Hungry Mountain Man

by Charlize Starr

  Jeff’s been sent to the state prison. He’s facing a huge list of charges, and the detective I spoke to said that even without my testimony, he’s facing years in prison. I’m planning to testify against him, though. I’ve been talking it over with Anthony, and I think that it will make me feel a lot better if I do. I can’t erase the fact that I dated him. I can’t take any of that back, but I can keep him behind bars longer. I can keep him from hurting other people the way he hurt me.

  I feel like Anthony, David, and I are becoming a family. David is such a great kid, and I really like spending time with him. Last month, Anthony went back to New York for work, and I watched David all weekend. We’d had a wonderful time, and it had felt like something I could do – keep doing – forever. It amazes me that Anthony raised David by himself. He was all alone in New York with a baby depending on him. He’s done a great job. David is smart and curious and clearly well loved. They’re so sweet together, a perfect little family unit, and I feel grateful and thrilled to be part of it.

  David keeps asking me all these questions with wide and serious eyes. He wants to know all about how his dad and I met and about when we were kids. The weekend I watched him, I brought a whole photo album filled with pictures of Anthony and me. David had laughed, seeing his dad as a child and a teenager. He had wanted to hear stories about all the other people in the pictures as well. He’s even met Autumn several times, and she keeps jokingly referring to him as her nephew.

  Everything lately has been giving me that hopeful, light, and happy sort of feeling. Most of all, Anthony has. I’m so in love with him. I’ve always loved him. Now, it’s like every single day I learn even more about him and find new reasons to fall in love with him. There are so many things about him that are the same – that are all the reasons I’ve always wanted him in my life. Yet, there are so many new things that have changed, including the ways he’s grown over the years.

  I’m so glad to have him back. To be breathing easily again. To feel like, for the first time in far too long, my life is headed in the right direction.

  Chapter Eighteen - Anthony

  I haven’t slept all night. I’ve just been lying awake, my brain racing with thoughts of Brooke. The past four months have been some of the best of my life. I knew moving back to my hometown was the right choice, and that it would bring changes, but I had no way of knowing what I’d find in Brooke. What we’d find in each other. It’s still early, but the morning sun is breaking through the window. I decide to wake her up. There is something I have to confess.

  “Good morning,” I say, reaching out and running a hand across her arm. She stirs and smiles up at me, extra breathtaking this morning.

  “Hi,” she says, kissing me softly.

  “Do you know what today is?” I ask, smiling.

  “The date we set when we were joking about getting married?” Brooke asks, laughing gently. I tuck her hair behind her ears and grin.

  “I have to tell you something,” I say. I almost feel nervous, like I had that first night I’d taken her to the Purple Hog.

  “About our wedding?” she asks, clearly teasing. I shake my head.

  “I have a confession,” I say, sitting up. She tilts her head at me curiously.

  “Tell me,” Brooke says, sitting up too.

  “I never canceled any of it,” I say. I get up and go to the front of the bed, kneeling in front of her. She gasps.

  “Anthony,” she says in a whisper, like she can’t quite believe what she’s seeing. I take her hands in mine and kiss them before continuing.

  “I knew you were one the one for me. I love you, so I didn’t cancel a single thing. I want you in my life forever. I want you and me and David to be a family. Will you marry me? Right now? Today?” I ask, pulling a ring out of the pocket of my pajamas. I’d picked it out with Autumn a month ago. She’s been helping out with everything. She says it’s felt good to keep a positive secret.

  “Yes,” Brooke says, grabbing the sides of my face and kissing me. She’s crying, hot tears streaming down her face that I can feel on my cheeks as she kisses me. “Yes,” she says again, against my lips.

  “I love you,” I say again, “and I can’t imagine being married to anyone but you.”

  “I love you,” she says, pulling back a little. She puts her hand out to me, and I slip the ring on it. I’m so thrilled she’s said yes. I’m so happy in this moment that it almost doesn’t feel real – almost doesn’t feel like it should be possible.

