But these tears feel like hope. Like forgiveness. Like a fresh start. Like a new life.
He twitches his fingers, and I take his hand. The minute our skin connects, an electric current zaps its way up my arm and straight to my heart. “You remember how to do this?” he asks softly.
“Get on a horse or take a leap?” I ask.
It will never not be a treat to have his smile aimed at me. “Yes.”
“Not so much on either one.”
He helps me up onto the horse, then easily swings up behind me. I’m pretty sure the saddle’s not built for this, but he assures me Parsnip’s a sturdy old girl, and we’re not going very far.
“And I’ve got you,” he murmurs.
He does.
His body is lined up behind me, his chest to my back, his thighs to the backs of mine, his arms around me, his hands guiding mine to help hold the reins.
I lean back into him. “I’ve missed you,” I whisper as we head toward the bluffs that are taking on the deep-orange hue of sunset.
His arms tighten on either side of me, and he kisses my head. “I was working out how to ask Junie’s permission to date you when she walked into my classroom last night and offered it to me.”
“You—she—are you serious?”
“Kids are smart. And yours—yours is pretty fucking amazing.”
“She told you that you can date me.” I shouldn’t be surprised. She really is a great kid.
“She also asked to announce in homeroom this morning, to the whole school, that her grandmother is a jailbird for embezzling money through fake homeowners’ associations, so you might want to be prepared for a bunch of texts and calls this weekend.”
“Oh my God.”
“She says this way, if you stay here and run your retreat for wayward moms when she goes to college and you succeed in convincing your mother to move into the old cabin, she won’t take anyone else for a ride.”
It takes a moment for that to sink in, and when it does, I tip my head back into Flint’s shoulder and laugh.
And I laugh.
And I laugh some more.
Not because it’s crazy.
But because I suddenly feel sofree.
“The whole town knows?” I ask.
“If they don’t yet, they will by morning.”
“How’d the kids take it?”
“There were a few who told her they couldn’t loan her lunch money, and a few who wanted to know if she’d been to prison to visit and could describe it—mostly the Dungeons and Dragons crowd, don’t worry, no jailbird wannabes—but overall, they were very supportive and told her anyone who’d judge her for her grandmother’slaw-breaking ways were ... actually, it doesn’t matter what names they used. That’s a problem for someone above my pay grade.”
“She truly is remarkable.”
“She comes by it naturally.”
“Are you flattering me, Mr.Jackson?”
“I’m trying to tell you that I’m madly in love with you, Ms.Spencer, and want to be part of your life and your daughter’s too.”
