Crossing the Wide Forever

by Missouri Vaun

  *

  Cody looked up. She realized the scene ahead was the one from her fevered dream—Lillie, standing on the porch with the blue curtains fluffing through the window behind her in the breeze. The realization was like a gut punch, and for an instant, she panicked. Was Lillie really standing there or was this just wishful imagining?

  She pulled Shadow to a halt on the trail. Lillie stepped off the porch but didn’t come farther. Cody climbed down from Shadow and removed her hat but didn’t walk toward the house. If Lillie really was back and this wasn’t some hallucination, then Lillie already knew that Cody left her. Would she be angry? Would she even want Cody to come back after such a cowardly move? Self-recrimination rooted Cody’s boots to the dirt.

  They stood looking at each other from across the open space in front of the house, then Lillie started to walk toward her. Her walk turned into a run until she reached Cody and threw herself into Cody’s arms. The force of Lillie’s jubilant leap caught Cody by surprise. So much so that she lost her footing in the uneven roadway and tumbled backward into the tall grass at the edge of the trail, taking Lillie with her.

  Lillie kissed her, rose up to look at her face, and then kissed her again, deeply, passionately. Lillie broke the kiss abruptly, braced herself above Cody, and then punched her soundly in the shoulder.

  “Ow!”

  Lillie punched her shoulder again. “Where were you?”

  “Partway to California.”

  Lillie’s eyes widened. “California? Without so much as leaving me a letter?”

  Lillie batted Cody with several light punches, which Cody tried to deflect with her hands. “You couldn’t even leave me a note?”

  “I thought you weren’t coming back. I was upset, I was angry…and I didn’t know what to say.”

  Lillie straddled Cody’s waist looking down at her. After a few seconds, Lillie’s expression softened.

  “You could have said I love you.”

  “Yeah, I could have said that.”

  “Or something like this, I know that no one will ever love me as completely as Lillie does.” She lowered herself so that her lips were only inches from Cody’s.

  “That sounds good too…” Cody whispered.

  “How about, I was a fool to leave. I won’t ever do it again.” Lillie lightly kissed her. As she leaned over Cody, the sun filtered through Lillie’s long hair like a starburst.

  “I’m so sorry I left, Lillie. I got scared…I found the ring in the drawer and I thought you might not come back, and I knew I couldn’t live here without you.” She reached up to caress Lillie’s cheek. “But I would have crossed the wide forever if that’s what it took to get back to you.”

  “I’m right here and I’m never leaving you again. Please trust me, Cody.” Lillie brushed her fingertips tenderly over Cody’s forehead. “I’m madly in love with you. If I had any doubts I don’t any longer. I can’t imagine my life apart from yours…ever.”

  Cody pulled the thin leather cord from inside her shirt and held up the ring.

  “Lillie Ellis, will you marry me?”

  “I thought I already did.”

  Cody laughed.

  Lillie sank into her and Cody held her close as they lay in their little cocoon of high grass. She pressed her lips to Lillie’s hair. Lillie came back. She was home. They were home, together.

  “I love you, Lillie. With all that I am, I love you.”

  The End

  About the Author

  Missouri Vaun spent a large part of her childhood in southern Mississippi, before attending high school in North Carolina and college in Tennessee. Strong connections to her roots in the rural South have been a grounding force throughout her life. Vaun spent twelve years finding her voice working as a journalist in places as disparate as Chicago, Atlanta, and Jackson, Mississippi, all along filing away characters and their stories. Her novels are heartfelt, earthy, and speak of loyalty and our responsibility to others. She and her wife currently live in northern California.

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