I just shook my head. “I’m gonna grab the presents, and then we have to hit the road.”
Something warm and bright bubbled in my chest as I listened in on Willow and my mom chatting while I loaded up the car to make the trek up to Rhode Island.
Things had seemingly fallen into place after the afternoon when Willow finally opened the door and let me back into her life. We spent two weeks simply spending time together. There was value in the mundane, in washing dishes, sitting on the couch, and folding laundry together.
The day she asked me to help her decide wherewewere traveling next was the day I knew that this was our happily ever after.
We had made lists of what we both needed in a destination. I had speaking engagements over the next few months, so I needed to be a reasonable distance from an airport. She wanted something with the chance of snow throughout the winter, but not blizzards. We both agreed that we wanted something outside of a city, where we could see stars and unfettered sunsets. Since we had been in the Midwest all summer, the choices were between the west coast and the east coast.
Northern Virginia seemed like the right call. The prospect of mountains excited her. The prospect of being in the same time zone when Whitney had her baby was even more exciting. A nine-hour drive from the rental we had found in Virginia up to Providence was nothing for Willow.
The two of us loaded into the car, wedged in among gift bags topped with blue, yellow, and green tissue paper, and made the drive to Providence without much fuss.
It was our first road trip after spontaneously heading to Kansas after Shep had passed. Everything was different, but in the same way, nothing was different.
I knew from that first trip that Willow was it for me.
I knew it in the way she dropped everything to be there for her family.
I knew it in the way she had a kind of determination that couldn’t be stopped.
I knew it in the way she let me have her strength and her softness. She wasn’t bashful about either. Willow felt everything with her whole heart, and she had chosen to trust me for the times that hurt and the moments of elation.
We parked on a side street in the College Hill neighborhood of Providence and slipped inside a little bakery named Annie’s Pies.
The dining area had been decked out in balloons and streamers. The theme was very clearly all about ducks. They were on each table and across the dessert display case that was full of every pie flavor imaginable.
“Willow!” Whitney shrieked as she waddled around tables. She wore a sash across her chest that read, “Mama Duck.” Miles was right behind her, keeping a careful hand on her back.
She pulled Willow into a hug. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Me too,” Willow said.
Miles pointed to his eyes with two fingers, then pointed those fingers at me.
“Yeah, I got it. You might kidnap me,” I muttered.
Whitney offered an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that. But hey—it all worked out in the end.”
Willow looked up at me. “What?”
Whitney grimaced. “Miles might have kidnapped him while we were at Wander and Jack’s house and used him to pass his annual interrogation audit with Keller & Associates.”
Willow looked at Miles. “You didwhat?”
Miles raised his hands in defense. “I’m like Cupid. Adorable and armed. Or are you forgetting that the icon of love carries a weapon? I have the video recording of it if you’d like some entertainment.”
Her brows lifted. “Yes, please.”
The door flew open, and a group of scary mercenary types dressed in varying shades of gray and black filed in.
“Fellow Asses!” Miles said as he threw his hands in the air.
I recognized one of them as the British man who had popped in the room during the interrogation.
“Those are Miles’s coworkers,” Whitney said to me.
Pulling up the rear of the crowd was Wander and Jack. Wander broke away from the mass of lethal bodies and weaved through tables to get to Willow and Whitney.
