“Take care, Stella,” the doctor said as he turned back to me. “I’ll see you in a few weeks to see how things are healing.”
“Are you sure it’s okay I stay with you?”
“Stella, please stay. You’d make me the happiest man in the world if you stayed.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at his words. “Even if you’re taking care of me the whole time?”
“Oh, Wildflower, especially if I’m taking care of you.”
A soft knock on the door interrupted our conversation, but for a reason I would gladly accept.
“Trixie.” I smiled or did as best as I could with a swollen face.
“Oh, dear, I am so glad you are okay.”
“Yeah, we all are,” Melody added as the rest of my family filtered into the room, causing the small space to burst at the seams with their laughter, their energy, and their love.
Six Weeks Later
Stella washome.
She was home and she was safe, and nothing was ever going to change that again.
Really, she had been home for a month and a half, but every moment I got to relish in the fact that she was here, and she was mine, and I got to kiss her whenever I wanted…well, I was going to take it. Not to mention that even after she was cleared from her concussion, she agreed to stay and live with me. She claimed it was Bernard’s snuggles and purrs that convinced her, but I liked to think it was also the way I made her purr in bed that had something to do with it.
I admired her sleeping form in my bed for a few minutes before I went out to meet Patrick in my kitchen.
“How is she?” he asked when I came into the room.
“She’s good,” I answered honestly. The frostbite on her hands had healed, the headaches from her concussion were becoming much less frequent, and her skin that was once littered with bruises had faded back to its normal colour.
Those bruises sent so much anger through me for the first week I laid eyes on her. But as they disappeared, the more I was able to see her and remind myself she was safe, those feelings dissipated.
“Thank you,” I said to Patrick. I don’t know what I would have done if not for his calm demeanor throughout the whole process.
“Man, I hardly did anything. It was all Grandma Trixie.”
I laughed, and it feltgood. It was also the truth. We had Grandma Trixie to thank for a lot of stuff in our lives, but for saving Stella’s life? I couldn’t wrap my head around it.
When we asked Grandma Trixie how she knew where they were, she looked like we had just offended her by saying her casserole was burned.
“As if I wouldn’t know my own land like the back of my hand,” she’d scolded us.
When we asked if she wanted to talk to someone about the obvious burden of ending a life, she only scoffed again.
“I have been keeping my property safe from predators for generations, today was no different.”
There had been no arguing with Grandma Trixie after that. We would all just keep showing up for each other in the same way we always had. That was all right by me.
The case had been pretty cut and dry. After Stella woke up and was feeling up to recounting the events, Patrick was able to put the rest of the pieces together.
Nick knew Stella was in Love because of the trackers he’d planted in the car. He searched the area on Craigslist for someone to do some “odd jobs” for him. He must have felt like the stars aligned when he found a drug dealer in the next town over who was willing to do his bidding for the right price. That drug dealer was none other than Steven, and when he was arrested for breaking into the girls’ hotel room, it turned out he wasn’t just charged with a simple misdemeanor charge as thepolice found copious amounts of drug paraphernalia and weapons in his car. He used his one phone call to call his sister Valerie. She tried to run to his aid, but instead ran into Nick. Through recovered emails, we found out that Nick had manipulated Valerie into helping him get to Stella in return for her brother’s freedom and a promise to run away together with all the money they would get out of it. It was Val who had left the note on the rail house and started the fire, all coerced by Nick’s incessant push.
It was a difficult situation for our community to come to terms with, but every day we kept showing up for each other and doing the best we could. I had thought for certain that Carter had something to do with all the messes happening around the farm, from the destroyed barn during the Harvest Bonfire to the actual fire started at the rail house. But once Garrett had finally been the one to get a hold of him, Carter was one of the first to offer Stella his free labour and had definitely been one of the hardest workers during the entire demolition and restoration process. The entire town had come together time and again to help each other out, and I knew we could make it through this one, too.
“Where’s Garrett?” I asked Patrick as I poured us cups of coffee. We had plans this morning and I was anxious to get going.
“He’s already started unloading.”
