Page 10 of Hayrides with Hank
I studied Maddie’s face, seeing the real fear behind her words. “You think loving me means giving up everything else.”
She looked away, but I gently turned her chin back toward me.
“Maddie, I fell for the woman who travels the festival circuit, not someone who’d give that up.” I took her hands in mine. “What kind of man would I be if I asked you to become someone else?”
“But relationships require compromise?—”
“Sure they do. But not sacrificing who you are.” I squeezed her hands. “What if we did the circuit together?”
Her eyes widened. “What?”
“What if Maple Ridge was just our home base, not our prison?” I could see the idea taking hold, the fear in her eyes shifting to something that looked like hope, so I continued. “My business is seasonal anyway. What if we spent the off months on the road?”
“You’d really do that?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
I smiled. “Sweetheart, I’ve been stuck in the same place my whole life. Maybe it’s time I saw what’s out there.” I paused, watching her face. “But I have to ask you something, and I want you to be honest with me.”
She nodded.
“What scares you more—losing your freedom, or losing us?”
The question hung in the air between us. I watched as she considered it, really considered it, tears streaming down her cheeks now.
“Losing us,” she whispered finally. “God, Hank, the thought of losing us terrifies me.”
“Then why are you trying so hard to make it happen?”
She was quiet for a long moment, staring down at our joined hands. “Because I don’t know how to be in love and still be me.”
“The right person doesn’t make you less yourself, Maddie. They make you more.” I tilted her chin up again. “And if I ever tried to clip your wings, you’d be right to leave me.”
A sob escaped her. “I’ve been looking forward to coming back here all year. Even before I met you, this place felt…different. Special.”
“Because you felt at home here.”
“But I was supposed to never want a home again.”
“Says who? Your mom wanted to travel, but that doesn’t mean home was her enemy. Maybe home was just supposed to be the launching pad for her adventures, not the place that kept her from them.”
She was crying harder now, but I could see something shifting in her expression. Relief, maybe. Or recognition.
“I want both,” she said, her voice shaking. “I want you, and I want to travel, and I want this place to come back to. Is that selfish?”
“That’s not selfish, baby. That’s smart.” I pulled her against me, and she melted into my chest. “That’s choosing a life instead of just surviving one.”
We sat there in the gathering dusk, holding each other on the back of the hay wagon, and I realized this was it. This was the moment that would define the rest of our lives.
“So,” I said into her hair, “want to take this thing for a ride? See where it leads us?”
She pulled back to look at me, and her smile was radiant. “As long as we always come back here.”
“Always,” I promised. “This is home. Everything else is just an adventure.”
She kissed me then, soft and sure, and I knew we’d found our way. The hayride could take us anywhere—around the property, around the country, around the world. But it would always bring us back to this moment, to each other, to the place where we learned that love doesn’t have to mean choosing. Sometimes it means having it all.
EPILOGUE
MADDIE
