“Maybe we should do some reading first,” Sam said, and Finn nearly exploded in frustration.
“Reading?! No!”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Let’s start with that sign up there.” I pointed to the new sign hanging over the front steps of the Inn.
Finn turned and cracked up as he read the sign Sam and I had made in a quick hour’s work with some scrap wood and paint. In huge block letters, it read “The Finn Inn.”
“Awesome!” Finn said, jumping in excitement. “Are we keeping it?”
I laughed. “It’s temporary, buddy. The real sign was destroyed this morning. But we’ll keep it until the new one arrives.”
Finn’s smile barely faltered, and he nodded in understanding. “And after that, this one goes in my room.” He announced it, but then looked less certain as he turned to me. “Is that okay?”
“It’s your room, buddy. Your house.” It was. Though Finn and Mike had been there less than two years, I knew that if they left, I’d abandon the big house. It would never be a home without them. “Okay,” I said, taking a deep breath. “Let’s go do this.”
Inside the front doors of the Inn, people were beginning to gather. The entire village was invited, and it was fun to see mountain people dressed up for a change. Sandra and Pete Piper were both there, Pete looking surprisingly healthy, despite his ongoing battle with cancer. Selling the Inn agreed with them, obviously. The Trenches, who lived on the other side of the meadow, were standing near the bar chatting with Miranda’s parents. Craig Pritchard even looked relaxed, where he sat on a barstool near Connor and Maddie. Dean and some of the older kids from Kings Grove High were near the band, and various other people milled about. The front doors opened over and over during the next half hour, the Inn’s first official guests arriving from all over the state to enjoy the party and check out the brand new accommodations.
Mike flitted around, greeting guests including Harvey and Jeff, as well as her mother. Once the party was in full swing and dinner was served, Mike glanced at me and then headed to the front of the room to take the microphone.
The diners quieted down as she stepped to the low stage and looked around the room, commanding every eye in the incredible low-backed red dress. Under the glittering lights strung around the stage, her hair curled in waves over her shoulders, and her long legs looked endless and perfect as she stood in front of the room. Michaela Grayson nearly stopped my heart. She was the embodiment of everything I wanted and needed, and as she began speaking, welcoming guests and announcing the official opening of the new Kings Grove Inn, my nerves began to zing inside my veins, making me feel giddy and unable to stand still.
“Thank you all for coming to celebrate and to see what we’ve built,” Mike was saying as I neared the front of the room, trying to take deep calming breaths. “It’s been a labor of love in many ways,” her eyes found me then and I nearly buckled at the knees from the love I saw in her eyes, but managed to remain standing. “This Inn represents a new start, for me, for my son Finn, and for Kings Grove. I hope it will be the beginning of many amazing experiences for those who visit and those who live here. Between the restaurant and the all-season sports center, we hope to offer this community a place to come together to grow, bond, and explore in the shadow of the amazing trees that give Kings Grove its name. I also wanted to…” Mike trailed off as I stepped up onto the stage, looking at me with slight confusion making her brow wrinkle. “Oh, did you want to talk?” She turned back to the audience. “This is Chance Palmer, who along with his brother Sam, and Miranda George, made this Inn a reality…” she trailed off as I took the microphone out of her hand, and the irritated confusion on her face made me want to take her in my arms right then. “If you wanted to say something, you could have told me earlier,” she whispered, stepping aside as I grinned and turned to the audience.
“Hello,” I said, pushing down the nerves threatening to turn me into a babbling fool. “I won’t keep you from your dinner much longer. Michaela did a great job telling you all what this place means to her, and to the community. But I want to take just a moment to tell you what Michaela means to me.”
“What?” she said, a blush climbing into her cheeks as she took a step back.
“Bear with me,” I continued. “I’m in love, and I’m nervous, and that kind of thing turns most men into morons.”
“You’ve always been a moron,” Sam heckled from the side of the room.
“Ladies and gentlemen, my brother, Sam.” I bowed, as the room rippled with a chuckle.