  “I love that you didn’t cancel the arrangements,” Brooke continues. “I love that you had so much faith in us working and in me.”

  “I think part of me knew you were the one for me even when we were teenagers,” I confess. “That contract was my idea, after all.”

  “I loved you then, too,” Brooke admits, laughing a little. “Anthony, this ring is beautiful.”

  “Autumn helped,” I say, and Brooke’s eyes get watery again.

  “It’s amazing,” she repeats. She looks so happy, and I think this is what I want: to make her happy forever. To always find ways to make her smile.

  “I have another surprise,” I say. I stand up and open my closet, going to the back and pulling out a garment bag. It holds the dress I’ve had custom-made for her. A designer friend of mine in New York spend weeks on it, perfecting every detail. I don’t know much about fashion, but I know something beautiful when I see it, and this dress is amazing. It’s actually worthy of Brooke, unlike her other one, and I’m sure she’ll be stunning in it.

  “What is that?” Brooke asks, standing up. Her voice is shaking a little.

  “Open it,” I say. Brooke pulls on the zipper of the bag and gasps again as the dress is revealed.

  “Oh my God, Anthony,” Brooke says, running her fingers over the silk in awe. “It’s gorgeous.”

  “It’s one of a kind. I had it custom made for you,” I say. Brooke throws her arms around me, kissing me again, and I can feel how fast her heart is speeding under me.

  “It’s wonderful. You’re wonderful,” Brooke says. She pulls back and looks at the dress again, then her ring, then at me, like she can’t quite believe it.

  “You didn’t really think I’d let you get married in that other dress, did you?” I ask, grinning. Brooke laughs but then kisses me fiercely.

  “I’d marry you in rags,” she says. I kiss her back, holding her close to me for a long moment.

  “I’d better go wake my best man up,” I say, kissing her forehead as I pull back.

  I wake David up and tell him the good news. He bounces around, helping me get ready while Brooke gets changed. He was in on the plan, and he keeps telling me that he knew when we met her at the playground that I was going to marry Brooke. He’s a ball of energy, running around the house and singing mixed-up words to love songs as we get ready to leave.

  We’re going to drive to the wedding together, both already dressed. It breaks tradition. I’ll see her in her dress before we get to the aisle, but I don’t care. We’ve been breaking tradition our whole lives. We’ve been through so much that I’m not worried about bad luck. I just want to marry Brooke today. I want to start our life together.

  When she walks down the stairs in her dress, my breath catches. I’ve never seen her, or anyone, look so beautiful. I’ve never seen a better sight in my life. We drive to the hotel, clutching each other’s hands the whole time. I can almost feel the nervous and excited feelings radiating from her through her hand, like we’re conducting energy where our hands are joined.

  The chapel bursts into applause when we get there. Every row is filled with our friends and family. Autumn is standing at the end of the aisle, waiting, and David scampers up the aisle to join her. She gives him a high-five and he flashes me a thumbs-up. I think they’re the perfect maid of honor and best man. If the sounds of awing and cooing and cameras flashing all around the chapel are any indication, all our guests agree.

  Brooke squeezes my arm and takes a huge breath.
/>   “Ready?” I ask. She nods rapidly.

  “Absolutely,” Brooke says.

  “Then I’ll meet you up there,” I say, kissing her forehead and then heading up the aisle where Autumn and David are waiting.

  The music swells up a few minutes later, and I turn to watch Brooke walking down the aisle to me, still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. Looking at her, I almost forget how to breathe entirely. I can’t quite believe we really made it here, to our wedding day, that after all these years, Brooke is walking toward me in a gorgeous gown, about to become my wife.

  “I love you,” Brooke mouths when she gets to me. She’s crying again, a few silent tears as she faces me.

  “I love you,” I mouth back. I can’t stop smiling, can’t stop the happiness that keeps rising in me.

