Page 32 of Shelter for Shay
She hesitated, then said, “I don’t know. But I think I’m finally willing to find out.”
He reached for her hand, fingers brushing hers until she laced them together. The fit was easy. Natural. Like something they hadn’t even realized they’d been building.
“Have you always felt like an outsider in your hometown?” he asked.
“It’s not that,” she said. “I do love it here. I see myself always coming to visit. My mom—her memory—will be here forever. It was a beautiful place to become the young woman who wanted to see the world. And I’ve seen a lot of it. I still want to do some traveling. However, the itch to carve out my own corner of life has finally settled into my bones. I don’t know if my mom’s passing has something to do with that or if it’s simple age and maturity. But the one thing my mom always told me was that a person needs to find their road, travel it, take the fork, get a little lost, and land in just the right spot.”
“She always had the best way of saying things.”
“That she did.” Shay nodded.
“So, what do you say?” he murmured. “Want to take a risk? Take that fork in the road and see where we land?”
“I think I do,” she said. “Just… don’t disappear.”
“I won’t.” He had to wonder if that was a statement born out of being abandoned by her dad. “That’s not my style. Not even when I left this town. I said all my goodbyes. Even to my folks who didn’t seem to care.”
She touched his cheek. “I care.”
“Then it’s settled.”
“What have we gotten ourselves into?” She rested her head on his shoulder. “This is nuts.”
“Your mom would say it’s fate.”
“For a woman who barely dated, she was a hopeless romantic.”
They stood there in the kitchen, two people stripped down to nothing but truth, and for the first time in years, Moose felt something other than duty or survival.
He felt possibility.
9
SHAY – LAKE GEORGE, NEW YORK
SHEPARD PARK – EARLY AFTERNOON
The playground was alive with the sounds of shrieking joy and chaos. For the first time in days, Shay felt light. She still missed her mom and figured that would always be the case. She knew it would ease over time, but she had good friends… and now a boyfriend.
God, that was so weird to even think.
Her mother was probably doing the tango up in heaven.
Two toddlers chased each other between the swings and the slide, one in a red puffer vest, the other with pigtails flopping as she ran, doing her darndest to keep up with her Irish twin brother. Shay used to think forty was the perfect age to have children.
Now, she figured younger was better. Wow. What a thought. One that scared her and she had no idea if that was something Moose even wanted. Inwardly, she groaned. Ever since Moose had informed her he would be deployed, she’d been consumed with doubt and strange thoughts.
“Hey, slow down there, kiddo.” Becca barely flinched as her youngest attempted to scale a bench with a juice box in her teeth like a squirrel.
It amazed Shay how easily Becca had adjusted to parenthood. She was a natural. Like that had been her sole purpose in life.
Shay sat beside her on a sun-warmed bench, a travel coffee cup in her hands, her eyes on the sparkling lake just past the trees. A breeze lifted the edge of her scarf. Fall was officially settling in—crisp air, amber leaves, and the quiet sense that change was just over the next hill.
Normally, Shay welcomed change. She thrived in it. It’s why she moved around so much. She’d loved seeing the world and what it had to offer. But now she felt as though something had passed her by. It was as if while she’d been out there living the dream, she’d missed the best thing in her life… her mom.
And perhaps love. Family.
“I swear,” Becca muttered, watching her daughter leap off the end of a slide with zero regard for gravity. “That kid has no fear.”