“This woman…” I paused and took Mike’s hand, pulling her to my side. “This woman changed not only the face of Kings Grove, but she changed everything about my life. She reminded me that the true gift and grace in life is only realized when we live outside ourselves, when we put other people first.
“I was able to do that once. I’ve been lucky to have a couple patient teachers in my life. But in recent years, I’d forgotten. And when you live your life only for yourself, the world begins to dim. These big trees here had begun to shrink, the color had started to drain from the blue sky we all enjoy, and the sheer wonder of life started to fade. I’d lost the ability to see the beauty and the grace in the world around me. Until I met Mike.” I turned to look at her, touched by the tears I saw shining in her eyes. I swallowed hard and dropped to a knee.
“This woman brought the wonder back to my world, along with her son, Finn. Together, they used their incredible set of super powers to remind me what life was about, what it was to live for others.”
Mike had brought a hand to her mouth and tears were running down her cheeks. Finn appeared at the edge of the stage and I waved him up. He moved to his mom’s side, wrapping an arm around her.
“Michaela Grayson,” I said. “I’ve already asked your son for permission to ask you a question, and I really hope you’ll say yes. Or maybe you can just say yes now in front of all these people and then let me down easy in a less embarrassing situation a bit later if your answer is really no…” Now I’d begun to babble.
“Yes,” Michaela said quickly.
“Mom,” Finn said. “He didn’t ask yet.”
The audience, who had been largely silent, rippled with laughter.
I took a deep breath and pulled the small hard box from my pocket, flipping the lid open and presenting it to Mike. “Michaela, will you marry me?”
“Yes!” Finn yelled, and the audience erupted in laughter but then quickly silenced itself, waiting to hear Michaela’s answer.
“Yes,” she breathed quietly. And then louder, “Yes, of course. Yes!” She pulled me to my feet and I handed Finn the microphone as I slid the ring onto Mike’s finger and kissed her hard and long, forgetting we were on a stage in front of a room of people. Finally, we broke apart, and with Finn between us, we faced the room, where every single person was on their feet, cheering.
When we descended the stage, we spent the next hour circling the room, everyone stopping us to offer congratulations, both on the Inn and on our engagement. I felt like I was floating through most of it, and the only thing keeping me grounded was Mike at my side.
At the end of the night we went up to the Cedar Suite, which was the biggest room in the hotel. It had two bedrooms, and Finn had settled himself earlier in the first room. After we checked on him, we retired to the other room and I took Mike in my arms again. “Finally alone,” I said, holding her close.
“I feel less alone tonight than I’ve ever felt in my life,” she said, smiling up at me. “Thank you, Chance. Thank you for bringing me into your life, for sharing this world with me.”
I held her close, feeling the world surge and brighten around me as I realized that right here—in this moment—I had everything I’d ever wanted.
THE END
Sneak Peek - Love Reclaimed (Chapter One)
Cameron
“What about this,” Connor Charles was leaning back in the Adirondack chair with a bottle held between his palms, gazing up at
the wide indigo sky beyond the illumination of the fire pit. “The room falls to a hush and maybe the lights go out. We get a mist machine going and this cool thick mist begins to rise from the ground. Maybe we get some lights to come up from the floor, along the aisle, kind of swinging around and illuminating things from below, shining up through the mist—like searchlights. And over the speakers, ‘The Final Countdown’ by Europe starts to play.” He hummed the beginning of the song: “na na na naaaa, na na nuh-nuh-nuh, na na na nuhhhh…”
“‘The Final Countdown’?” My sister practically leapt from her chair, getting to her feet and dropping her hands to her hips. “You think I should walk down the aisle to ‘The Final Countdown’?”
“Sit down,” I suggested.
“Is that how you feel about getting married, Connor? We’ve only been engaged for a half century now. Is that why you’ve been dragging your feet about planning anything? Because you feel like it’s the end of the world or something?” Maddie was getting spun up and I wished I had the right words to make her feel better. It was pretty ridiculous—both Connor’s idea, which I knew he was just tossing out to mess with her, and the fact that she was getting worked up. The guy was head over heels in love with my sister, and she knew it. The long engagement spoke more about that than anything else. They’d been enjoying things as they were, felt no need to rush into anything else. In another life, I’d known that feeling.
