stays quiet.
When he catches me looking at him, he gives me a wink.
I’m smiling back at him when I notice Cade glancing toward me. I give him a small nod—nothing really. Just a silent gesture to somehow show how much I love him. How proud I am of him.
His cheeks flush slightly, and he smiles down at his beer.
If I could go over right now and give him a hug, I would.
But I can’t, so instead, I walk back to the bar to get a round of drinks for the table of locals that just came in.
About a half hour later, I’m bringing out bowls of stew when I hear Cade say, “Okay. I’m fine with that. Pete’s right. We’re starting over, so we’re not keeping this town named after a legacy of evil. If everyone agrees, we’ll rename the town Monument instead.”
Six months later, I’m carrying glasses of whiskey over to a group of travelers passing through.
They’re kind of rowdy—travelers are always the biggest risk, since not a single one of the locals wants to get banished from the Pub—but so far these guys haven’t done anything particularly troublesome.
Cade is sitting at his normal table this evening, so he’ll step in if they try something.
The guys at the table accept their whiskey, regaling me about their adventures driving down from the northeast, including accidentally skirting around the edge of a drove.
The huge horde of collected gangs that there’s been rumors about for a while is evidently a real thing. People are calling it a drove, and it’s currently moving slowly toward the west, devastating the communities it encounters.
It’s terrifying. Over the past months, we’ve built up walls around our town and established a complex series of safety and security processes, but I’m not sure we’d be able to hold out against something like that.
Hopefully we’ll never have to.
I’m about to move on when one of the guys says, “You sure are gorgeous. If you don’t have a man, I’m happy to throw my name into the hat.”
Smiling since he’s not being particularly obnoxious, I say, “Oh, you’re too late. I do have a man.” I gesture with my head toward the small table where Cade is seated. “That’s my man.”
The guys all turn to check Cade out. He’s overheard and shifts slowly in his chair to scowl at them.
I have to fight not to giggle when they turn away, fully subdued.
Cade is the mayor now, but he still comes to the Pub a few nights a week, whenever I’m on shift.
He sits at his old table and makes himself available to anyone in the community who has questions or concerns.
People stop by all the time to chat with him, sometimes to pour out complaints but more often to get answers or offer genuine suggestions.
It’s worked well. Everyone trusted Cade from the beginning because he was the Silver Wolf, but being the mayor is different. There’s a lot of day-to-day logistics and politicking that’s smoothed over by him being available for casual, personal talks.
Three different locals have come over to talk to him tonight.
The third is an older woman who is very sweet but also a babbler.
I can see Cade’s growing impatience as she won’t stop talking.
He nods in a repeated pattern and occasionally says, “Yeah,” or “I see.” But he’s privately itching for the conversation to end.
I know the feeling. I’ve talked to Miss Cooper before myself.
When it goes on so long I’m afraid poor Cade is going to crack, I lean over the bar and ask Pete if he’ll help me out in a minute if I can’t do it myself.
Pete is always available for a rescue, so I head back over to Cade’s table with my rag, pick up their empty glasses—his whiskey and her tea—and start wiping their table. “How are you, Miss Cooper? I bet it’s almost time for you to get home.”
“Oh dear, yes, I do need to get home soon. I go to bed so early. But since it’s safe on the streets in town now, I don’t have to hide away when the sun goes down.
It’s nice to be out and about and see people, isn’t it?
And the mayor here is such a fine conversationalist. I always did say so.
When are you two going to start working on a family? Soon, I hope.”
I swallow over choked laughter and glance back toward the bar.
Pete is already making his way over, calling out, “We have a situation here, Captain. Would you mind coming to help us?”
“Sure thing.” Cade jumps to his feet with alacrity. “I’m real sorry, Miss Cooper, to cut our talk short.”
“Oh, no need to apologize. You’re such a busy man. I better be heading back home anyway. It’s getting late, isn’t it?”
“It is,” I tell her, smiling gently. “I bet we’ll get someone in here eager to escort you back home.”
I look around for a possible candidate and accidentally catch Billy’s eyes. He’s sitting in Melissa’s section, as he always does now. He gives me a crooked smile and a wave before shifting his gaze back to pretty, sweet, twenty-two-year-old Melissa.
