Where I Belong

by Charlene Bright

  EPILOGUE

  One Year Later

  The afternoon air was cold, but there was no wind or rain. It was a perfect fall day, and the trees that surrounded the bright-green meadow were on fire. The gold and scarlet and burnt-orange leaves licked at the sky overhead as they swayed in the gentle breeze. They were nature’s decoration for the celebration that was happening tonight. An entire community had come together to celebrate the union of two souls underneath the Harvest Moon.

  As the wedding march began to play, Sophie stood at the back and looked up at the altar. Brooke was there, her maid of honor. She’d become good friends with the other woman over the past year. They had bonded over their love for Drake but found they had much more than that in common day by day.

  Sam was there, standing alongside Drake. Her beautiful fiancé was wearing a light-brown suit that contrasted beautifully with his dark eyes. He was fidgeting with his tie and looking nervous. Sophie smiled, and she felt her heart speed up. They’d both made the inn their home over the past year, and Drake had become an intricate part of the day-to-day affairs of it. Their first winter open had been a roaring success as the tourists had descended like crazy for the snow-covered mountains, the fresh air of the country, and the hospitality of an inn that was rapidly gaining a countrywide reputation for being the best.

  “Are you ready, pretty girl?”

  Sophie looked down at Mac. He was dressed in the same color suit as his nephew, and he looked so handsome. Drake had wanted him to be his best man, but Sophie had stolen him to walk her down the aisle. He’d fought through his recovery like a champ and after he’d gotten stronger, Drake had taken him up to see the kits, who were nearly grown but still acted like they knew him. When he got home, Brenda had presented him with a puppy that she told him they could share custody of. The two of them had become really close friends, and every time Sophie saw them together, she knew she had one more thing to be grateful for.

  She glanced up and saw her beautiful mother in the front, standing and looking in her direction. This was a day that Sophie hadn’t been sure would ever come, but Brenda had always known. Sophie only hoped that one day she could be half the mother that hers had been.

  She took Mac’s hand and said, “I am so ready. Let’s get this happily ever after started.” He smiled at her and pushed the button on his new electric chair. He and Brenda had begun taking walks every day, spending time at the library, and picking apples together. He needed something a little faster to keep up with her, and his nephew had been more than happy to provide him with it.

  As Sophie walked toward her future, she looked at her fiancé’s gorgeous face, and she knew for sure that everything she would ever need lived right there in his smile and she was exactly where she belonged.

  ~The End~

  Please swipe past 100% and leave a review for Where I Belong. It’s one of the best ways to show an author you appreciate their work. Thanks, Charlene

  Enjoyed what you read? Want to read more from Charlene? Try her holiday romance I Saw Mommy Kissing a Cowboy. Here are the first three chapters.

  I Saw Mommy Kissing a Cowboy

  A Cowboy Christmas Romance

  Jyl and her four-year-old son, Gabriel, have survived the worst thing that could happen—the loss of her husband on tour in Afghanistan. She’s looking for a change, an escape from the constant reminders of her late husband and a place where she and her son can build a new life.

  What she wasn’t looking for was Grant Underwood. The last complication she needs in her life right now is a man. Add in her outspoken friend and his intrusive family, and fireworks ignite in the middle of December. Jyl wants to ignore her overwhelming attraction to Grant, but she also wants to do the right thing for her son.

  So what happens when Gabriel asks Santa Claus to bring him a new daddy in the form of Grant? And Gabe’s not the only one wishing for a Christmas miracle. It seems the only one not hoping for a little of Santa’s magic is Jyl.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “I can’t believe you’re moving to the wilderness!” Sharla threw herself back dramatically against the headboard of Jyl’s bed. She was supposed to be there helping Jyl pack, but so far there hadn’t been much packing going on.

  “It’s not the wilderness, Shar. You’re being dramatic again.”

  “Really? Not the wilderness, you say? Let me read you a few statistics.”

  Jyl laughed. “I don’t need statistics, Shar. I checked it all out before I decided to move there.”

  The long-time friend wasn’t deterred. “Queens, New York … the largest of the five boroughs. The population at the last census was estimated at 2,321,580 people. Buffalo County, Colorado … last census, 10,365. Do you know how many less people that is? I mean just the dating pool alone is cut by—well, it’s cut by a lot!”

  “I’m not looking to date,” Jyl told her, folding another pair of pants and placing them into the open box at the end of the bed.

  “Well, of course not now, but someday. You’re young and beautiful; you don’t want to be alone forever. If you move to the wilderness you’re practically guaranteeing it.”

  “Sharla, you know how much thought I’ve put into this. This is no spur-of-the-moment decision. You know I’d never do that to Gabriel.”

  “I know, but the bottom line here is that I’m going to miss you! I’ll never make another friend like you. No one else will put up with me. Can’t you just stay until I’m grown up and able to do this on my own?”

  Jyl laughed again. “Since you’re twenty-six, honey, I’m not so sure that’s ever going to happen.”

  “Hey!”

