Page 53 of Through the Dark Night
“Yeah,” Mateo said, looking hard at Marina.
“I also looked up both men. Morison is shady. He’s got a rap sheet of his own. Vincent looks pretty good on paper, but I did manage to dig up a few things, hints that he might have a pretty explosive temper. Charges that have been dropped, and one interesting-looking payoff-type thing. I might be able to get more if I need to dig deeper.”
“That sounds like enough,” Mateo said.
“I’m pretty sure I passed him on the way out,” Pastor Garnett said as he stepped in the door with Josiah beside him.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure he’s gone,” Mateo said.
Voices broke out as everyone gave their opinion on what Marina should do, and Shannon waited while Marina seemed to waver back and forth. It was obvious she was afraid of what her ex might do, of making him mad, and of the pain he could inflict on her, but it was also obvious that she knew that everyone was right.
Finally, Mateo and Homer left with Marina between them to go file a report at the police station. They told Shannon that they would let her know if they needed her to show up, or perhaps an officer would be dispatched to come take a statement from her, since she was a witness to the entire event.
She offered to go, but Marina knew how busy they were and how much they needed to do to get ready for the next day, and she insisted that Shannon stay.
By the end of the day, the entire town had rallied around Marina once they had understood that she was hiding from domestic abuse. Everyone was glad that Marina had decided to stand and fight, and pledged to stand behind her. Mateo was by her side the entire time she was giving her statement and doing the police report, and he offered to stay at the inn, guarding it all night while catching catnaps at his gym during the day.
Shannon didn’t think that was necessary, since they did have a security system installed, and it engaged every night at midnight. The townspeople decided that someone would be around until midnight every night until they got the thing worked out.
Shannon was glad to see Marina facing her fear, and she felt like she and Marina had matured at the same time. She had faced hers when she had gone to apologize to Lance and when she’d asked him to kiss her.
She wasn’t sure that she was totally cured from the idea of allowing fear to control her life, but every victory gave her strength for another, even harder one. That much was true, and she shared that with Marina that night before they went to bed.
“Tomorrow’s the opening, and I think we’re ready,” Marina finally said once they had talked about her ex and the different scenarios that could happen.
“I think we are too. I wish I had more rooms ready. I think we might have been able to be sold out, and that would have been a really exciting opening day.”
“But you’ve got more done than I ever thought you would. When I first walked in, I didn’t know how in the world you would be able to open the inn before next year at the earliest.”
“I know. The town really rallied around us.” She looked around at the beautifully decorated room, with gourds and pumpkins and fall colors lighting everything up, glowing gently in the soft night lights of the inn. It was absolutely amazing, and she couldn’t have done it without the town behind her, but especially Lance. She hadn’t talked tohim a whole lot that day, although he seemed to hover close in the evening, like he was afraid for her. Or just wanted to be there for her.
Maybe once the inn opened and things settled down, they would have more time to discuss what they were going to do in their future. She hoped that marriage would be a part of that. But he hadn’t said anything. And they were kind of old. Too old to start a family. Too old to have those young-person hopes and dreams of spending a lifetime together. They could just spend what was left of their lifetime.
She hated to be depressed about that and tried to look at it in a positive way. This was the first day of the rest of her life, and she wanted every day to be spent with Lance. She needed to tell him that.
Twenty-Three
“Ithink I have everything ready. We’ve got food on the buffet, the rooms have all been checked and double-checked, Marina is making something amazing, Lauren brought snacks and baked goods, Vera has been arranging flowers, Skyler is helping with the table settings, and I feel like I’m forgetting something, but I can’t think of what it is.” Shannon tried to tamp down her anxiety as she looked up into Lance’s face.
He smiled and put a hand on either side of her shoulders. “You are going to be amazing. Everything is ready. And if it’s not, we’ll handle it on the fly. This is going to be the best opening any inn has ever seen, and it’s because so much hard work has gone into it, but also love and companionship and camaraderie like only Raspberry Ridge can do.”
His words were comforting and calm, and they soothed her nerves immediately.
She stepped closer and put her arms around his neck, drawing him down to her and touching her lips with his. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. Thank you.”
They pulled apart, just enough to be able to look into each other’s eyes and smile.
Then they broke apart but held hands as they walked through the inn one last time. The kitchen was buzzing with activity, with Marina in charge of it all. There was some flour on the counter, something a little sticky on the floor, and Marina had what looked like chocolate on her forehead, but she looked calm and cool and collected, and Mateo was at her side, making sure that anything she needed or wanted was within her reach immediately.
“They look good together, don’t they?” Shannon said as they left the kitchen.
“Marina and Mateo?” Lance asked, as though he hadn’t really noticed.
“Yeah. Mateo told me that he was going to ask Marina to officially be his girlfriend today. I kind of thought that perhaps another day might work out better, since this one was going to be pretty chaotic, but I didn’t want to discourage him, because I know Marina really is hoping he will.”
“I say don’t put it off. You never know what might happen,” Lance said.
Shannon felt a little bit bad about that, because he had admitted that he wished he would have gone after her all those years ago. Followed her to college somehow, instead of staying home and keeping his word to his mom and taking care of his sister.
