“That concludes the reading,” Granddad’s attorney says, rising from his chair. “I’ll have my assistant give you each my card. My personal cell is listed there and you can contact me any time night or day if you have questions. Howard was a long-time client of mine, and I promised everything would be handled in a timely manner with the utmost care.”
Collectively, we stand and stretch and gather our things and make our way to the hall. Mr. Hageman’s assistant hands me one of his cards, and I tuck it into the interior pocket of my jacket.
“I need to take off,” I tell my parents.
“So soon, lovey?” Mom asks. “We were going to grab lunch, all of us. I’d love for you to join us.”
“Tippi, let him do what he needs to do,” my father says, his hand on the small of her back. If I know my dad, and I do, he probably thinks this is my way of mourning, that I need alone time and space.
I hug my parents before heading to the elevator and order a ride home to grab my things before heading back to the city.
On the way, I make a call to an old friend.
“Rose Crossing Ferry and Charter, this is Leon,” he says when he answers.
“Leon,” I say. “Thayer Ainsworth.”
“Oh, hey,” he says, his tone losing the cheery disposition it had a second ago. “I heard about your grandfather. I’m so sorry for your loss.”
“Appreciate that,” I say before cutting to the chase. “Anyway, I’m calling because I have a favor to ask of you …”
Chapter 58
Lila
I hold a check for ten thousand dollars and run my fingertip along the blue signature at the bottom. It’s the second check Thayer’s sent, and while I know he’s only trying to help, I’m having the hardest time bringing myself to cash it. We need it. But we don’t need it need it. Not yet.
We’re coming up on a month now living with Ms. Beauchamp, and while she seems to enjoy the extra company (especially at dinnertime), it’s only a matter of time before we outstay our welcome.
By the grace of God, I managed to find a hygienist job at a new dental office opening up. I don’t start for another couple of weeks, but it’s thirty flexible hours a week with full-time benefits. I almost squealed and dropped the phone when they called and made me the offer last week.
Once I get a few paychecks under my belt, I’m going to find us the perfect home. MJ requested a place with a big back yard on a street with lots of kids and a park. I told her I’d do my best.
Thayer and MJ talk on the phone constantly. I think they’ve racked up dozens of hours, or maybe it just seems that way. He was planning to fly us out to the city this summer for a couple of weeks, but now that I’m starting a new job, I told him we should hold off. I thought he’d be disappointed, but he took it well, and he said he’d see about rearranging his schedule so he could spend a few weeks out here for the summer.
I get the feeling co-parenting with him will be a breeze. He’s so sanguine and easy-going about everything. We still haven’t talked through any custody details, but he isn’t pressuring me. We both agreed that we need to focus on the two of them getting to know one another before we worry about that.
The two of us have been texting more. At least a few times a day. Sometimes silly pictures, other times little notes to say hi. A little friendly banter here and there. A few times a week we’ll talk on the phone—mostly about MJ and what she’s up to. But it’s strange … not once has he brought up “us” again.
Ever since I shut him down at the diner that night, it’s like he accepted my answer as final—which has never been his style. I’ve never known him to give up on something once he decides he wants it.
Clearly he had a change of heart.
I try not to think about it for too long. It tends to put me in a funk, and I don’t want MJ to see me like that. Besides, I’m grateful that he’s back in my life, even if it’s in a platonic capacity.
“Lila?” Ms. Beauchamp calls for me from down the hall. “Lila, there’s something here for you.”
I follow her voice to the living room where she’s by the La-Z-Boy with a white envelope in her hands.
“Someone just stuck this in the door,” she says. “I don’t know when they did it, but I went out to water my begonias and there it was.”
On the front of the envelope, in familiar blue handwriting are the words:
For Lila, forever.
“What is it?” Ms. Beauchamp asks.
“I think it’s a letter?” My heart is sprinting, blood whooshing in my ear.
He’s in town.
Why didn’t he say something?
“You going to open it or are you going to stand there and stare at it all day?” She chuckles.
I almost don’t want to open it until later, until after I pick MJ up from her last day of school and after I put her to bed and the house is quiet and I can be truly alone for the first time all day. If this letter is nothing more than a tender, well-worded explanation for his absence of relentlessness over the past month, it’ll only bring me to tears, and I don’t want my daughter to worry and ask questions because she’s much too young to understand.
“I think I’m going to save it for later,” I say.
She scoffs. “That’s ridiculous. It’s just a letter.”
I check the time. I don’t have to get MJ from school for another ninety-minutes, so I suppose I could open it now and get it over with …
I think about all the phone calls and text messages we’ve had over the past month and how not once has he brought up the two of us being together again. For that reason alone, the odds of this letter being some profession of his undying love and devotion are slim to none. It wouldn’t make sense for him to be so indifferent and then leave a letter on my door out of the blue.
I rip the seal of the envelope and slip my fingers in to retrieve the letter … only there’s no paper inside.
There’s no letter.