She’s a much better match for him, and I think she’ll say yes when he works up the courage to ask her to be his woman.
Continuing my search for an escort, I notice old Martin Gaskell. Perfect.
At my summoning gesture, the elderly man gets up immediately. When he hears she needs someone to walk her home, he gives Miss Cooper an old-fashioned little bow and offers her his arm.
Grinning as I watch them walk away, I catch up with Cade, who is exiting the main barroom to tend to the fictional situation Pete alerted him to.
We end up in the supply room in the back of the building, and Cade leans me back against the door and starts kissing me.
“Captain Mayor Silver Wolf Cade!” I exclaim against his mouth, spilling over with laughter as I list out his names. “Anyone could come in. What happened to your manners and sense of decorum?”
“I’m all mannered out after this evening. So now you’re getting me like I really am. A grumpy woodsman who’s crazy in love with you.”
I’ve wrapped my arms around him, and I’m beaming just an inch from his mouth. “That’s always been my favorite Cade.”
This earns me another kiss, and it soon transforms to something a lot deeper and hotter. In only a couple of minutes, he’s fucking me against the door, my legs wrapped around his waist and both of us still wearing most of our clothes.
It’s a short but very satisfying interlude, and because our bodies are blocking the door, I’m not too worried about someone walking in on us.
When we’re finished, we’re both laughing sheepishly as we refasten and straighten our clothes. I smooth down my little red dress and my braid, and Cade rubs his hands down his hair and rumpled beard.
“How am I?” I ask him, wishing I had a mirror.
“You’re perfect.” He’s always softer after he has sex, and right now his eyes and expression are very warm and fond.
“Don’t exaggerate.”
“Okay. You’re perfect for me. That’s not an exaggeration, is it?”
“Absolutely not. I knew you were going to be special to me all the way back when you were sitting at your table, frowning at the world, not saying a word, and staring at me constantly.”
“I couldn’t help but stare.” He leans down to kiss me lightly. “You changed everything for me. You changed the world.”
“Um…”
“You changed my world.”
I give him a little hug before we open the door and head back to the barroom. But I say as we go, “You changed my world too.”
A couple of hours later, my shift has ended, and I hurry out the back door and across the yard to where Cade is waiting in an ATV on the street.
It’s time for us to go home.
No more fucks with customers for me. The ousting of the militia changed things in the Pub.
Without the violent imposition of the militia making Nell hold to her rules and routines with an iron fist, she’s become slightly more flexible.
Not in keeping her staff safe but in the hours the Pub is open and the way paid fucks are handled.
Not all the servers have to do it now. They can negotiate for terms that work for them. And the Pub is open some afternoon hours as well so a few servers can work part-time. Pete is training Danny as a second bartender so he can cut back on his hours.
I work three evenings a week, and I never fuck anyone but Cade.
It’s been working perfectly so far.
If Cade and I have a baby, I might want to cut back even more. But that hasn’t happened for us yet, and it might never. Pregnancies are a lot less common than they were before Impact because of poor health care and nutrition. And a lot of pregnancies that do happen never come to full term.
But it might happen for us. We stopped using condoms shortly after we kicked out the militia. If it does, then I’ll see whether I want to keep doing shifts at the Pub.
For now, I enjoy it. They’re my friends, and I like feeling like I belong there still.
Cade is smiling as he puts the ATV into drive to take us to the house in town we’ve made our own. The cabin in the woods he shared with his parents and buddies is empty now because his whole crew has come down to live in town.
“What are you smiling about?” I ask him.
He shakes his head. “Just happy to be going home with you.”
“Me too.” I reach over to squeeze his arm. “I never thought I could ever be this happy—not even before Impact.”
It’s true. For so long, my grandfather was the only person I really loved, but that’s not true anymore.
I have friends. Family. Community.
I have people.
And I have Cade.
Maybe the world did fall apart. Maybe it was never all that good to begin with.
But it still feels like every dream I ever had has come true.
Later, when we’re home, we go upstairs to the second level of our house and climb out a window onto the roof of the porch. We chose this house on purpose because we could.
Cade sits beside me, and we talk about the future as I draw the stars.