Page 79 of Welcome to Blackbird Hollow
Chapter 34
Wyatt
Breakfast on the back porch occurs more at lunchtime than breakfast; Alice calls it “brunch” as she sips her coffee, her plate of eggs, bacon, and fried potatoes practically licked clean. I love it that my girl can eat.
The air’s starting to turn, the golden warmth of autumn leaching off, winter lurking at its heels. Snow’ll dust the hills before we know it. My mind’s already torn ahead to Solstice, wondering if there’s childhood ornaments somewhere we can go pick up for the tree, and wondering when Alice’s parents will come home.
I have a conversation I need to have with her pops. The thought bounces around in my mind, no longer frightening or tinged with anxiety for the future that hasn’t arrived yet.
Alice will stay. We will fall in love properly, deeply, in all the ways that make the kind of marriage my parents never could’ve hoped for. We’ll make a life they never would have dared dream about, and when the time is right, I know in my soul that I’m gonna ask for the hand of the woman next to me.
She wipes her lips with a gingham cloth napkin, smiling at me. “What’re you thinking about?”
I grin. “Guess.”
She waggles her eyebrows at me as Fern zips around the yard, enthusiasm and puppy bounciness returning to her body now that the Hunt’s passed us.
“Not that,” I laugh. “Well, not before…but now…”
Alice laughs too, setting her plate on the deck, snuggling into her chair, and pulling the thick quilt I keep in a basket by the door over her. Her eyes are a little sleepy as she smiles. “Well, I’ve gotta say, you look a lot like you love me.”
The words pierce my very soul, and I answer without hesitation. “Well, I do, sweet girl. Maybe it’s too soon to say, but I do love you.”
She smiles, warmth infusing every inch of her, but she doesn’t say it back. Instead, she takes my hand and squeezes. “Will you let me just luxuriate in that for a while?”
Her question is tentative, like I might be angry with her. But I know Alice Blythe like I know my own soul. She loves me too; that’s plain as day. But she’s never had enough love to go around for herself, the stress of not belonging chasing her like a pack of hungry hyenas.
I squeeze her hand back. “You luxuriate as long as you like, darlin’.”
She brings my hand to her lips and kisses my knuckles, whispering, “I knew you’d say that.”
Emotion chokes my throat. No one’s ever seen me quite as clearly as Alice does. I may have belonged with Fallon and Caden, and here in Blackbird Hollow, but now I’m seen. Known. And it’s the best thing I’ve ever felt.
Inside, the phone rings, and I’m tempted to let it go unanswered. But this soon after last night, I can’t.
Alice lets go of my hand and grins. “Better go get that.”
An hour later,Caden, Fallon, Fern, Alice, and myself are somehow all squeezed into the cab of my truck, bouncing along a dirt road, deep into the forest. Everyone’s talking at once, and I can’t make out the multiple threads of conversation and drive at the same time.
I catch snippets of gossip from last night’s celebration on the roof, theories on Fey anatomy, and something incomprehensible from Fallon about puffer vests being the avatar of the apocalypse. It’s fucking chaos, and I love it.
As I take a turn down what can only be described as a game trail, I spot flashing lights in the mist. We’ve crossed into tribal lands, and the guardians are here, just where Marion said they’d be. She’s sipping coffee out of an ancient insulated mug, which she raises to me as I slow the truck.
When the five of us spill out of the cab, Leonard Gill and Debbie Kingbird both rise out of crouches just beyond the SUV with the flashing lights. All three of them laugh at us. A couple of horses look up from where they’re grazing on the other side of the small clearing.
Debbie snorts. “Fuckin’ Hayes kids—what is this, a clown car?” The chief’s brown eyes sparkle with affection, despite the bark of her words. She extends a hand to Alice. “Good to meet you, Miss Blythe. Marion’s had a lot of interesting things to tell us about you.”
Alice returns the handshake, bowing her head slightly in deference as she notices the beaded badge embroidered on the chief’s barn jacket. “I hope some of them were good.”
Leonard chuckles, elbowing me as he comes to stand next to me. He’s got about four inches on me, and thirty years, silverthreading through his braids. “Glad y’all could make it out. This is your area, for sure, not ours.”
Chief Kingbird nods. “You can take it from here, Marion.”
Marion smiles. “Sure thing.”
The Chief and Leonard make their way across the clearing, avoiding a circle of mossy lumps in the center, and mount their horses. As they disappear into the forest, Caden stares at the circle. Alice goes to stand next to him, and they murmur to one another in nearly indecipherable tones.
Marion pours two more cups of coffee from a thermos on the hood of her SUV and hands them to me and Fallon. “Thought the two of you could use some decent coffee.”