  Jyl dropped down next to her friend on the bed. She and Sharla had been friends since the second grade when they met in Mr. Godfrey’s class at P.S. 101. She put her arm around her friend and said, “You know I’m kidding. You are more than capable of doing this without me. You’re an editor for a national magazine. You supervise ten people. You’re more of a grown-up than me.”

  Sharla put her head on Jyl’s shoulder, and Jyl heard her sniffle. “My chest aches when I think about not seeing you every week.”

  “Mine aches for you too, sweetie. But, you know that I need to do this, right? Gabriel and I need a change. For one thing, there are just too many memories for us here. Everything in the house reminds us that Josh is never coming home. Everywhere we go, we see something or someone who reminds us of him. I don’t ever want to forget him, and I won’t ever let Gabe forget his father, but I don’t want to be haunted by his memories every waking moment either. I want to get to a point where I can have a memory cross my mind and smile about it. I don’t think I can get there without a fresh start.”

  Sharla wiped her face and sat up. “I get that. I really do. But why so far away? New York is huge. You have four other boroughs to choose from. Why do you have to go to the wilderness?”

  Shaking her head, Jyl stood up and went back to her packing. “I did a lot of research and Buffalo County, Colorado kept coming up as one of the best places to raise a child. There are tons of cultural events going on at any given time. Lots of recreational opportunities for me to get Gabriel involved in and most importantly, the public school system earned Accredited with Distinction honors from the Colorado Department of Education the last two years in a row. Shiloh Falls—the town—is the only populated town in the county and the rest of it is ranch land. It’s the moose viewing capitol of Colorado.”

  Sharla snorted.

  Laughing, Jyl continued, “Okay, so that’s not so important, but the crime rate is almost nil, and that is. I want the best for Gabriel and I think I’ve found it in Colorado.”

  Sharla stuck out her bottom lip, but she didn’t press further. Jyl and Gabriel were leaving first thing in the morning. The house had been sold, the furniture shipped, and everything but the last of the clothes packed. She’d worked with a realtor online and over the phone and she ended up buying a home that she’d fallen in love with, though she had only seen photos of
it. The house was made to look like a log cabin on the outside but equipped with all of the modern amenities of life on the inside. It sat on an acre of land, and the thought of Gabe having all of that space to roam, with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop to his childhood, thrilled her.

  It had three bedrooms and two baths and one of the things she loved about it the most was the great open concept kitchen. There was a large loft which she thought would make a great playroom and a lovely living room with vaulted ceilings and a wood stove. Even though it was a little older than she preferred, she was super excited about it. There was a hot tub on the back porch, too, and the mountains lined the landscape. Even if it was one-tenth the house she’d seen in pictures, it would be worth it.

  This move was a done deal and no matter how much Sharla contested it, she had to know that Jyl couldn’t change her mind now if she wanted to. She was excited about the move. She and Gabriel were looking forward to the adventure. The buoyant, free feeling it gave her was much needed after what she and her son had gone through over the past year. Her husband, Josh, had been a soldier, and although not many twenty-six-year-olds could already pinpoint the worst second of their lives, Jyl could. It was that moment when she had looked through the peephole on the front door of the brownstone she and Josh had so lovingly restored and saw the soldier in his dress blues accompanied by the chaplain. That moment, before they had even told her that Josh was dead, was even worse than the moment that followed, because she knew what news they were bringing when she first saw them on her porch.

  She had come to think of the pain that had insinuated itself into her and her son’s lives that day as The Monster. Some days she would feel The Monster holding her underneath the deep end of the ocean, and the waves would engulf and overwhelm her. Other days she would wake up to the sunlight, only all she could see was the darkness that dwelled inside of her. For the first few months it was as if The Monster lived inside her brain, filling it with cobwebs and tangling her synapses so that the only rational thoughts she could have would be of Josh and the horrifying fact that he was gone. Her heart and soul were at war with The Monster and she hadn’t felt a true moment of peace since that day.

  She wasn’t going to raise her son that way. It would be like allowing him to see her in an abusive relationship. The pain was holding her back from being the best parent and role model that she was capable of being. She would hold Josh in her heart forever, but for his son’s sake, she had to move on.

  “Mama!”

  “I’ll go see what he needs.” Sharla got up off the bed and went out into the living room. Jyl took that moment to give the bedroom she had shared with the love of her life one last long look. It was a place filled with memories, both good and bad, but mostly good. It was the place where the current love of her life was conceived. It was a place she would hold in her heart forever—but it was just a place. She and Gabriel would make new memories, and she had to believe that Josh understood and knew that she was doing the best that she could do for their son.

  They were making it now off of the proceeds from the sale of the house and the widow’s benefits she had received when Josh died, but none of that would last forever. She hadn’t worked since before Gabe was born, but she had a degree in English Literature and considered herself a pretty good writer. She was going to start small with a blog about healthy living in the mountains of Colorado, and who knows, maybe she would finally write that novel someday.

  The drive from Queens to Shiloh Falls was going to take twenty-seven hours. Jyl considered taking the train or an airplane, but she thought the drive would be part of the whole experience for her and Gabe. So far the winter had been mild; she’d checked the road conditions and the reports were favorable. Sharla was back in the morning to see them off. Jyl was proud of her; she kept her tears at bay in front of Gabriel.

