“For giving us our brother back,” Leah answered. “Since you returned, he’s found his way back to the living. He smiles, he laughs, and he’s not holed up in his office twenty-four hours a day.”
“But aren’t you mad that it was my fault he became that way in the first place?” I asked.
Both Leah and Clare spoke at once, but Clare took the lead. “We all make decisions, Mia. I don’t know what led you away from my brother, but I do know he chose to live the way he did. No one made him put his life on hold and wait for you. That was his own decision. It was painful to watch, but in the end, I think it was the right one.”
“All that matters is that we have you both back,” Leah added.
“Thank you.”
They both nodded, and Leah laughed. “Okay, now that we have that out of the way, let’s hug it out and then uncork some more wine!”
We ended up huddled together, laughing and hugging and shedding a few tears.
I knew how much these two had gone through with the death of Clare’s father and how much they still must be hurting. Garrett would put on a good face, but there were still times I’d catch him looking sad and distant, and I would know he was thinking about his father. I would try to be there for him as much as possible for I knew it wasn’t easy—for any of them. Yet, here they were in the midst of their grief, embracing me as one of their own, and I couldn’t thank them enough.
Garrett came in and found the three of us in tears.
“Hey, I told you to be nice! Why is she crying?” he asked, coming quickly to my side.
“Happy tears,” I simply said.
“Oh. Well, good. I wasn’t looking forward to kicking Leah’s ass.”
“Because you know I’d win,” she shot back with a wicked grin.
“Damn straight. You’re f**king psycho.”
~Garrett~
Spending time with my family with Mia by my side only made our new bond even stronger in my eyes. She was cementing herself into my life, laughing and crying with my sister and Leah and joking with the guys. She’d sat down and spent time with my mother, and when I saw them hug toward the end, my chest tightened with overwhelming emotion.
The entire day was filled with emotions as we had our first family event without my father. Leah and Declan had done a wonderful thing for our family by offering to host the end-of-the-summer party. It was something my parents had always done, and we’d all known my mom wouldn’t be able to go through with it on her own. Each of us felt the loss of my father everywhere. There was a silence where his boisterous laugh used to fill the entire backyard when he’d tell a joke or chase around the grandkids while growling like a grizzly bear. His absence was like a gaping void, reminding us of what we’d lost.
As each of us sat down to eat, everyone had become eerily quiet. The children still made noise, but all of the adults had fallen strangely silent.
“I know this is difficult,” my mom finally said, breaking the silence, “but this is exactly the way he’d want us to carry on. Life without him is so very hard, but we all still have each other, and that needs to be celebrated.”
Everyone agreed, and eventually, the dinner took a turn. We were soon talking and filling the backyard with laughter again. It sounded different without him there, but life had to move on even if we weren’t quite ready.
Later on, we all started saying our good-byes. We thanked Leah and Declan for taking the reins and continuing our family tradition at their house. We knew this was the first of many family traditions we’d have to reevaluate now that Dad was gone.
“Maybe we can have the next family get-together at your place,” Leah whispered in my ear before giving me a secret grin.
I shook my head and rolled my eyes. She’d never stop meddling with Mia and me, not until the ink was dry on our marriage license and she’d escorted us to our honeymoon suite. I wasn’t even sure she’d stop then.
As Mia and I headed home, an idea came, and I suddenly turned down the next street.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“Somewhere we haven’t been in a long time.”
It took a bit of time to find. I got turned around several times, and all the streets looked the same. Eventually, I found it and parked. We both got out of the car, and I grabbed an old blanket from the trunk before we quietly walked down the beaten trail to the place where it had all started.
“It hasn’t changed,” she said softly, taking in the panoramic view of the river.
I laid the blanket down on the soft earth. “Some things don’t,” I reminded her, wrapping my hands around her waist to draw her hips closer to mine.
She nuzzled up to me, and I softly kissed her forehead.
“Do you think we would have made it?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“If things hadn’t happened the way they did and we’d done everything we said we were going to do in high school. Do you think we would have survived?”
I tilted her chin upward, and she stared back at me.
“I think we can survive anything,” I answered. Gently cupping her head, I kissed her lips softly.
This time, when I made love to her next to the river bank we used to call our own, I knew just how precious she was. The first time I’d told her I loved her was at this very spot, but I hadn’t realized just how far I had truly fallen. Letting my hands and mouth slide over every inch of her body, I worshipped her, knowing exactly the depths of my love. I’d lost her once, but I would never lose her again. She was my life.
We took our time leaving that night, redressing each other slowly. We watched the moonlight dance across the rushing water, and then we quietly folded up the blanket and made our way back to the car. I opened the car door, and she moved to get in, but then I stopped her. I had this overwhelming need to kiss her at this spot, just one last time. My hand cradled her head as I brought my lips to hers.
“I love you, Mia,” I said softly.
“I love you, too, Garrett—always,” she vowed.
I held her hand as I drove back to her house. I hoped it would become our house one day. It was large enough to last us for years, and as we spent more and more time fixing it up together, I felt like we were finally fulfilling one of those dreams we’d had as kids.
“So, you can fix cars. Can you do anything else?” she teased.
I rolled out from under the car. She watched me from across my parents’ garage as I stood up and wiped the grease from my hands. I threw the towel down, took a few steps and quickly cornered her.