And she was next to him.
He eyed her wonderingly, almost cautiously, as if making sure she wasn’t a mirage.
Then slowly lowered the boom box.
And settled it down at his feet.
It apparently was a prop, and he’d learned a few things about Bluetooth speakers.
Because thrillingly, he extended his arm and aimed a remote somewhere off into the distance, and the music lowered to a murmur, and the sun chose that moment to turn a streamer of cloud into tangerine, and he was like a wizard aiming a wand that could turn up the colors and sounds of the world.
A wizard whose hand was trembling as he stuffed the remote in his back pocket.
“You wanted choices.”
He gave her a little lopsided smile.
“Mac... you’re... you’re just...”
She shook her head, because feelings were getting in the way of her ability to form words, and he was blurring from tears.
“Yeah,” he agreed, with relief. “I sure am.”
His smile faded. “Okay. I need to tell you something, all right?”
She nodded.
He drew in a breath. “That night when you blew a fuse? I knew the moment you did it. It was kind of funny. Suddenly everything was silent and dark, and the house was just this shadowy pile. And then I gave you the fuse, and I watched out the window as you went into the basement... and I waited. And I didn’t know it, but I was kind of holding my breath. And when your house finally lit up again, it was the strangest feeling, but it was like watching actual magic. I felt like I was lit up, too.”
This was hands-down the best story she’d ever heard, and it wasn’t even over yet.
“And that’s what I understand now: for me, you’re like that fuse. You’re the magic. For me, there’s no point to this house or this town or possibly to anything, really, without you. You can laugh if you want, but that’s as romantic as I know how to be.”
It was as romantic as anyone had ever been in the history of the world, as far as she was concerned.
“I’m not going to laugh.” She said it solemnly as a priestess. Her voice was shaking a little.
She watched his chest move in a huge sigh. As if he’d been dreading getting through that and he was relieved.
“I know this comes as a shock to you, Avalon, but I’m far, far from perfect. But I will be perfect at one thing: I will get you down out of attics and hand you ice and build anything for you, any kind of life you want. I know how to make you happy. No one willeverbe better at that than me. And I know you. Not just how many freckles you have, but I know your heart. Not only that, but I have a plan. Because I will nevernothave a plan. Want to hear it?”
She nodded. He threaded his hands through hers and pulled her gently up against his chest, as if he sensed she was in danger of floating away like a dandelion from the sheer lightness of being.
And his voice got lower. And a little rushed, but to her, it might as well have been a spell.
“We live here. Together. You and me. In the big house. We raise goats and chickens and maybe get a horse or a donkey and other animals that need some looking after. We hold classes for kids, all kinds, for at-risk kids and programs for vets, too. About farming, ecology, animal husbandry. You get your teaching degree, if you still want it. We can get grants from the state and from other sources—I’ve looked into this—and invest our own funds, and if you choose to sell GradYouAte, you’ll be pretty comfortable, too. I’m still working on it, and I already have a spreadsheet. Between the two of us, we can pull it off. We can even have outdoor concerts at a venue we build or other special events in the ballroom. Maybe even... weddings.”
The donkey was kind of a wildcard but she was on board with every bit of this.
She wasn’t going to mention the wedding part. They’d get around to that.
“Or...” he concluded. “You go on back to GradYouAte. I buy the house from you. If that’s what you want.”
He was a swirl of impressionistic colors, thanks to tears.
She swiped at them with a knuckle. “I choose staying with you.” She didn’t even make him wait. Her voice was thick.
She could literally see his breath stop then. His eyes closed and his head tipped back and his mouth moved in a word that looked likehallelujah.
