Epilogue
Six Months Later
“Are you warm enough?” Ford asked on Thanksgiving. They were sitting on his parents’ old porch swing in the backyard looking past the land and at the sun setting over the mountains.
Ridgeway Orchards had mountains in the distance from the front and back of their homes. Perfectly located for sunrises and sunsets.
“I am,” she said. “Your big beefy arm is giving me the heat I need.”
She was still living in the cabin, but spending more time at Ford’s place than here.
It was more about having her own space to escape to.
But she didn’t need to have an escape anymore.
She was where she wanted to be.
Where she needed to be.
A fulfilling career at the cafe with Brooke during the week, and managing events and those details for the barn on the weekends or at night.
She still had her online business giving her a separate form of independence so that she didn’t always feel as if she was relying on someone else. Ford even encouraged her to expand on that.
He encouraged her to grow and not depend on him and that was the best form of love there was.
It’d been a busy summer and next year would be crazier as the popularity of the Ridgeway ventures grew.
She’d have a part in it. Not just a part, but a purpose.
Like the man beside her who waited decades for her to find her way back, and gave her the space, time, and unwavering love she needed to finally arrive at this moment.
Oliver and Randy would never bother her again. She’d only been a passing person in their life. The wrong place at the wrong time.
Lexi had been terminated and moved out of the state near her parents, her head hanging down in shame.
There was part of her that hated that Lexi lost the family she’d gained here, but she’d done it to herself.
Lexi had made that choice to hide her feelings, then let them overcome her.
Something Reenie would never do again.
She wouldn’t lie. She wouldn’t keep secrets.
“Are you happy?” he asked.
“I’m so happy that my body wants to burst with joy.”
“Are you sure it’s not all the turkey you ate tonight?” he asked.
“There is that too. How sad is it I’ve never experienced a big family Thanksgiving?”
“Not sad,” he said. “It just took time for the right one. You got it today.”
“I did,” she said. “I got you too.” She was looking at his face, a day’s growth of beard on it.
He leaned down to kiss her. “I got my first kiss from you right here.”
“I remember,” she said.
“Your first kiss ever?” He tapped her on the nose.
“Yes. I told you that.”
“I hope I’m the last man to give you one like that,” he said. He slid off the swing and got on his knee. From somewhere a ring box appeared, the lid flipped back.
“Oh wow,” she said.
“Reenie Dupree, the first and last love of my life. Will you marry me?”
“Ford Ridgeway. The first and last love of my life. Yes, I’ll marry you!” Her hand moved in front of her, shaking some as she held it out for that gorgeous ring.
Ford slid a gold band with a heart-shaped diamond in the center on her finger. To match the necklace that she was never without.
A memory of their first love decades ago. Two kids who didn’t know what life was going to dish out for them.
But look at what they were serving now!
The End!
Check Out Bound By You…Clay Ridgeway’s story
He holds her life in his hands. She holds his heart in hers.
Clay Ridgeway doesn’t do happy. He doesn’t do peppy.
And he sure as hell doesn’t do high maintenance.
A former Navy SEAL turned cider-brewer, Clay is used to quiet, control, and shutting out the world.
So when his family orchard needs a part-time wedding planner, he hires Meredith Banks and walks away…
after catching her when she nearly takes a spill in those ridiculous heels.
Meredith Banks would do anything to impress Clay Ridgeway, the older brother of her childhood best friend she once secretly adored.
Too bad he doesn’t even recognize her when she shows up for the job.
Not even after he steadies her in his arms, the brief touch sparking the feelings she’s tried to bury.
But when threatening notes appear, her property is vandalized, and the danger escalates, Clay refuses to leave her unprotected. He becomes her shield, her strength and her safe place. Each rescue pulls them closer, each stolen glance makes it harder to fight what’s building between them.
Yet Clay can’t shake the ghosts of his past, and Meredith can’t outrun the stalker who seems determined to break her. With time running out, the only question is—will Clay risk his heart before he loses her for good?
Prologue
“Are you sitting down, Meredith?”
Meredith Banks looked at her phone to make sure it was Cassidy calling. A friend and colleague at Lake George Elementary where they were both teachers. It wasn’t like Cassidy to be this rude. Her friend didn’t even say hi when she answered.
“No,” she said. “I’m cutting out paper hearts.”
“Seriously? School doesn’t start for another month,” Cassidy said.
Meredith shrugged. She couldn’t help that she loved her job and enjoyed arts and crafts. She had an entire room dedicated to her projects.
