Page 106 of The Edge of Summer
“You will,” Luke says. He sounds so sure, I have no choice but to believe him.
“I want to go back to Victoria,” I say eventually.
He nods, taking in the information. “Alright. I’m sure they could use another fire chief out there.”
I pull back from his chest. “What are you talking about?” I ask with a laugh.
His brows draw together. “What areyoutalking about?”
“I want to go back to Victoria to visit my parents. Just for a weekend.”
His head tips back against the couch as he chuckles. “I thought you meant that you wanted to move back.”
I shake my head. “Victoria will always be home, but it’s notmyhome. Not anymore.” I search his face, wonderinghow I managed to get so lucky. “You really would have moved there? Just like that?”
“Just like that, Shutterbug.” He cups my face in his palms. “Don’t you know that I would follow you anywhere?”
Yes, I think as I draw him in for a kiss.I know.
EPILOGUE
DELILAH
“What are you doing?”
I raise a brow as I turn to Clara. “Uh, my job?”
One of them, at least. A year ago, after gentle encouragement from Luke, I cut back my hours at Dockside so I could start taking on more photography clients. As it turns out, the demand on the island was pretty high and there was no one to fill it. My schedule has been booked solid for months.
Clara takes the cloth from my hand and starts to push me toward the break room. “You were supposed to leave twenty minutes ago!”
“It’s no big deal.” I shrug. “I told Luke I would be late.”
She tries to fight a grin, but fails. “Trust me, Dee. You wanna go home. Now get your cute butt in your car.”
I unlock my locker and retrieve my bag. My eyes narrow as I take in her odd expression. “What is going on with you?”
She waves me off. “Nothing. Get out of here or I’ll have to fire you!”
Considering Clara has threatened to fire me no less thana hundred times in the last two years, I struggle to believe her. Still, I say goodbye and head out to the parking lot. The sky is a beautiful mix of red and orange as the summer sun continues to sink lower. When I pull out of the lot, I roll my windows down, letting the breeze flow through my car.
My drive home isn’t as short as it used to be. A few months ago, a house that is almost identical to Haven House came on the market. Luke and I had been talking about moving in together—it only made sense considering how little time we spent apart—and the house coming available seemed like the perfect opportunity. Luke’s house sold quickly and we moved into the new one shortly after. It sits on the outskirts of town on the same stretch of road his parents live on.
Eventually, I pull into the driveway, and I park between Luke’s truck and my brother’s new car. Parker bought it a couple weeks ago with the money he had saved working part-time on the weekends. And in a few short weeks, he’ll be packing it up and heading out west to start university.
When he started grade eleven the year that we moved to the island, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The previous school year had been rocky after our parents’ deaths, and he had just barely scraped by with his marks. That fall, I had low expectations. I didn’t want to put more pressure on him when he was already starting at a new school. I knew that wasn’t going to be easy.
I didn’t need to worry, though. That year, Parker thrived. Attending a small public school instead of his previous private one definitely had a steep learning curve, but having the chance to reinvent himself in a place where no one hadany preconceived notions about him was the fresh start he had needed. He made friends almost immediately; began acing his classes again. He even got himself a girlfriend.
When I heard that he had been named valedictorian of his graduating class—in part because of his exceptional grades, but also because his classmates voted him in—I cried. I’ve done a lot of that over the past two years, making up for those nine months when I hardly felt anything at all. But these days, most of the tears that I shed are happy.
I barely have time to make it up the porch before Sophia flings open the front door and grabs my hand. While Parker heads off to university, Sophia will be starting grade two at the island’s only elementary school. It feels like she grows up more every day. I swear I’m going to blink and accidentally miss something.
“C’mon, Sissy,” she says. “We have to be fast!”
“Fast?” I ask. “Doing what?”
“Getting ready!”