  A few hours later, after the ceremony and at our reception, I still haven’t stopped smiling. Every moment of this day has been perfect, even better than I had hoped. Autumn has given a long speech about how she thinks Brooke and I are soulmates. She called us both brave and wonderful and said we deserved every moment of happiness she knew we were going to have. David gave a speech too, telling everyone what a good storyteller Brooke is and about how much she makes his dad smile.

  After the speeches and the first dance, and several dances after that, my mom cuts in just for a minute. She looks like she’s been crying all day, and she beams at me as we dance.

  “I always had a feeling you would marry Brooke,” my mom says.

  “Always?” I ask. My mom nods.

  “Since you were both skinny high school freshmen, I knew it,” she replies. I smile, picturing Brooke and me as those awkward kids, already so close.

  “You were right,” I say and my mom laughs.

  “I always am,” she tells me. “I’m so happy for you, for both of you.”

  “Thank you for everything,” I say. I mean it for how much she always supported me, for how much she supported Brooke, for how much she loves David, and for how much she’s helping with my final surprise of the day.

  “You know I’ll always watch David, anytime. That’s a wonderful kid you have there,” she says, smiling softly.

  She dances me back over to Brooke and hugs her tightly for a minute before letting us dance again.

  “Hi,” Brooke says, folding back into my arms and spinning with me. I kiss her, sliding my hand on her cheek as I do.

  “Married life treating you well so far?” I ask, teasing when we pull back a little. Brooke laughs.

  “It’s perfect,” she says. I’ve never seen her eyes so bright, I’ve never seen her look so happy.

  “Yeah,” I say, “it really is.”

  “We haven’t danced like this since prom night,” Brooke says. I laugh.

  “That’s fitting since that was the night we got engaged,” I say, kissing Brooke again.

  I dance with Brooke for the rest of the night, until the guests start clearing out until our feet hurt until all I want is to get her home and celebrate our wedding privately. I have one more surprise before we make it home, one last thing I’ve been planning.

  “Before we go home,” I say, pulling Brooke in close and leading her to a room in the hotel I’ve blocked off just for this.

  “More surprises?” Brooke asks, eyes wide and bright.

  “Just one,” I say. I open the closet in the room and pull out a large wrapped box. Brooke sits down and takes it from me, eyes looking watery again.

  “You’ve already given me so much today,” she says.

  “Open it,” I say, sitting beside her. She pulls the paper off slowly and opens the box lid. She gasps when she sees the leather album inside.

  “This is beautiful,” she says, running her fingers over the butter-soft fabric.

  “Open that, too,” I say. I can’t take my eyes off her face, want to see the exact moment when she figures out what this really is. She opens the album and her eyes widen again at what I’ve already tucked into the sleeves, hotel room bookings and tickets for attractions all over the country.

  “This is our road trip,” she says, turning the pages, eyes running over everything I’ve laid out.

  “It’s our honeymoon,” I say, and she turns her head to me, crying in earnest now.

  “Our honeymoon?” she asks. I kiss her, pulling her gently from the back of her neck.

  “We leave tomorrow. My mom is going to watch David while we’re gone,” I say. She gasps again and leans in for another kiss.

  “When did you do this?” she asks.

  “I’ve been thinking about it for months, but once you got promoted and you can work remotely now, I had to. Nothing is stopping us, and we’ve been talking about this for a really long time,” I say.

  “Even longer than getting married,” Brooke says. She puts her forehead against mine, breathing hard.

  “It seemed right to combine them,” I say, smiling. She nods, eyes back on the album, looking beautiful and happy. I think it’s fitting, a road trip to start a marriage, a physical journey to start an emotional one. I’m looking forward to every mile, every inch, of those journeys with Brooke. I’m certain every one of them will make me fall even more in love with her.