There’s only a small key attached to a thin leather keychain embossed with an address:
377 Wildflower Lane
“What in the world …” Ms. Beauchamp stares at the key in my hand.
Sliding my phone from my back pocket, I Google the address and get a hit.
“What a strange thing to leave somebody. What are you going to do now?” she asks.
“Guess I’m going to Wildflower Lane.”
Chapter 59
Thayer
I stand on the front porch at 377 Wildflower Lane and keep an eye on the road. Any minute she’ll be pulling up, and this is going to go one of either two ways. At this point, it’s anyone’s guess as to how she’ll react when she sees this, but I’m hopeful.
I check my Apple Watch as a text comes through from Ms. Beauchamp, letting me know Lila’s en route and should be here any minute.
Every part of me is buzzing with anticipation, head to toe, inside and out.
A blue car passes a moment later, but it speeds up and disappears over the hill.
A dusty silver minivan coasts past next.
And finally … I spot Lila’s little white SUV in the distance.
I give a wave when she gets closer, and I meet her in the driveway.
“Oh my god,” she says as she flies out of the driver’s side and forgets to shut the door behind her. “Is this real? How did you …?”
Last month after discovering Granddad left me the island, I wasted no time drafting up paperwork transferring ownership to my mother, my aunt, and my cousins equally—but with one caveat.
I wanted The Lila Cottage.
A hundred phone calls and logistical nightmares later, and with a little help from my friend Leon who owns a ferry operation in Rose Crossing and has an impressive amount of connections, we were able to have the cottage moved from the island, ferried to the mainland, and then hauled over three thousand miles to this little acre of land I bought in Summerton for Lila and MJ.
But all the permits and paperwork and setbacks and headaches were worth it for t
his view …
Lila stands on the newly poured concrete walkway that leads up to the front door. With tears in her eyes and the biggest smile I’ve ever seen, she makes her way inside, and I follow behind.
Once inside, she stops just past the front door and gasps.
I took great care in making sure the place was delivered unchanged. I wanted her to see it exactly as it was when it was ours. Truly, it’s like stepping into a time machine.
“I told you it was yours,” I say as I follow her into the kitchen.
She traces her fingers along the decade-old writing on the wall:
For Lila, forever.
And then she traces her fingers along my signature below.
“This is too much,” she says when she turns to me, her amber-green eyes gleaming.
“This is your home,” I correct her. “The deed is on the kitchen counter. This house and this land are yours now. No one will ever be able to take this away.”
“I can’t believe you did this,” she says, breathless as she sails down the hall and moves from room to room. “Everything looks exactly the same. This is insane. I can’t believe I’m standing in the cottage …”
She takes a seat on the edge of the very bed MJ was conceived, her hands cupped over the lower half of her face as she lets this sink in.
“Also, these are for you.” I hand her a stack of bundled letters. “I hid them all over the cottage before I left for college that fall. Just little notes for you to find when you were missing me …” She begins to read the first one. “Lila, there’s something I need to run by you.”
She rests the first letter on top of the stack and gives me her attention.
Her eyes are wide and bright, which gives me hope that she’s going to be receptive to my next proposal. A month ago she asked for space, so I backed off. I kept things cordial and friendly and platonic despite the fact that I still very much wanted for us to be together again. It took everything in my power not to give her the full Thayer Ainsworth treatment, but it helped knowing I had this little ace up my sleeve.
I planned on buying them a house regardless, one less thing for Lila to worry about so she could focus on MJ and not on how she’s going to keep a roof over their head. But when I remembered the cottage and how much she loved it and how it was the beginning of us … it gave me this idea.
“So what did you want to run by me?” she asks.
“How would you feel about me moving to Summerton?”
She sits straight, her exuberant expression vanishing. “You’re not serious, are you? I mean, not that I don’t want you to, but life here is … night and day from Manhattan. What if you hate it?”
“My daughter is here,” I say. “And so are you. I assure you I won’t hate it here. Anyway, I have a few connections in the area, and it sounds like I should have no problem lining something up.”
Lila rises off the bed and heads down the hall. I trail behind. A moment later she’s on the back porch, marveling at the red hammock from the summer of ’09.
“MJ’s going to love this yard,” she says as she gazes at the tree-filled open space that surrounds the home. “So many trees to climb … so much room to run around.”
“Thought maybe I’d build her a treehouse this summer,” I say. “Also, I know this place looks like it’s straight out of 2003, so if you want to remodel or redecorate, just let me know and we’ll make it happen.”
Lila slips her hand in mine and leads me back into the house. We stop in the living room, in front of the sofa.
“Do you remember the first time we made out? Right here on this couch?” She begins to say something else, but the words get stuck as she chokes up. “I’m sorry. I’m feeling everything right now, and it’s a little overwhelming.”
“That’s the way I used to feel every time I looked at you,” I say. “Still do.”
She glances up at me through dark, damp lashes. “Really?”
“You act like you’re surprised.”
