Page 97 of 15 Summers Later

She smiled as she slid into the seat of the Jeep. “You should be covered, then. If you had bought that first, you could have saved a lot of bother and expense. Really, what else do you need?”

He smiled with more genuine amusement than she had seen in weeks. “If I showed up back at camp with only a giant jar of peanut butter for us all to eat throughout the week, there would be mass protests. A few million years from now, scientists would be digging upmybones. The team would never send me to do the shopping again.”

He drove out of the parking lot and with each passing mile, Ava felt the heavy weight of their impending separation.

Too soon, he pulled into Leona’s driveway and moved around the Jeep to let her out.

“Thank you again for your help.”

“It truly was my pleasure, Cullen. I’m so glad I was able to spend some time with you. I’ve...I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ve missed you, too,” he said, his voice gruff.

Desperate to bridge the gap between them, she took a huge gamble, moving forward and wrapping her arms around his neck. He returned the embrace, his arms around her waist and his chin resting on her head.

She closed her eyes, cheek pressed against his heartbeat, searing the moment into her memory to help her through the long days without him.

With a soft sigh, he kissed her. The taste of him, the shape of his lips, was wonderfully familiar, like a favorite book she had read hundreds of times. She wanted to sink into his kiss and disappear.

Too soon, he finally eased away from her. “I’m sorry, Ava, but I have to go. I’ve still got a long drive back up the mountain and I don’t want everything we just bought to go bad.”

She sighed and nodded, stepping away. She felt the absence of him with a physical ache.

“I understand.”

“Be safe this week. Don’t overdo things.”

She gave a half laugh. “I’m staying with my grandmother, splitting my days between working in her garden and volunteering at an animal shelter. It’s not exactly high stress. You’re the one who needs to be careful. I wouldn’t want any mountain lions to eat you up there.”

He seemed reluctant to release her hand. That had to be a good sign, wasn’t it?

“Maybe I can slip away one night this week and come down from the mountains so we could go to dinner or something.”

“I would like that,” she said softly, still afraid to hope.

He kissed her forehead one last time, then slid into the Jeep. He didn’t move, though, and she realized he wouldn’t drive away until he knew she was safely inside, so she stepped up to the porch and unlocked her grandmother’s front door.

As he finally backed out of the driveway, she returned to the porch to watch him drive away through the warm June sunshine.

26

The weight of the past presses on us like an invisible burden and as we stand on the threshold of a new life, the memories of the compound threaten to pull us back into the darkness.

—Ghost Lakeby Ava Howell Brooks

Madison

After a hectic final day of work at the veterinary clinic, Madi gathered the rest of her belongings out of her locker. She walked into the break room for one last goodbye to her coworkers and stopped short.

The entire place was decorated with streamers, Mylar balloons and a big sign with dog and cat paw prints across it that said Good Luck Madison.

All of her coworkers beamed at her, with Luke’s smile the biggest of all.

She stood in the doorway, tendrils of sadness curling through her like the strings on those balloons.

As excited as she was to be starting this next chapter of her life, she loved working at the clinic and was sorry to leave her coworkers.

She cleared her throat. “I thought I made it clear I really didn’t want a big fuss.”

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