Chapter Fifteen #2
She stopped, and looked up from the ground, and it was at this moment that she saw it. The deep carving in the bark of that towering cottonwood had healed so much, it was barely visible. But it was there.
JT + AC
Her mother had been a Campbell before she’d married her father, a Tucker.
Laramie’s breath hitched in her chest. It felt as if her parents were saying hello to her, right at the moment Stellan had said the words that were going to change her entire life.
“Stellan,” she whispered. “Look.”
A three-count passed, and then, “I see it.”
She fell to her knees, but he caught her before she hit the ground. He scooped her up like she weighed nothing at all and hugged her so tightly to his chest.
The timing. The timing…God, the timing.
She clutched onto his shirt and stared at the carving her parents had made all those years ago, at the beginning of their love story. It was hard to breathe.
And then through blurry vision, she settled onto her feet and placed a piece of blank paper over the shallow carving, and shaded it in. The initials showed through easily.
Snick.
The sound of Stellan’s pocketknife was loud in the quiet of the evening.
“Can I?” he asked softly.
And she just knew what he was asking. She just knew.
Unable to speak around the thickness in her throat, she nodded.
This sketch was different than any of the others she’d drawn for her mother’s journal.
This one had someone new in it.
This sketch was of Stellan carving their initials under where her parents had carved their own, all those years ago. This was her drawing the man she loved standing next to the tree, focused on carving SL + LT
He did it so that if the tree healed it, the carving would look like her parents’ in time.
It took twenty minutes of sketching to get it just how she wanted it. It was messy and hurried, but it caught everything she needed.
The wind kicked up, and the leaves rustled above them, and she looked up from where she sat. The tree creaked in the wind. Laramie settled her pencil onto the newly finished sketch and smiled.
“Hi mom. Hi dad,” she murmured.
Stellan wiped wood shavings out of their initials and then made his way over to her and took a piece of blank paper out of the back of the journal, and then he did a shading of their initials. He folded it and put it into his pocket, and she knew he would keep it.
Sweet monster.
He strode over to her and offered his hand to help her up. She thought he would ask if she was ready to go and lead her out of here, but he didn’t seem like he was in a rush. Instead, he pulled her into a gentle embrace and swayed them side to side, like a dance.
Relief had completely consumed her. Laramie melted against him.
She would never forget this moment that he was giving to her.
She would never forget a single second of this memory lane adventure.
She had a feeling she wouldn’t do another one alone again.
Stellan was going to make them even more special for her.
That’s just what he did. He made moments special. He made them feel even bigger. He made them mean more. He made the memories more potent.
She loved the way he loved her.
Laramie looked up at him with a happy smile. “Let’s go see the family.” She wasn’t going to say ‘your family’ anymore. She had a feeling she would belong to them, and they would belong to her. She had a feeling they did already.
Stellan nodded and kissed her. It was short, gentle, sweet.
He kissed her and then he slid his hand around hers and led her out of the grove of trees where love stories started.
Where scars on tree bark became sacred. Where wind at the perfect moment couldn’t be anything other than a hello from the people who had built her.
Wouldn’t it be cool if someday, if she was lucky enough to have children, they found this tree, in this park, in this city? She would keep this journal that she was collaborating with her mother safe for always, just in case.
It was the best tribute she could think of to keep the memory of her parents alive.
Laramie cast one glance back at the trees and smiled.
That wouldn’t be the last time she and Stellan visited this place.
She just knew he would bring her back here whenever she wanted.
He would probably order a trillion roast beef sandwiches and eat almost all of them while they blabbed away in a random grove of trees, away from the park paths and the picnic tables and the duck pond.
This part of the park had belonged to her parents…
And now it belonged to her and Stellan.
She’d come to this city in mourning, and so damn lonely.
She’d been desperately looking for connection.
And now she was setting down roots in this city with a good and protective man, and the beginnings of a family that felt very important.
It didn’t matter than any of them were Cats.
It didn’t matter that Stellan was a Cat.
She knew her parents wouldn’t have cared.
Not if he took care of their daughter. Mom would’ve asked, “Does he make you happy?” and Laramie, without any hesitation, would’ve been able to answer honestly, “Yes.”
They would’ve loved Stellan, tiger and all. Of that, she was certain.
Because she loved Stellan. Tiger and all.