Chapter 14 #3
“I have news. I am officially a high school graduate. My diploma is sitting in the high school office. I’ll pick it up tomorrow. Contact a Realtor. Start packing. Find a moving van. Whatever it takes to get you home before winter.”
They stood up, staring at him as if he were a ghost. “Wait! What? How?” Abel asked.
“A combination of things. Nearly doing first grade twice, which meant I’ve already attended twelve years of school, plus six weeks or so.
A perfect SAT score and that absurd IQ test I aced.
I’ve already exceeded the number of credits I needed to graduate.
They had a board meeting. It was a unanimous decision.
I need to talk to Briar. And I have that dang press conference in the park in an hour or so, and I need to borrow a vehicle. ”
“My car,” Lilith said. “Take my car.”
Tate blew her a kiss and went back into the house, leaving Abel and Lilith staring at each other in shock.
“Oh my God, Abel. My head is spinning. He’s done this for us, but he will be leaving Briar months ahead of their plan.”
Abel nodded. “He’s sacrificing for you, the way you sacrificed for him when we stayed.
He’s turned into quite a man, not to mention a son to be proud of.
Let’s finish gathering the tomatoes. And no, you’re not going to start canning tomorrow.
The next vegetables you put up will be whatever we grow next year.
We’re going to go see a Realtor tomorrow and get this house up for sale. ”
Lilith started laughing as she threw her arms around Abel’s neck. It was happening. It was finally happening. They were going home for good.
* * *
Briar was standing in the kitchen, admiring the new french doors and the new cookstove.
The whole house was finally put back together.
Even the flower beds in the backyard had been replanted.
The wicker chair and table on the back patio where her mother used to drink herself into oblivion had been replaced by a metal bench with a cushioned seat.
But the best part of the renovation was that every vestige of Mariah’s presence had been erased.
She knew Tate was coming home today and couldn’t wait to see him again, and when her phone suddenly dinged a new text, she grinned.
I’m home. God, I missed you. I have news. We need to talk. I’m on the way.
She read it twice. It felt more like a warning than a greeting, and she braced herself for what was to come. Whatever it was, it was what it had to be.
A few minutes later she heard a car driving up, then footsteps on the porch, and went running for the door.
* * *
Tate’s heart was pounding as he drove to Briar’s house.
They didn’t have six more months together.
He was leaving Star Ridge as soon as he could find a place in New Orleans.
It was about to get crazy, and he had to get the conflict of his life away from the people he loved most. He didn’t know how she was going to react, and it was going to kill him if she cried.
He glanced in the rearview mirror as he drove, making sure no one was following him to her house, and as soon as he arrived, he jumped out and took off running.
Before he could ring the bell, the door swung open.
He stepped across the threshold, shut the door behind him, then gathered her in his arms and held her.
Now Briar knew something was wrong. “What’s happening?”
“Everything all at once,” he said.
“Come sit,” she said. “Then tell me…one thing at a time.” He began with the diploma and what Mr. Autry just told him. Briar’s heart dropped. That meant he wouldn’t be in school anymore. “Okay, that’s one thing.”
“Did you know the town is full of reporters?” he asked.
Her eyes widened. “No. Are they looking for you?”
He nodded. “There was a van at the front door before we barely got inside, wanting an interview with the psychic who keeps saving people’s lives. I won’t go into detail what I said to them, but I promised one meeting with all of them at the gazebo in the park in about an hour.”
She reached for his hand. “That’s two. What else?”
“The meeting in Tennessee. It just confirmed everything I knew about myself, and what I’m supposed to do, and Mom found out while we were there that her Granny Barton’s house, which has been empty since she passed some years back, was deeded to her.
They said her granny wanted her to know there was a place waiting for her if she ever came home. ”
“Oh, Tate, how wonderful for them,” Briar said.
“Yes, it is, because they need to get the hell out of Star Ridge now, or reporters and journalists are going to plague them to the ends of the earth because of me.”
Briar took a deep, shaky breath. “I love you with every beat of my heart, and you know where I’ll be by next January. I don’t think you have accepted it yet, but you’re already gone. We knew this day was coming, and it did. Sooner than we thought, but for a reason.”
Tate swiped his hands across his face, as if wiping away a bad dream.
“I dreaded telling you. I wanted more time, but I can’t have it and keep you or my parents out of the circus that is going to be my life.
We will stay in contact by phone. Always.
But hopefully the media will assume you and I are going our separate ways now.
I will find a place in New Orleans. I will be there before you.
That’s all. You may not always see me, but I will know where you are, and I will keep you safe. ”
She crawled into his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck, and buried her face against the curve of his neck. “And maybe…when the world’s not watching…we can find a way to be together. If only for an hour. If only for a kiss.”
“Like now,” he said, but when he brushed his lips across her cheek, he tasted tears.
He groaned, tunneled his fingers through her hair, and centered his mouth on her lips.
One long, desperate kiss later, they suddenly pulled away from each other, knowing if they didn’t stop now, there would be no stopping later.
Tate shuddered, knowing the ache in his heart was something he was going to have to live with.
“I love you, Briar…so much, but I have to go to the park now. Call me tonight. I won’t sleep until I hear your voice.”
Words were impossible, so she nodded instead, and moments later he was gone.
Briar got up to wash her face, but the tears were still rolling.
Sad and determined not to break, she glared at herself in the mirror.
“Suck it up, Briar. You don’t cry. You don’t freakin’ cry.
You fixed the house. You fixed the garden.
But you can’t fix this, and nobody died. He will not lose you and you know it.”