“That’s Jupiter,” he said, pointing to the bright, steady light above the western horizon.
“Of course you know which one is Jupiter.”
“I check the astronomical calendar most days.Our date happened to coincide with a good event to see.”
She lifted her head and looked at him.The last light was gone but the sky was clear and the stars gave enough faint light to see her face.“Gray.I need to tell you something.”
“Okay.”
“I think I’m falling in love with you.And that terrifies me.Because the last man I loved ...”She stopped.“You know what happened.”
“I do know.”
“And the man I gave my loyalty to after that used it to cover up a murder.”She took a breath.“So my track record with trust is not great.”
“I know that too.”
“But I’m sitting on a tailgate eating pie with a man who brought three thermoses and a star chart, and I feel safer than I’ve felt in four years.Maybe ever.So either my judgment is finally getting better or it’s getting spectacularly worse.I honestly can’t tell which.”
He turned to face her.He took both her hands.“I can’t promise you I’ll never let you down.I’m going to make mistakes.I’m going to get things wrong.I’m going to calculate the dew point and forget about the mud.”
She smiled.Her mouth trembled, but her joy was real, and it undid him.
“But I can promise you I’ll be honest with you.I won’t go behind your back.I won’t deceive you.And I will be here tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’ve spent my whole life trying to figure out what it takes to make someone stay.And the answer turns out to be simple.You choose it.Every day.You just choose to stay.And I’ve already chosen you.I’ll always choose you.”
She kissed him again—quick, fierce, the way she’d kissed him in the parking lot when Ruth Sanger had barely disappeared from sight and she didn’t care.Then she leaned her forehead against his and they sat there breathing hard, two people on a ridge above a valley they were both finding their way home in.
They stayed until the cold drove them down the mountain.He drove her to Jenna and Sully’s place with the heater running and Bonnie’s hand resting on his arm.They picked up the kids—Noah was exhausted and fell asleep promptly in the back seat.Cassidy read quietly by the light of her cell phone and was savvy enough not to ask them how their date went.
If he looked half as radiant and relaxed as Bonnie did, Cassidy didn’t need to ask a single thing.She would read exactly how it had gone on their faces.
The porch light was on when they pulled into Bonnie’s driveway.He carried Noah inside and deposited him in his bed, where Bonnie took off his shoes and tucked him under the blankets.Cassidy murmured good night to both of them and disappeared into her bedroom, still engrossed in her book.
Bonnie walked him to the door and stepped out onto the porch with him in the yellow porch light and cold night air.Her hair was windblown and her cheeks pink from the wind and cold.But her eyes were steady and certain and unafraid.
“Thank you,” she said.“For all of it.The planning, the thermoses, the mud.”
“Even the mud?”he asked doubtfully.
“Especially the mud.”She touched his face, briefly, gently.“The mud was the best part because you stopped being perfect and were just—you.”
“Do we dare kiss, or do you have nosy neighbors?”
“I have all kinds of nosy neighbors,” she murmured.And then she stood on tiptoe and kissed him with enough passion to leave no doubt in the mind of any busybody who happened to be spying on them as to whether or not he and Bonnie were romantically involved.
She stepped back, and the look she gave him, warm, direct,loving, told him everything he needed to know.
He waited until she was inside to return to his truck.He drove back to the ranch with the window cracked and the cool air on his face.
He’d meant what he’d said to her.You just choose to stay.Every day.
He meant it with the full commitment of having spent his life looking for the key to never being his father, never doing to a family what had been done to his, and have found the answer.Or at least the answer that mattered most.
He stayed.
