No. It wasn’t other people who judged her. She judged herself because she’d been too terrified of loving him to work out her issues before taking a wrecking ball to what they had together.
The boys caught sight of each other simultaneously.
“Shane!”
“Dillon!”
Dillon let go of Riley’s hand and took off. He and Shane met in the middle and put their heads together. They seemed very intense.
“Apparently, the three-legged race is a serious subject,” said a low, teasing voice from directly behind her.
Josh.
She turned—slowly, so as not to trip over her own twofeet in her sudden, extreme nervousness. “Hi!” It came out both slightly squeaky and more than a little too loud.
He just looked at her. That was all it seemed to take. And suddenly, his beautiful smile got even brighter. “So…how’ve you been?”
She drew a slow, shaky breath and leaned a little closer. “Missing you. A lot.”
He leaned close, too. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“You changed your mind.”
“Oh, Josh. Yes. I changed my mind. Am I…too late?”
“Riley Jane, you know me better than that. There is no such thing as too late, not for you and me.”
“You really mean that?”
“I do.” He took her hand. The world righted itself as she laced her fingers with his.
And then the boys were running toward them. “We got to go!” shouted Dillon.
“The three-legged race is starting real soon!” yelled Shane. “And kids our age go first!”
“Well then, we’d better get moving,” said Josh. “You know where you’re going?”
Shane pointed in the general direction of the horseshoe pits. “Over there!”
“All right, you two. Lead the way…”
Annette and Miles were there already. Riley thought her mother-in-law looked way too smug when she saw Riley and Josh strolling toward her holding hands.
The boys took second place in their age group. They each won a plastic golden eagle medallion on a shiny red neck ribbon. Lenore was there to congratulate them. She’d come with some of her friends from Buffalo.
Next, Shane and Dillon entered the sack race, then thestars-and-stripes relay race and finally the American flag scavenger hunt. Josh held her hand the whole time, and Riley loved every minute of it.
Once the games concluded, Lenore hugged Shane and left with her friends. Josh convinced Annette and Miles to join the Bravos for barbecue.
After dinner, the celebration continued with dancing under the darkening sky. Josh held Riley close, and they swayed to covers of “I’m Gonna Love You” and “Tennessee Whiskey” and “Forever After All.”
At full dark, they sat on a plaid blanket with their boys between them. Fireworks lit up the night sky—and Riley suddenly remembered Roger. “Where’s Roger? Has he been alone in the house all this time?”
“He’s outside,” Shane replied.
Josh explained, “I fenced the backyard for him and built him a house. It’s great for any time it’s impractical to bring him along.”