“Maddie,” Connor said in that low voice that always seemed to soothe her. “You know I want to get married.” He put his beer down and stood, pulling her into his arms. The firelight danced on their faces and I could see her melt the second he touched her, despite the fact she was trying to look angry. There was so much love and attraction radiating between them, it took everything in me not to stand up and go inside my house, just feet away from us. It was hard to watch, so I let my eyes drop shut and tried to turn off my mind.
Connor whispered soothing words and my sister said something back. I didn’t focus on their words; I thought about soft blond hair splayed across my pillow in the morning sun, about a laughter filled with high notes like chimes in a breeze, about a cool slim hand I’d once been lucky enough to hold in my own.
“What do you think, Cam?” My sister was back in her chair, the crisis seemingly averted.
“It’s your wedding, Mad. You should have it the way you want.” I had no idea what she was asking me, but this seemed like a pretty solid blanket response.
“Yeah, totally agree. Actually I think the whole world should work that way, but it doesn’t seem to.” She paused and inclined her head, catching my eye. Her voice softened. “I asked if you’d be willing to walk me down the aisle. You know, since Dad…”
“Dad can do it,” I said quickly, knowing there were probably a thousand reasons why that was a bad idea.
“What if he’s not lucid that day, Cam? What if he wanders off or gets confused or scared?” Her eyes grew round, her face serious, and I had a glimpse of the wild-haired little girl my sister used to be. My resolve softened.
“Yeah, maybe.”
“Maybe?” Maddie huffed and then took a long pull on her beer, turning back to the fire.
“Maybe you’ll think about it?” Connor suggested.
“Yeah,” I said, knowing my answer wasn’t winning me points with my sister. Still, the idea of a wedding—any wedding—it felt like too much. I didn’t know if I could handle it.
“You know this isn’t about you, right?” The angry edge clung to my sister’s low whisper.
I lifted a shoulder. “I know.” I did know that. And I knew I was a selfish asshole for even considering not showing up at my little sister’s wedding. But she didn’t realize how hard it was for me to even sit here having a beer with her and Connor. Not just because their love was so thick and pungent it practically draped itself over my fire pit and deck, but for other reasons too. Because it was better for them not to spend too much time with me. It was better for everyone.
“Hey Cam,” Connor’s voice had turned jovial; he was making an effort to change the subject. “When are you going to move into the main house? It seems crazy, you living in the guest shack when that incredible house sits there empty.”
“Hasn’t always been empty.”
“Yeah, you rented my dream house to strangers last year.” Maddie wasn’t done being bitter, it seemed.
“You built your dream house and never moved into it. Some dream.” I could play this game, too. “I’ve got plans to rent it again. Mentioned it to you last week.”
“Oh yeah, you said it was some girl? Why don’t you rent this girl the guest house and live in the big house yourself?” she asked, her voice finally taking back its usual tone. Her curls danced around her head, and I felt a fierce love for my sister when I glanced at her. I needed to do better. Needed to try harder. She deserved to be happy. If I couldn’t be a good big brother—normal and happy—I should just leave her alone and stay out of her life.
“I don’t need the space,” I said. That was the truth. I had no idea what I’d do with myself in the big house on the property my sister had given me when I’d moved up here. The two bedroom guest house that sat off to one side of it was plenty of space for me. I was alone, and had no plans to change that. Ever. Once man didn’t need four bedrooms and a chef’s kitchen. It wasn’t like I was entertaining on a weekly basis. More like never. “Plus I get more renting the big house than I would this little house.”
“Who’re you renting to?” Connor asked. The fire danced off his red beard and I thought—not for the first time—that he looked fierce and pretty badass. Besides the fact that he seemed to know a lot about various ways to kidnap, torture, and kill people—thanks to the thrillers he was famous for writing—I wouldn’t want to meet him in a fight. I could hold my own, but there was something about Connor that told me he could too. It made me glad he was with my sister. He could take care of her.