“It’s just … after that night at the diner … you never brought it up again … I just assumed you’d changed your mind about us.”
“Change my mind? About us? Never.”
A private investigator asked me once what made this girl so special that I was willing to invest all my time and money and emotional resources into finding her. I didn’t have an answer for him at the time, but I went home that night and thought about it.
Sure, I could’ve cataloged her best features, listed all the things I loved about her, from her contagious laugh to the smell of her peach body lotion to the dimples above her perfect ass. But those were never the things that kept me going.
From the moment I saw her, something called to me.
I believe now that it was her soul calling to mine.
She’s my soulmate.
I love her because there’s no one else on this earth my soul longs to be with.
“I did,” Lila says. “I changed my mind about us. Right after you left, I knew I made a mistake pushing you away like that. But you never brought it up again, so I assumed I missed my chance. I thought it was too late.”
I take her hands in mine, bringing them to my lips. “It will never be too late for us.”
Circling her waist with my hands, I pull her against me.
“I’ve waited so long to hold you again,” I say. Our noses brush and our lips graze, but I want to savor this moment. “I love you, Lila.”
“I love you too.”
I claim her soft mouth with mine, and a moment later we stumble backwards, collapsing onto the sofa. I tug at her shirt, she tugs at my zipper. Her lips are warm against my skin, my hands greedy against her curves.
And just like that she’s mine again, only this time it’s going to be forever.
Chapter 60
Lila
“Hi, Mom.” MJ climbs into the backseat, flinging her backpack to the empty spot beside her before buckling up.
I maneuver out of the school pick up lane, hardly able to contain my excitement as I steal a glance at her in the rearview. “I have a surprise for you, MJ.”
“What kind of surprise?” she asks. “Like ice cream?”
“Better than ice cream.”
“A puppy?” She sits up taller.
“Not a puppy.” I chuckle. She’s been asking for one since first grade, when her friend Lucy got a Boston Terrier from “Santa.”
“What is it?”
“You’ll see in about seven minutes …”
I drive to the north side of town and pull onto Wildflower Lane before parking in our new driveway.
I still can’t believe Thayer pulled this off. I can’t imagine it was easy and I’m sure there were times he wished he would’ve bought a pre-existing structure and saved himself the hassle, but that’s the thing about him—he’s never met a challenge he couldn’t accept.
And there’s nothing he won’t do for the ones he loves.
“What’s this?” MJ asks as she peers out the rear passenger side window. “Is this someone’s house?”
“Yes it is, MJ,” I say. “It’s our house.”
“What? No way!” She unclicks her seatbelt buckle and climbs out before running to the front door. I scramble to chase after her because I want to see the look on her face when she walks in and finds Thayer waiting for her.
I catch up to her just in time, and Thayer rises from a living room chair to greet her.
“You came! You came!” MJ runs to him and he embraces her. With all of their phone calls the last month, they’ve really become close, and I can tell they’re going to have a special bond.
He hugs her tight and she buries her head against his stomach, her arms wrapped around him as far as they’ll go.
“MJ, you want a tour?” I ask.
“Remember what you promised?” she asks Thayer. She’s so caught up in her excitement she doesn’t hear me.
“I do,” he says.
“What did you promise?” I ask.
�
��Thayer said he’d take me out for ice cream the next time he saw me,” she says. “We both love mint chip, so we’re going to see who can eat the most without getting sick.”
I chuckle. That sounds like something she probably saw on YouTube …
“MJ, don’t you want to see your new room?” I ask.
“I will later, Mom.” She hasn’t taken her eyes off her father once.
Thayer shoots me a look accompanied by a shrug.
“A promise is a promise,” I say. “Go on ahead, you two.”
MJ jumps up and down before grabbing Thayer’s hand. “Bye, Mom!”
Thayer gives me a wave as he lets her yank him out the front door, and I watch them climb into his rental car.
Warmth blankets me and a fullness blooms in my chest as I watch them together, and I quiet the voice inside that tells me the other shoe’s going to drop when I least expect it to.
It won’t drop this time.
I refuse to let it.
I’ll triple knot the laces if I have to.
I’ll quiet all my doubts and fears and I’ll hold onto him with everything I’ve got, forever.
Chapter 61
Thayer
“She’s out cold.” I stand in the doorway of Lila’s room as she unpacks another cardboard box of clothes.
“How was ice cream?” she asks.
It’s the first chance we’ve had to sit together and talk since MJ came home from school. After our ice cream eating competition, we rolled ourselves to a park where we played for a solid hour, and on the way home, she asked if we could stop at the dollar store to grab some new coloring books and see if they had any Chinese checkers games. Five coloring books, a jumbo pack of crayons, a box of markers, and one board game later, we finally made it home, only then MJ decided she’d rather chase me around the back yard.
“Exhausting,” I say. Lila laughs through her nose. “You know that book If You Give A Mouse A Cookie?”
For Lila, Forever Page 20