Jill thought maybe this was some kind of realistic dream.Grandma was being so… expressive.Speaking easily.Like the truth had really set something inside of her loose.Free.It was almost hard to believe this could be real.
But by God, they’d been through enough.Didn’t they deserve a little free and easy?
Grandma inhaled deeply.Then she released Jill.
She leaned back.“Let’s have that tea,” Grandma said.“And I’ll tell you about him.”
Jill blinked back a few more tears.She made the tea, then sat down and drank it while learning about the grandfather she’d never known, and the parts of her grandmother that Glenda had always kept hidden.
Nothing could change what had happened, but Jill liked to think this could change everything for her and Grandma from here on out.
Because thiswasher place.Here with Grandma.
Epilogue
The Graff
A month later
Of all thesurreal moments of the past year of being back in Marietta, Nate was pretty sure that this was top of the list.It was a long-ass list.Full of bad and good.
This, thankfully, was good.Celebrating Cal passing the Montana bar at the Graff with Landon, Aly, Sam, Jill, and Glenda.And Cal, of course, who’d insisted on everyone coming down to celebrate him.
Like the old Cal.No one had been able to refuse that.
Except Jake Hayes—the one invitee Nate had been relieved hadn’t been able to come, thanks to some case he was working on.
Everyone was actually getting along and having a good time, and Nate wasn’t sure that could have been the case if Jake Hayes were in attendance.
Alcohol as social lubricant didn’t hurt, but mostly it was just… maybe a relief for all of them to celebrate something positive.Like Landon’s wedding and this moment could bookend the awfulness of what had happened in between.
Everly was still alive but still struggling medically so not in jail or under trial.Nate felt a kind of relief that Sam didn’t have to deal with feeling like she’d taken a life—even if it had been justified.And Everly got to suffer.Seemed fair to Nate, and even if it wasn’t some kind of formal end, they’d been able to put it behind them.
After dinner, Cal ordered champagne.Nate thought he was being a little over the top considering he’d passed the bar before, but in that amusing way Cal had, and he seemed happy.Not that fake happy either.There was something more genuine than there’d been before in his messing with Landon or Sam and the way he flirted with Jill.
Aly was the one to offer a toast.No surprise there.The little mother of the group.“To Cal.Hopefully he doesn’t have to use his impressive skills for any of us.”
“Jinx,” Sam muttered.
Nate shook his head, enjoyed the glass of champagne, and thanked all available deities when Jill said she had to get Glenda back up the mountain.Because it gave him and Sam an excuse to leave too.
They walked home.Spring had come to stay.It was cold in the dark, but spring cold.Not winter cold.And Sam’s hand was in his.She chatted about Glenda—the woman talked a lot more now, though she was still quiet.Watchful.Glenda.
The truth hadn’tchangedher, but it had released her from a cage.Nate knew a little bit about what that felt like.Coming home hadn’t changed who he was, but it had saved him from the albatross of his past.
Sam had.
They turned the corner to their street.Sam had left the porch light on, and Nate had left the bedroom light on so the house glowed from their vantage point on the street.
His house.His family.His life.
Even after a year, he still had trouble believing he was here.Not just here but thriving.Happy.Settled.No matter what bad came knocking, they always handled it.There was always a positive on the other side of the negative.Every secret unearthed seemed to lead to a stronger foundation.
Because the truth mattered.
“You remember that day you found me in Tennessee?”he asked.
She eyed him suspiciously as they walked up the pathway to the front porch.“Yeah.”