  After Michelle had died, I had thought I could fill the emptiness in me with equally empty things. I thought the only person I needed to love was David. Now I know that I always needed someone, needed Brooke. Coming home has changed my life in more ways than I possibly could have predicted, and almost all of them are tied to Brooke and the way she makes me feel. I came home to chase real happiness, and I’ve found it, here with Brooke.

  Epilogue - Brooke

  I can’t believe I’ve been married for three weeks. I still can’t get over how Anthony had surprised me. I’m not sure I’ll ever be over it. I can’t believe a day as perfect as our wedding day was mine. I can’t believe a man as wonderful as Anthony is mine. I can’t believe we’re each other’s, forever. I’m so thrilled every day that Anthony kept our wedding date, that we didn’t wait for another second to get married. He’s only been back in town a short amount of time, but I already can’t imagine spending a moment of my life without him.

  Our honeymoon had been perfect. We’d seen every single sight we’d ever talked about as teenagers. Anthony had brought the album of postcards I’d gotten him for high school graduation, and we’d be sure to take our own pictures of every landmark and attraction on them. We’d sent actual postcards to David every few days. We’d seen roadside oddities and beautiful natural wonders and we’d explored ghost towns and thriving busy little cities. Anthony had convinced me to try all sort of food I’d never had before, seafood and foreign cuisines and other things we’d didn’t really have in town but that I loved the flavors of.

  I never really thought I’d be able to take a trip like that, really get away, but Anthony had made it possible. We’d spent days exploring the countryside, and the nights in seedy motels and high-end hotels alike exploring each other, sometimes hardly sleeping, unable to stop touching each other.

  We’ve been back for two days and we’re having lunch with Autumn. Our wedding pictures came in the mail yesterday, and Autumn had wanted to see them all and to hear more details of our honeymoon road trip, in person. She’s so much more lively these days, so much more like herself. Even her apartment is cleaner and brighter than it used to be. I wouldn’t have thought months ago it was possible for both of us to be in such a good place. I’m so glad I was wrong.

  Anthony’s photographer friend did an amazing job with the pictures. Every single one of them looks ready to be framed. Anthony and I look so in love in them, so in love and so happy.

  “This one of you both dancing with David is so adorable,” Autumn says, smiling softly as she looks over the picture in front of her.

  “David is an especially photogenic kid,” Anthony says, grinning and grabbing my hand under the table, squeezing.

  A knock on the door surprises us all, and Autumn shrugs as she stands
up. I tense a little, old fears rising up. Anthony runs his thumb over my wrist, at my pulse, a silent reminder to breathe, that it’s okay. We stand up and follow Autumn, and see Sheriff Marken, the chief of police, at the door.

  “Good afternoon, Sheriff,” Autumn says, sounding a little nervous herself.

  “I wanted to come here and tell you the good news in person,” Sheriff Marken says. He’s a kind older man with a slow and almost sleepy sounding voice. He’s been with the police department as long as I can remember.

  “The good news?” Autumn asks. Anthony squeezes my hand again.

  “After review, we’re not going to be moving forward with your case in any way. No trial, and no more questioning. Your case has been classified as self-defense, and closed permanently,” Sheriff Marken says.

  “That’s it?” Autumn asks, her eyes wide. She sounds out of breath and in shock.

  “He had a list of crime a mile long, and obviously every intention to commit more. He was a bad man, the kind we don’t want in our town. You should have come forward right away, but we know you didn’t mean any to hurt anyone. You’re a good girl, Autumn. Everyone around here knows you’d never do anything wrong if you thought you had a choice. We know you were just scared. I do have to advise you to please, in the future, come to us right away with anything.” Sheriff Marken says, smiling fondly at Autumn. His own daughter is an only year or two older than I am. He’s seen Autumn and I grow up in this town.

  “So it’s really over?” Autumn asks. She’s rocking on her heels the way she does when she’s excited about something. It reminds me of when we were children and she used to spend all Christmas Eve bouncing through our house.