Nothing wrong with planning out activities for the five-year-olds she’d be teaching.
It wasn’t as if she had much more to do on a Sunday afternoon.
“I’m having fun. Don’t pop my balloon.”
Cassidy snorted. “Sorry, but I’m about to crash your air balloon to the ground and I’m really sorry about that.”
She put the scissors down on the kitchen counter where she’d been standing while she worked.
“What’s going on?”
“Go sit, Meredith. I mean it. I don’t need you tripping or hitting your head, swinging your arms and breaking a finger on a wall. None of that.”
She laughed. Pretty sad that her reputation as a klutz preceded her.
She marched over to the couch and flopped down. “There. I’m sitting.”
“Where is Fredrick this weekend?”
“He’s at a conference. He should be home soon. I think it was ending this morning.”
Her boyfriend of two years had moved into her two-story townhouse in Lake George last year.
“A work conference?” Cassidy asked.
“Yes,” she said. She didn’t lose her patience often, but it was quickly diminishing. “What’s going on?”
“I’m sending you a picture,” Cassidy said. “I don’t want to say until I know more.”
“Okaaaay,” she said, drawing the word out. Her phone went off and a picture of Fredrick popped up with a coworker. “That’s Lana. They work together. Who took that?”
“My brother,” Cassidy said. “He saw Fredrick and this woman out last night.”
Her eyebrows rose. “That’s odd that your brother was in Syracuse and noticed my boyfriend.” Fredrick might have only met Cassidy’s brother three times total. If that.
“It was his stupid laugh,” Cassidy said. “He heard it and looked around. And it wasn’t in Syracuse, but Albany.”
Meredith focused her mind on Fredrick’s laugh that always got under her skin, her nerves stretching taut when he let it out in his enthusiasm. The high-pitched squeal was more irritating than her classroom full of kids the day before Christmas break.
“Maybe I messed up where he was going,” she said. “I thought he said Syracuse, but that could have been last month.”
Though it wouldn’t make sense for him to have to stay the night if it was only an hour away.
“I doubt it,” Cassidy said. “You never mess up those things.”
She didn’t. “I don’t understand what is going on.”
“Bryan was at a couple’s retreat this weekend with his wife,” Cassidy said. “That’s where he saw Fredrick and that woman.”
Her shoulders slumped, her stomach lurched, and her eyes filled. “You’re mistaken.”
“No,” Cassidy said. “Brace yourself, another picture is coming. When Bryan texted me that first one last night, I told him to take as many as he could because I knew you wouldn’t believe me. You trust too easily and never think anyone has an evil side.”
“That’s not true,” she argued.
“You know it is,” Cassidy said.
Her phone beeped in her hand and she dropped it down to look at the pictures that had just popped up.
There was her boyfriend leaning into Lana. Their arms around each other, kissing in some practiced pose they must have had to put themselves in to reconnect with each other.
Damn it. She wanted to do one of those retreats with him! And he took the woman he was cheating on her with.
Her blood was simmering, the top ready to pop with a loud whistle filling the room.
“I think I’m going to lose my breakfast.” She jumped up fast, stubbed her toe, hopped around and reached for it. “Shit, shit, shit.”
“What happened?” Cassidy asked.
“I hit my foot on the end table.” Tears ran down her cheeks. She wasn’t so sure if it was the ache from her toe or the pain of a broken heart.
“Sit down again,” Meredith said. “I don’t want to rush over there and take you to the ER.”
She moved to the couch, her body sliding down as if her bones liquefied, like the snot running out of her nose. She wiped it away with the back of her hand. “How could he do this to me?”
“Because he’s a douche,” Cassidy said firmly.
“You never liked him.”
“Nope. I said you could do so much better. Do you need an accomplice to spray paint his car when he gets home tonight? I’m your lady.”
She forced out a laugh through her sobs. “I enjoy painting but not that.”
“I’m sorry, Meredith. I wish I didn’t have to tell you this, but it’s better you know, right?”
She nodded her head, but no one could see her sitting alone, which was a good thing since she was a mess right now. “Yes,” she whispered.
“Do you want me to come over so I can be there when you confront him?”
“No. I need to figure this out first.”
“You’re not going to listen to him and, like, forgive him, are you?”
Cassidy’s appalled voice made her laugh. “Never.”
“Do you want to keep talking?”
“I need some time to think before he gets here,” she said and hung up without saying bye. Rude of her, she knew, but there was too much going through her mind.