“Some woman from New York. Didn’t get a whole lot beyond the deposit and the credit check. Set it up by email.” Pretty much the way I liked it. I didn’t have to talk to her, and if I was lucky, I’d never even see her after handing off the key.
“Huh, okay.” Maddie shrugged. “Maybe when she gets here I’ll come over and say hi.”
“Suit yourself,” I said. “She’s supposed to get in tomorrow.”
“Good.” Maddie leaned forward and stared into the dying coals in the pit, then surprised me by chucking her fist into my shoulder. “So. Walking me down the aisle, right? To some song besides ‘The Final Countdown.’ And there will be no mist or eerie lighting, thankyouverymuch.” She glared at Connor with this last part and he shrugged and grinned.
“It was just an idea.” He said and then finished his beer.
“It’s getting late,” Maddie said, standing. “Better head home.”
Once they’d gone, I stared into the dying coals in the fire pit for a long time. If I worked hard enough, I could see Jess’s face in the smoldering fire, the outline of her jaw, the gleam of fun that was always in her eyes. I squeezed my eyes shut. If I worked just a little bit harder, I could almost feel her beside me.
But I knew it was pointless. The work I should be doing was to forget. I needed to forget her completely, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t seem to say goodbye.
Sneak Peek - Love Reclaimed (Chapter 2)
Harper
The pine trees got bigger the higher up the side of the mountain I drove, and memories came rushing back like unwanted one-night stands showing up at your favorite bar. I hadn’t planned to come back here. Like, ever. But a lot of things in my life turned out to be completely different than what I’d planned.
At the top of the winding, hours-long road, my head had started to pound to match my heart, and when the first sign for Kings Grove appeared at the side of the two-lane highway I pulled over just past it into a dusty half-moon turnout. My hands gripped the steering wheel, white-knuckled and desperate, and I forced t
hem to relax, forced my body to unclench. Deep breaths. Yoga breaths.
I used to pay a lot of money to learn to relax—now was the time to figure out if it had all been a waste. In truth, the only yoga pose I ever really mastered was corpse pose at the end of class. The rest of it just felt like awkward scrabbling and uncoordinated half-balancing in hopes I looked a little bit like the lithe strong teacher at the front of my class. “Accept,” she always said. “Acknowledge and accept. Be curious, but don’t judge.”
If only.
My life wasn’t about acceptance. Maybe some of us just weren’t built that way.
My parents hadn’t accepted each other, neither had really ever accepted me, and eventually I’d had trouble accepting myself.
Now I was having trouble accepting that I was back in Kings Grove, aka the middle of literally nowhere. The only reason I’d come back to the place I was born was absolute, pure desperation. And my dad essentially blackmailing me into it. If you come back and try, he’d said, he’d float me the money I needed to get back on my feet. Of course his definition of “the money I’d need” was not quite what I’d become accustomed to. But life was funny that way. I’d have to get unaccustomed to a lot of things.
Breathing easier, I pulled back onto the road and followed the directions the guy named Cameron had given me to a startlingly large house in the back of the residential village — one that had definitely not been there when I was a kid. I pulled up in front of the log and glass structure, wondering if maybe I hadn’t gotten it wrong somehow. This place wasn’t a cabin. And based on the size and look of it, it ought to have been renting for a lot more than what I was paying.
I pulled out my phone and double-checked my information, which kept me from noticing the tall dark-featured guy who appeared at my side like a ghost.
“Harper?” He asked, the deep gravel of his voice surprising me. I jumped, my eyes landing on his face.
“Yeah. You’re Cameron?” I reached out a hand to shake, my mind spinning at the same time. Tall, check. Dark short hair, check. Bright blue intense eyes veiled with some kind of buried emotion, check. Add the tattoos snaking up his neck and down his forearms and the significant scruff around his face and neck, and yep, you pretty much had my kryptonite.
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