At the door, Gideon paused. “She’s perfect for you, you know. Stubborn, thinks she knows best, smart. But she’s way better than you deserve. Nonetheless, somehow you got her to like you.”
“You think so?”
He pointed to the table by his bed. “She brought you a present.”
Cullen waited until after Gideon left before he grabbed the small bag and opened it. He laughed so hard his body ached at the jar of green olives inside.
• • • • • • • • • • • •
It was a solid month before Cullen was allowed into the obliterated Pine Hollow to see the remains of his cabin. The ruin wasn’t unexpected, but it added to the ache of his healing bullet wound. His property, like everyone else’s, was buried under the broken skeleton of Mount Ember. The only thing still standing was the brick chimney and a section of twisted gutter sticking up from the rubble.
He was staying in a rented room in Grandlake while he firmed up his plans. The town had largely survived somehow, except for the bait and tackle shop, which had lost a corner due to a massive rock flung loose during the explosion.
The first thing he’d done upon his return was to repay the shop owners for the supplies they’d taken. They’d protested loudly. He’d cheerfully ignored them. Fortunately, the school district had excellent insurance and declined Cullen and Kit’s offer to pay for the bus they’d intentionally jettisoned. Since Archie was still bunking above the library, the two of them had helped the local cleanup efforts. Some of the roads were painstakingly cleared, and communities reopened. Many would never be.
Thanks to the coordinated efforts from dozens of agencies, the eruption only claimed fifteen lives, not including Nico, Simon, Annette, and John. It had been merely by the grace of God that he, Archie, Kit, and Tot hadn’t been added to the fatality list. Gideon too.
That morning Archie had looked up from sorting the library’s Zane Grey collection and winked at him as he left for Kit’s, a journey he took almost every day.
“Got your hair cut finally?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Shipshape.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, move out, then. You’re late.”
With a grin, he’d saluted before jogging to the vehicle on loan from Gideon. The arrangements for his surprise required a few hours of coordination, so he didn’t arrive at Kit’s trailer until after lunch.
“We’re invited to Lucy’s birthday party,” she said when he let her out of his hug, showing him an invitation covered with tiny pink balloons.
He felt a stab of both pain and pleasure. The police had discovered the baby’s correct name on a birth certificate, Lucy Elizabeth, but he could not seem to convince himself of it. In his heart she’d always be the chubby, energetic Tot.
Annette’s memorial service had been a beautiful affair with flowers and music, and he and Kit had done their best to comfort the mother who’d lost her daughter twice. Mrs. Bowman had a granddaughter who would be solace and comfort to her as she mourned.
And Tot had a father, since Kyle was picked up by a rescue unit after he’d escaped Nico and Simon at Cullen’s cabin. He’d submitted to a DNA test, which proved that Tot was indeed his child.
At present, Tot would remain with her grandmother while the legal issues were resolved about who would have custody and how visitation would be arranged. In any case, Cullen felt sure they would find a way where they could all love Annette’s little girl. After all, they’d all loved Annette, and that was enough to bind them together.
Cullen and Kit had visited Tot regularly too, the foster aunt and uncle. Weird, since none of them quite knewhow to behave around each other. Tot’s grandma settled on plying him and Kit with coffee and every conceivable type of pastry and showing them photos of Annette when she was an infant. He had no idea how the whole matter of the harrowing escape would be explained to Tot one day, but he intended to be there to share how amazingly brave her mother had been, how she’d given her life to protect her baby daughter. Maybe he’d even write it down to preserve the details.
Kit did not say much during their visits, but she dutifully examined each and every photo Mrs. Bowman presented of her daughter. In the rare moments when Mrs. Bowman relinquished the baby, Kit walked Tot around and around the living room when she fussed, as she’d done in the wrecked trailer and throughout their sprint for survival. When Kit cuddled the baby, he could see how the action soothed her heart.
And it had become his single focused mission in life to do the same.
Kit was the woman he called every day and fixed sandwiches for as she waited on hold for hours with the insurance companies. He helped sweep the ash from the sidewalk outside her trucking office and wiped the filth from her windows. She was his first thought in the morning and the last prayer of the night.
Together, they’d worked to process their immense disappointments. They hadn’t saved Annette. And Nico hadn’t been called to account for what he’d done to her or any of the other women he’d enslaved. But the cops had assured them they would work diligently to bring closure to the families of those he’d murdered, track down thewomen who were still shackled by his trafficking, and provide help and rescue. They’d already made strides thanks to the photos Kit had plucked from Nico’s pocket before he’d been swallowed by Mount Ember.
It wasn’t enough. Not nearly, but Nico and Simon wouldn’t damage any other women, and Tot would be raised in safety by people who loved her. That would have to do. Countless conversations and many more cups of coffee and tears and talking and venting, and they’d come to a peace about it, a tentative one, anyway.
Kit had been nervous at first, when he started coming over, unaccustomed as she was to having someone jabbering away in her space, but she’d gradually allowed him to chat, bring pizza, and even deliver a skinny, freezing cat he found on the side of the road. The animal was now queen of the castle with an intense attachment to Kit and a duty to keep Cullen a safe distance away.
The cat had eerily green eyes that seemed to peer into his soul. Kit had named her Olive.
As he climbed Kit’s front step, Olive gave him a haughty look as if she knew what he was planning and didn’t approve.
