Page 79 of Where Secrets Lie

“Good call.” Hez took Savannah’s hand. “I was afraid it would be boring for him.”

Nora walked just ahead of them and glanced back with a smile. “Not with what I have planned. I had cornhole, a giant Jenga game, and beach volleyball set up on the other side of the tent. I asked Will to invite some football friends too, and Will promised to take Simon under his wing. It will be a night he won’t forget.”

“You are amazing,” Savannah said. “Are Hez’s parents here yet?” She was eager to see them, and she knew Hez was too. They lived in Oregon, and they were supposed to arrive in Mobile at four.

“They’re on their way here in a rental car,” Nora said.

Savannah stepped into the center of the arch with Hez, and people began to line up before the DJ had a chance to make an announcement. Jimmy was first in line. His bear hug about broke her back, but she didn’t mind a bit.

Jimmy had tears in his eyes as he hugged Hez. “Didn’t think I’d ever see this day, my friend. If you have any trouble with him, you come straight to me, you hear?” he told Savannah in a choked voice.

Tears sprang to her eyes too. “I’m sure you’ll keep him in line. Thank you for pouring into his life, Jimmy.”

“It was my pleasure.” He moved out of the way.

Person after person filed through with congratulations and hugs. Hez’s cousin Blake and his aunt Jenna were there with Blake’s girlfriend, Paradise, and his younger siblings. The Justice Chamber crew had come with their dates, and Jane Dixon and her family added their warm wishes. Savannah could barely keep her hands off Jane’s sweet little girl, Dolly. Their pastor was there as well as Hope and even Savannah’s counselor, Melissa Morris. A few reporters roamed the tent’s perimeter, snapping pictures and talking to guests. Savannah had been a bit of a celebrity ever since Hornbrook’s arrest. Hez should have been the real star.

She stiffened at the last person in line. Her father. She’d told Nora not to send him an invitation. “Hello, Dad.”

“Savannah.” He embraced her, and his overpowering cologne made her stomach clench. “I know I have no right to be here after the way I behaved, but I couldn’t stay away. I hope you can forgive me for it all.” He glanced out into the twilight where Simon and Will played Jenga. “I want to be part ofSimon’s life. And yours if you’ll have me. All that’s happened has been a wake-up call for me. Jess is gone, but her son is still here. I want to be part of his life.”

Her initial warm feelings at his manner took a sharp turn. Was it always about what he wanted? But did she have the right to refuse his olive branch when Simon longed for more family? No, she didn’t. “Thanks, Dad. I’m sure you will love Simon when you get to know him.”

“I already do.” He smiled and squeezed her shoulder with his fingers before he shook Hez’s hand, then wandered off toward Simon.

Savannah watched him amble up to her nephew and saw the moment when Simon’s face lit up. Had she just made a terrible mistake? The man had been nothing but pain in Jess’s life. She’d be watchful and see how things went.

She spotted Hez’s parents and squeezed his arm. “Your parents are here!” They both left the line and went to greet his mom and dad. Hez’s father was an older version of his son, and he was still handsome and distinguished at nearly seventy. His mother was beautiful with Hez’s blue eyes and a blonde cut that accentuated her delicate bone structure. They chatted a moment before going off to grab food and meet Simon.

Savannah started to follow them, but Hez snagged her hand and drew her out of the tent and into the shadows. “I have you to myself at last.” He pulled her into his arms and rested his chin on top of her head.

The scent of his sage soap enveloped her as well, and she relaxed into the feeling that she was right where she belonged. She could feel his heart beating, and the strength of his arms around her was the haven she’d been craving since they gotout of the car. She didn’t need congratulations from other people when she had Hez right here. Being with him was all that mattered.

He kissed her, and she sank into the overwhelming love he poured into that kiss. When he pulled away, she reached for him again but he smiled. “I have something for you too, but I didn’t want anyone else to see it.” He reached under the bench behind him and held out a wooden box. “All the best memories of my life are with you.”

She took the box and settled on the bench before she removed the lid. He switched on his phone’s flashlight and sat beside her as she lifted out the first picture. It was the two of them on their first date at a football game. They’d been impossibly young and foolish. But happy, so happy. She felt that same joy bubble in her chest as she stared at her former self. If she’d known then what she knew now, she’d still marry him. She laid it aside and continued to lift out pictures and mementos—various tickets and pictures, the invitation to their first engagement party, photos at their tiny first apartment, the ultrasound of Ella in the womb, a copy of Ella’s birth announcement, Hez holding tiny Ella in the delivery room, so many pictures of the life they’d built together.

By the time she was finished, tears streamed down her face. “I love it,” she whispered. “We have so many more memories to make. This is just the beginning.”

“But I don’t want to forget the others either. They build on each other. Thank you for giving us another chance.”

She leaned into his kiss again and imprinted this moment into her heart forever.

Epilogue

The Legare cemetery made Michael Willard’s skin crawl. It was a macabre museum honoring fraud and deceit. The decaying marble crypt of Louis Legare and his wife crowned the little hill, shaded by a stately oak. Louis helped to force Joseph Willard out of the university he’d founded and erased his name from the school, changing Universitates Nova Cambridge Willardius to Tupelo Grove University. Louis’s son, Luc—TGU’s second Legare president—rested next to the crypt beneath a pretentious granite obelisk, chosen to honor his sole scholarly achievement: a minor paper on Egyptian hieroglyphics. The graves of Luc’s son, Andre, and most of his immediate family clustered just downhill from their forebears. Andre, Pierre’s father, had started the deep corruption that had cored out the guts of the university. Below them and to Michael’s left was a plot that could not be filled soon enough.

The space reserved for Pierre Legare.

He was the worst of the family, which was saying a lot. His death was already long overdue. Too bad he would be buried next to Marie and Jess. That spot should belong to Michael,but Legares had been stealing the places of Willards for over a century.

Michael’s gaze moved to the graves of his lover and daughter, both adorned with fresh flowers from Mama’s visit two days ago. He picked up a lily from Marie’s grave. “‘The Lilly white shall in Love delight,’” he recited in a husky voice. “‘Nor a thorn nor a threat stain her beauty bright.’” His vision blurred and he dropped the flower.

Marie had taught him to love poetry and so much else—to love life itself. It had been an unexpected and wonderful lesson for a hard-bitten businessman bent on revenge. She had lit his life like a meteor burning across a moonless night—and vanishing all too soon.

He focused on Jess’s fresh grave, and tears surged again. Had he been wrong to pull her into his desire for revenge? Should he have shown his love and pride for her more often?

No, soft parents make soft children. Willards were as hard and strong as steel, and the finest steel gained its strength and keen edge from the heat of the blacksmith’s fire and the pounding of his hammer. Michael’s father had raised his children with fire and pounding to make them strong, and it had worked. Michael did the same thing for the same reason. Besides, he didn’t know any other way. Jess had never thanked him—just like he never thanked his father—but she must have understood.

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