Page 33 of Rescued By the SEAL

“Come on, then.” I start up the car, my heart pounding, and I drive away from Heather and toward the prison. I need to give myself a little pep talk as I go, but I don’t know what to say to myself. I don’t know how to pump myself up for this. It isn’t exactly a situation that I expected to find myself in. This is all so unprecedented. “Just do it, Landon. You will survive this.”

I don’t know how I’m supposed to feel as I leave the jail, but I don’t think deflated and defeated are right. I’m not convinced I should be quite so emotionally drained from speaking to my mother if I’m honest, yet here I am.

“You did it,” I remind myself with a shrug. “Nothing can be more important than that. You tried.”

Mom reminded me of why I walked away from my parents, why I never wanted to go back, but it’s still a shame to think about who she was and who she became over time, all because she and my dad didn’t want to lead an honest life. Drugs obviously didn’t help them at all, but not everything can be blamed on illegal substances. They’re the ones who chose to take drugs, who chose to go down that path, and they also decided never to change. I don’t even think she was that upset about losing my father. It was more about not having that partner in crime anymore. The drugs have become more important to her than love.

I don’t know what I can ever do to help her. I don’t know if there is anything I can do, but when she gets out of jail, I’ll try. If she refuses my help, then so be it, but I’ll give it a go. She might not care about me, but I still do her. I can’t help myself.

“Shake it off,” I whisper to myself as I start driving along the road back toward Heather’s father’s house. “Be strong.”

Heather is probably having a worse time than me. I try to put myself in her shoes for a moment instead of my own. I didn’t expect anything else from my mom, but she might actually think that her father is going to turn himself around. I would love it if he did because Heather really doesn’t deserve anything bad to happen, but I can’t be sure.

If it does all go tits up, though, I hope she’s relieved that she tried, even if that feeling doesn’t come now. I think one day, she will be glad that she at least attempted to get through to him, even if it didn’t quite work out as planned.

It doesn’t seem to take me long to get back to Heather, but since she isn’t outside the house, I decide to take that as a good sign. At least she hasn’t been waiting on the sidewalk for ages for me to suddenly appear. This time, I park in view of the house so she knows I’m waiting for her, not to pressure her, but in case she needs a moment of escape. I actually kinda hope that she doesn’t come out right away because I have a couple of phone calls to make before we go anywhere. Private ones that I would like a couple of moments alone to deal with. What’s coming next, I want to be a surprise…

“You’re here.” It’s at least another half an hour before Heather climbs in the car beside me, but that’s perfect because it’s given me more than enough time to sort everything out that I needed to so everything is in place. “How did it go?”

She seems light and airy, which is a good thing. I decide to take that as a positive as I start with my story about Mom.

“It was okay… I think. A little weird, to be honest. Her life is very strange to me now. But I’m glad I did it. I feel better now.”

Heather nods. “I’m glad too. I didn’t really come to any sort of conclusion that I would like to. This isn’t some fairy tale ending where everything is all sorted out now. But we’re in a better place than we were. Not that it could be worse. I mean, he didn’t tell me never to contact him again or anything, but he didn’t directly apologize, either. I think it’s a good stepping stone.”

“How did he feel about your telling him that we’re moving away?” I’m nervous as I ask this. “Did he take it badly?”

She pauses thoughtfully while she digests her dad’s response. Considering how overprotective and almost controlling he has been, I can only picture how much this tore him apart. But if Heather wants to spread her wings, he needs to let her fly. If he tries to stop her again, then he might end up being the one to lose her forever. Surely, he doesn’t want that. He can’t.

“He didn’t show much emotion, to be honest, so I don’t know. I’m sure time will tell. I’m going to keep in touch with him, if he can keep things positive, and just see what’s going to happen. Either he will support me and we can rebuild, or…”

She doesn’t want to think about the alternative, just as I don’t with my mother. It’s too much and it isn’t something that we can control. Right now, after everything that’s happened, we do need to concentrate on what we have power over, and that’s only us and what happens with our lives next. What we do, where we go, what we decide to make of our lives. Everything else will have to work itself out around us and we will need to concentrate on our reaction to it all. That’s all we can do.

Heather leans back in the passenger’s seat of the car, a little deflated, as I feel too, and her eyes slide closed. I kinda hope she does go to sleep, to be honest, because that will make the next part of the surprise even better for her. I don’t want her to even guess where we’re going. It’ll be easy for her to work things out if she has her eyes open, so the quicker she drifts off, the better. Plus, if she needs to nap, then now would be the perfect time for her to do so. Before everything changes again…

“What on earth are we doing here?” Heather laughs as I take her hands and lead her to a very familiar spot. “I thought thatwe were moving on to somewhere new, not heading back to our childhood homes. This is very unexpected.”

“I know, but the last time I saw you, when we were only teenagers, was on your seventeenth birthday in this very back yard, the moment I gave you the bracelet. I thought it might be nice to revisit this place before we move on.”

“I don’t know if we can just be here, you know.” She glances around nervously. “This is someone else’s home these days.”

“I made some calls and explained. You don’t need to worry. We have permission to be here for a little while.”

“Okay.” Heather shoots me a strange look. The fact that she has no idea what’s happening only makes it better for me. “So, we’re coming to revisit this last moment, almost like a final goodbye to the past, is that right? Just so I’m clear.”

“Partly.” I dig my hand into my pocket and grab out the little box. “I also thought that it would be a great place for this.”

I drop down rapidly onto one knee and pop open the box in front of her. She has no idea that I secretly bought this ring because I knew as soon as I saw her again that I was going to want this to happen. The shock on her face is laughable.

“Is this…?” she whispers as her hands clap over her mouth. “Oh, my God, Landon, are you serious right now?”

“Last time we were here, I gave you a bracelet, which was a promise. Now, I’m offering you a ring.” I suck in a calming breath before I continue. “Heather Buchan, whenever you are in my life, I never quite know which way it’s going to go and where I’ll end up, especially now that we’re starting a future together and we don’t even know where.” We both laugh at this because itdoes sound crazy said aloud. “But there is no one else I want to adventure through this crazy life with other than you. I love you, Heather Buchan, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Will you marry me, please?”

“Of course I will!” she yells. “I would love to be your wife, Landon. Oh, my goodness… and this is the perfect place for this. I understand everything now, and I love it. Oh, my goodness, this truly is perfect.”

As I slide the ring on her finger and rise up to kiss the love of my life, now my fiancée, I really do feel like everything is going to be amazing. The future is bright, and I can’t wait to experience it all.

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