“I know,” June agreed. “And that means a lot to me. It’s just… heavy.”
Winnie gave her another quick side-armed hug.
“Lean on us,” she encouraged, thrilling at the idea of being part of anus. “Let us carry some of that weight.”
“Thanks, Winnie,” June said sincerely. “I’m so glad we’ve become friends, you know that?”
Winnie felt her heart swell with happiness.
“Me too,” she said.
It wasn’t that she felt happy about June’s sadness. Of course she didn’t. But it felt good to be the kind of person that her friends relied upon, to be the kind of woman who others would turn to when things were hard as well as easy.
As she and June chatted a little more about much lighter matters, Winnie found her thoughts drifting back to Shane and the role he’d had in encouraging her to stretch beyond her comfort zone. He’d really had such an amazing, positive impact on her in such a short period of time.
“Sorry, June,” Winnie said during the next lull in conversation. “I have to go talk to someone.”
“Oh, go, go,” June said easily, shooing her off. “You’re the woman of the hour. Bask in the adoration.”
Winnie chuckled, even going so far as to shoot June a daring wink over her shoulder.
Winniedidplan to bask in adoration… it just happened to be mutual adoration for the man who had made this whole thing possible.
“Hey there,” Shane said, smiling broadly as she approached him.
“Hey there,” she said back playfully. “What brings you to these parts?”
“Aw, you know.” He shrugged a shoulder. “I’m justreallyinto local history. It has nothing to do with the person who organized this shindig. Nothing at all.”
“Yeah, who even knows who that was?” she teased back, propping up on her toes to peck a kiss onto his cheek. “They’re boring, probably.”
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, keeping her close at his side.
“Weird. Boring wasnotthe word I was going to use. I was going to say amazing. Adorable. Brilliant.”
“You’re going to make me blush,” she accused.
“Gosh, I hope so,” he said happily.
There was a moment that was just about perfect as they stood and watched the event unfold around them. And then, something shifted. At first, Winnie didn’t understand what it was. She just felt a strange tension in the air, almost like the crackle of electricity in the atmosphere before a rain storm.
And then she realized that it was the sense of Shane pulling away. Not physically, but emotionally. So, by the time he spoke, she wasn’t exactly surprised by his words.
“I’ll always cherish this memory,” he said quietly.
She had to swallow hard before she could trust her voice to be steady.
“You’re going home soon,” she said, leaning her head against his shoulder.
“Yeah,” he agreed, pressing his cheek to the top of her head. “It’s time.”
Winnie recognized the irony of their affectionate embrace as things were falling apart for them. It would have made her cry if she’d seen it in a movie. She was proud of herself for not crying now.
“Well, I can’t say that I’m happy about it, but I understand,” she said. “We always knew that this day would come.”
“Shouldn’t that make it easier, though?” he asked. “It’s not easy.”
“No.” There was another lull, and this one was still comfortable, even with the heaviness of their conversation, and somehow that made her feel even sadder. It hurt that they could understand one another so well, that they could enjoy being together so much, that they could make each other better and braver…
