Page 8 of I'm Yours

“Nope.” The “p” pops and the single word comes out as bitter as I still feel over the entire situation. I lost my virginity that night in the back of my pickup to the girl who stole my heart when I didn’t even realize it was available to be stolen. I told her I loved her and then I never heard a word out of her. She didn’t come see me to say goodbye before I left for college. She didn’t return my calls and when I went to her trailer, her mom said she wasn’t home. I don’t know if it was a lie or not, but her mom was a little scary and I didn’t want to test my theory out only to have a gun pulled on me and a warning about staying off her property.

“Do you still love her?”

I sigh, sitting back in my seat at her kitchen table. Katherine is upstairs showering, supposed to be getting ready for dinner out after we’d spent the afternoon hiking. “A part of me, I’m afraid, always will. Probably because we never had closure. Though, I don’t think she feels like we were ever at a place that we would need any sort of closure.”

“Maybe you need to get it, Reed, so that my daughter’s heart isn’t shattered.”

“I’m committed to Katherine, Bev. I promise you. Sadie isn’t an issue for me. Hasn’t been for a long while. She just… injured me a little bit and made me nervous to go all in.”

“Well, if you hadn’t missed it, my daughter is all in.”

I grin and feel my heart squeeze. “I love her.”

“She loves you, too, but sometimes love isn’t enough.”

She stares at me for several beats before I lean over, grasping her hand in mine. “Bev, I promise you, when I say that Sadie is no longer an issue, it’s the truth. And the fact that I love Katherine is proof of that. I see a future with her, if you’re okay with that.”

“Are you asking me for my daughter’s hand in marriage?”

“Not today, but soon. And not because I’m still hung up on some girl I once knew.” “That’s enough for me.”

“I’ll miss you both. Just because Leah’s having a baby, don’t think that’s going to mean I’ll forget about you or Emmy. You’re still a priority. But, you understand the need for change.”

I do. As well as anyone.

I lead her into our bedroom and hold her close as she cries into some of Katherine’s clothing. I notice Emmy peeking her head into the closet to see what’s going on. Her eyes widen but she moves away, probably not knowing what else to do.

When the doorbell rings again, Bev straightens and wipes her tears. “I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize, Bev. Take your time. There are some boxes here so take whatever you’d like.”

“Do you want me to box up the rest and take it to the women’s shelter?”

“You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to. It’s where she’d want them to go.”

That decided, I go to the door and let the movers in.

An hour later, we’re loaded up, Emmy and I are waving goodbye to Bev as she drives away, and I’m locking the door to the home I shared with my wife.

Chapter Two

Reed

Lakeside looks exactly the same and yet so different from when I called this place home the first eighteen years of my life.

In the back seat, Emmy stares out the window, pointing to the different shops and the hints of lake that we can see between the homes. I promised her we’d stop at the lake house first before driving out to the ranch. At first I’d hoped she and I would be living in it, but I soon realized the inconvenience it would cause when I was driving out to the ranch every day. I need to be there and so does Emmy. My mom will help watch her when I’m working. I’m sure they’ll keep plenty busy. Mom doesn’t have an idle bone in her body. Whether she’s baking, gardening, knitting baby blankets, or one of the other million things she does during the day, she’ll be on the lake, paddleboarding or kayaking and making everyone else look like amateurs.

This obviously isn’t the first time Emmy’s been to Lakeside or seen the shops or lake, but by her reaction, you’d think it was. Which makes me feel good. If she had shown me a single sign of this not being what she wanted, I would have been having second thoughts myself. But the mountains and lake have always called to her, just like they do me.

I roll down both our windows and she squeals in delight. “It’s soooo pretty, Daddy!”

“That it is, baby.”

Surprisingly, as we drive past the small diner that has the best huckleberry pie in the state, and then the road that leads to the school, I don’t feel sadness like I expected and I regret not spending more time in town when I visited.

I have so many memories of me with Sadie, but most of them are good. Contentment washes over me, that I’m back where I was always meant to be. Home. It’s the first time I’ve felt at home since… well, since I left Lakeside the last time. I’m surprised at how right it feels and that, more than anything, tells me that Emmy and I are exactly where we’re supposed to be.

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