“No, and that’s my fault. Can we sit down?”
“Do you want me to leave?” Harlan asked.
“No,” Savannah and her father answered in unison.
“No,” Randall continued as he sat in the chair and Harlan and Savannah took the couch. “Harlan needs to hear this too. Go ahead and open your present.”
Savannah tore off the wrapping paper and opened the slim box. Inside lay a gold necklace with a heart hanging from it. It wasn’t large, or fancy, or particularly expensive, she didn’t think. “This looks old.”
Randall nodded. “Yes, it was your mother’s. She would have wanted you to have it.”
“You’ve never given me any of Mother’s jewelry before.”
“No. She didn’t have a lot. I was just getting started when she died.” He appeared lost in thought. “I’ve never talked a lot about your mother. I should have, I realize. But losing her was...so hard and it hurt too much to talk about her. So I didn’t.
“When I met your mother, I fell head over heels in love with her. She was new to town. We were young, only in high school.” He looked at them both. “Like you two. Your mother was in love too. But not with me. She’d fallen for a boy from the Barrels. One everyone knew was bad news. But she wouldn’t hear a word against him.”
“Is that why you hated Harlan?”
“Let me finish. I’ll explain everything. Anyway, just like everyone thought, this boy broke her heart. I became her friend. Eventually, she came to love me and we married. She never said a word about him after we were together. But I always wondered what she’d have done if he’d asked for another chance, even years later.”
“What happened to him? Is he still here?”
“No. He left town. Last I heard he’d died of a drug overdose.”
“So you hated Harlan because of this guy? That’s what you tar and feather everyone from the Barrels with? Because this one guy was bad?”
“Because he broke your mother’s heart and I didn’t want the same thing to happen to you. It was too similar. I couldn’t bear to have you go through what your mother did.”
“You should have trusted me. Harlan would never have done that to me.”
Harlan hadn’t said a word and his expression was utterly inscrutable.
Savannah continued. “None of that explains why you’ve been so awful since Harlan returned. Couldn’t you have trusted me then? Wasn’t it obvious you’d been wrong about him?”
“I made a mistake, Savannah. And I owe you, and Harlan, an apology. But I didn’t understand just how wrong I had been until Harlan offered to take on my partners’ debt in the Serenity Valley project.” He looked at Harlan then. “You had every reason to hate me. In fact, I’m sure you do. But when you told me you’d stepped in because of Savannah, because you wanted her to be happy, I finally realized how wrong I’d been about you. Will you accept my apology?”
Savannah held her breath, watching Harlan.
“Yes, I will.” Harlan held out his hand and the men shook. “Especially since you’re going to be my father-in-law.”
Savannah held out her left hand. “We got engaged last night.” She wondered how sincere he’d been in his apologies, but he smiled and hugged her.
“Congratulations.” To Harlan he said, “You’re a lucky man.”
Harlan smiled and put his arm around Savannah. “Yes, I am.”
They talked for a while, even shared a toast. After her father left, Savannah said, “Did that really happen?”
“Yes. I have to say, I figured if he ever did come around it wouldn’t be for a long time. Probably not until he had a grandchild.”
“Do you want children?”
“Yes. With you.”
Her heart simply melted. “I do too.”
“Want to get married on New Year’s Eve?”