  “I love you,” Jyl told her. “I’ll call you as soon as we’re settled.”

  Sharla nodded, tears filling her eyes. “I love you too. Be safe!”

  Jyl hugged her tightly. “I’ll see you after the new year when you come visit us.”

  “This will be the first Christmas in twenty years—”

  “Stop it! No sad stuff. We just did Thanksgiving together and if you could get the time off for Christmas, you know you’d be welcome to come out.”

  Sharla sighed. “I know. I still don’t like it. But I will let it go and say, ‘happy trails.’ Gabriel, give your Auntie Shar a hug, baby!”

  Gabe hugged her. He was excited about the trip. Jyl didn’t think he fully grasped the concept that they were moving and would never be back to the only home he’d ever known. She was confident that he would adjust. He was a smart boy and he’d done amazingly well with the death of his father, being only three at the time. He would be okay. She was going to make sure of it.

  ******

  The trip was as much fun as Jyl had imagined it would be and she was happy she’d decided to drive it. Gabriel had never been out of the city, so once they hit the farmlands of Iowa and Nebraska, he was fascinated. She stopped at one point and let him get out of the car and run through an alfalfa field. The joy in her son’s eyes as he ran, defeated any doubts that still lingered in her mind about whether or not she was doing the right thing.

  The weather was good, for the most part. It was clear and she hadn’t needed chains all the way to Kanorado—the border town between Kansas and Colorado. It was there that things started to become a little hairy for her. They still had about six hours until they reached their destination when the snow began to lightly fall. She wasn’t worried at first. She was born and bred in New York and she’d lived and worked and thrived through some pretty severe weather, but when she got deeper into Colorado, the snow started falling more rapidly and the wind joined in on the assault.

  She had to stop in Denver to have her chains put on. She would normally do it herself, but she didn’t want to leave Gabriel sitting inside someplace unattended, and she definitely didn’t want him in the car while she was doing it. It was far too cold for him to be left outside. She pulled into a Chevron station with a shop and was told it would be at least an hour before they could get to it so she took Gabriel across the street to get a hot chocolate. By the time they got back, the car was ready to go. She told herself that the rest of the trip was going to be smooth sailing, and she was almost right.

  “Mama, I have to go to the bathroom.”

  They had just crossed into Shiloh Falls and the snow was beginning to pick up momentum once more. The town was decorated with twinkling white lights in all of the trees and Christmas wreaths on what looked like all of the business doors. With the snow in the backdrop it looked like a Christmas postcard. As beautiful as it all was, Jyl didn’t really want to stop now. They were literally twenty miles away from their new home and she desperately wanted to just be there. She glanced back at her son who was doing the “pee-pee dance” in his car seat. She still needed to call the realtor so someone could meet them with the keys. She couldn’t make him wait that long.

  “Okay, sweetness, we’ll stop at the little mall up there.”

  “Can I have a toy?”

  She laughed. “No, sweetness, no toys. It took me an entire day and six boxes to pack up your playroom. The last thing you need is another toy.” She turned into the little strip mall where there was a sporting goods shop, a diner, a grocery store, and a hair salon. The diner seemed to be the only thing open, so they went in there.

  After Gabriel used the restroom, they took a seat in one of the booths and the waitress came over. “Hey there! You two are brave being out in this weather.”

  “We’re just moving into town,” Jyl told her. “But it’s really not so bad out there right now.”

  “This is one of those sneaky storms,” the waitress said as she handed them each a menu. “By the time the sun is down you can bet you don’t want to be anywhere except inside with a fire going.”

  “Thanks, we’ll make sure that’s where we ar
e then.” She handed back the menu and said, “I think I’ll just have some coffee. Gabe, do you want a piece of pie or something?”

  “Chocolate?”

  She rolled her eyes. There was no way he was sleeping tonight. “Okay,” she said and then looked at the waitress. “A small one, please.”

  When the waitress left, she took out her phone and called the realtor. She got a recorded message saying they were unavailable. She had told them an approximate time that they’d be in town and they weren’t that far off, so hopefully someone would call back soon. She left a message telling them she and Gabe were in town.

  She sipped her coffee and kept an eye on the weather through the window while her son ate his pie. The streetlights were just beginning to come on, and the lights were misty in the light snowfall. More ice than snow blanketed the street and sidewalk, and the moon looked milky as it woke up to push its way into the sky, replacing the sun that was still setting behind the snow-capped mountains.

  It was about seven fifteen and she was beginning to worry. She started to dial the realtor again but then said, “Are you finished, Gabe? Maybe we’ll just go find the house and be there already when the realtor arrives. It’ll save us some time.”

  “I’m done.” He had chocolate all over his little face. She smiled at him.

  “Go wash up while I pay.” He ran off to the bathroom just as her phone rang. It was the realtor’s office.

  “Hi Jyl, this is Becky with Shiloh Falls Realtors. I’m sorry I missed your call. Are you at the house now?”