“You okay?” River murmured in her ear.
Marina allowed herself to sink into the safety and warmth River gave her in a way no one else ever had. “I am now.” She pulled back and looked around at the others. The door opened, and her father and sister walked in. “What’s going on?” she asked, going to hug her family.
“It’s a planning session.” Cari grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. “The best new beginnings are made with a team, and you’ve got a good one.”
Rob popped the cork on the champagne and started filling glasses. “We’re celebrating your victory over the villain and the fact that there are still causes worth fighting for in this world.”
Then came the clinking of glasses and cheers, and the ordering of plenty of food. Conversation stayed light and fun asintroductions were made, and the group simply gelled without any weird silences or awkward pauses.
“I’m proud of you, mija.” Marina’s dad came around to stand behind her. “So is your mom. She wants you to come to dinner next week when she’s back on her feet.”
Home. Marina hadn’t been able to use that word with any real feeling in so long. Now it was a song through the fog, beckoning her toward safety. “I’d like that. And we have some things to talk about.” Now wasn’t the time to tell him she’d had a little chat with his long-dead daughter.
After the plates had been cleared away, Cari tapped a glass to get their attention. “Now that we’re fed and watered, it’s time to talk logistics. Three of us are now unemployed, and we need to talk over what to do about that.”
Marina’s joy dimmed a little, and she gripped River’s hand tighter. “I haven’t given it any thought,” she said.
“Fortunately, we have.” Cari patted Rob’s shoulder. “There are options.”
River gave Cari a brief smile when she looked at her pointedly. “I own the whole building where we have Echoes. Audrey is retiring, and I could use some extra income. You could start your own practice and rent out one of my units.”
Rob wrinkled his nose. “I’m not a huge fan of that one. South Shore is way too far of a commute.”
“So your complaint is about location, not starting a practice with me?” Marina asked, eyebrow raised.
“Obviously.” He tipped his glass toward her. “Do you not understand that we’re all in this together?”
Marina swallowed the lump of emotion in her throat. “I guess I just can’t quite believe it.”
Billy gave his big, booming laugh. “When you’re around River, things like this happen all the time. She’s some kind ofUniverse magnifier. Things that are meant to be suddenly fall into place.”
“Other options?” Marina asked Cari, unable to follow that particular line of woo-woo after the champagne and margaritas.
“Another option is you start a practice here, in Pilsen.” Her sister seemed to hesitate as she said it. “Come back, be around family.”
“I like this idea better. Still a commute, but amazing food and culture.” Rob poured himself another glass from the pitcher.
“Third option?” Marina asked. When she saw the look her father and sister shared, she threw a tortilla chip at her sister. “I need all the information at my fingertips. Don’t look at each other like that.”
River laughed. “The third option is the one where you and Rob grab a high-rent place in the Loop and basically stay where you’re both comfortable. You’ll need to up your game and clientele pretty fast to compete and pay your rent, but you’ll be in a situation you’re familiar with.”
“The biggest question you need to answer,” said Audrey, her gaze intense as she looked at Marina, “is what you want from the future. You think you shattered your dreams, and maybe you did. But so what? Now you get to chase a new dream. What will it be?”
Marina looked at the people around her. Friends, family, a new love. A support system she didn’t even know she wanted or needed. But here it was. She shook her head slowly. “I don’t know. I’m not someone who makes decisions like this without thinking every element through. The only thing I’m sure about is this.” She held up River’s hand entwined with hers. “We’ll need to talk it all through,” she said to Rob and Cari, who both nodded.
River raised her glass. “To chasing new dreams.”
They drank, and Marina rested her head on River’s shoulder. No matter what was to come, there was no question she was in the right place, and with the right people, to handle it.
EPILOGUE
River pickedup the last box of her things and looked around at the empty shell she’d once called home. It was strange to see it as just a big box with no personality or life in it. The ache she felt was a gentle one, the kind that suggested an ending that was right on time.
“Is Marjorie going to throw something at me if I come in?” Marina asked from the doorway.
River turned, and her heart sped up the way it always did when she looked at her. Her long, thick hair hung down around her shoulders, and in the blue tank top and jeans, she looked like something off a casual catwalk.
“She’s been avoiding me since I started packing, so I doubt it. Weird, though, how you don’t know it’s the last time you’ll see someone until it’s been the last time.” Her unusual wake-up calls had stopped more than two weeks ago, when she’d brought in a stack of empty boxes to put her life into. Marjorie had made an appearance a few times in River’s periphery but hadn’t come around again.
