“I couldn’t be away from you.”
Her pulse skipped, and she nestled her cheek against his chest. He held her head against him, and they stood that way for a long, long time.
“Can I kiss you now?” he asked, tilting her chin so she looked at him.
“Wait.” She held up a finger to his lips. “I almost forgot. I brought you something.”
She leaned back and rummaged through her purse, digging out the letter she wrote him and the little package.
“What’s this for?” He shook the package.
“For waiting for me.”
The lines around his eyes relaxed.
“Open it,” she urged.
He tore off the shiny brown wrapping paper. “A cat-shaped letter opener?”
“It goes with this.” She slipped the thick envelope into his hand. “I know you have a thing about opening letters, so I figured I’d help out with that.”
He flashed his dimples at her and slid the opener along the top of the envelope, breaking the seal and reading the first page. “Luce,” he whispered.
“I couldn’t remember exactly when I fell in love with you, so I wrote down all the times I knew I loved you.”
His gentle expression was unreadable as he shuffled through the pages. “Some of these are from things from when we were in Florida?”
“Well, yeah. I was kind of in love with you back then, too.”
The Adam’s apple in his throat worked. “Most of the pages are blank?”
She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Well, I didn’t actually expect you to open it.”
He tossed her a bland look.
“Kidding.” She trailed a finger along the edge of the papers. “Figured I’d need lots of pages so I could fill them in for the rest of our lives.”
He searched her face, his golden eyes probing, consuming her. She moved her hands up along his sweater, along the ridges of his chest to his neck.
He kissed her then. Thoroughly.
When he broke the connection, the hope of a lifetime together reflected in his eyes. “I won.”
“No, I think I did.” She stroked the tender spot under his ear.
“Are we getting married?”
“Yeah,” she replied.
“Then I won.”
With those words, the pieces of herself she’d spent so much time barely holding together finally bound tight. Whatever he might think, clear to her bones she held the knowledge thatshehad won.
Epilogue
The KDVX live news van was parked in the dirt lot at the Miracle Mike Festival. A crowd had gathered to watch the interview as it broadcast on the five-thirty news. The rooster actually spoke this time. William grinned from his perch on the van’s step. Lucy had insisted on taking the headless chicken interview. Turned out she had a bit of a competitive streak and wanted to prove the rooster would talk to her. He hadn’t believed it could be done. She was proving him wrong.
With the sun tucked behind a large cloud, the dry heat of summer in Confluence took a break. It didn’t matter, though. Lucy was oblivious to the world around her when on the job. In the summer heat or a winter blizzard, she didn’t care once the camera rolled. His wife was funny like that.
