“You were?”I asked, relieved to ease into the conversation a bit.
“I.Was.”
Just like when I’d thought I’d gotten away with sneaking out of the house when I was sixteen, alarm bells sounded inside my head.
“Tell me why,” she went on, “I just saw a video come across the page of that cute little bar in your town, of you climbing down from a horse and kissing your ex-wife.”
“You saw that?”
“I did.”
Sighing, I sent a silent curse to the Internet.
“It’s a wild story.You’re not even gonna believe it.”
“Considering I don’t believe what I saw with my own eyes, you might as well tell me a story.”
“Remember when I told you someone was moving into the other side of my duplex?”
“Yeah.”
“Guess who it was.”
She chuckled a little as she said, “You have got to be shitting me.”
When we’d exhausted every angle of shock, and outright disbelief we ended the conversation, and I stood to join Alicia in the kitchen.She sat on the countertop, typing something out on her phone.
I ran a hand up her thigh, planting myself between her knees.“Texting Sadie?”
“Yeah,” Alicia said putting her phone on the counter next to her.
“Telling her about everything with your mom?”
Alicia rested her hands on my shoulders.“Yeah.She did that mom thing where she isn’t mad, just disappointed.”
I pulled her to the edge of the counter wrapping my arms around her waist—appreciating the way she arched her back and pressed her tits into my chest.“I’m sorry, Leese.”
“How’d it go with your mom?”
“She thinks it’s all too kismet for it not to be divine intervention.”
Grinning, Alicia brushed her lips across mine.“Will you have her tell the divine thank you for me?”
Deepening our kiss, we fell into the rhythm of our quickening heartbeats.The heady demand of our bodies.Giving ourselves to something as simple and complex as surrendering to love.
Epilogue
Alicia
Election Day
Benji’sPlaceerupted,drowningout the last few words Ben spoke into the microphone.I flung my arms around Remi, but he hoisted me up, and I got to see the celebration from above.A sea of my new friends and neighbors all cheering, jumping, and hugging one another because the canvassing and phone calls had worked.It had been a rough few months, but it.Had.Worked.
The marsh was safe.
Tears stung my eyes as I returned Sadie’s huge smile, her mouth moving in what looked like the phrase,Baddest bitch, but I couldn’t hear her over the roar.Next to her, Jamison—former?fuckboy lawyer—clapped and grinned down at her.I was still getting used to the new history there, and the way it all came about was almost as crazy as how things had gone with me and Remi.
I was so happy she was here to see why I had fallen in love with this place.And to see me and Remi together.In love.
