No longer would I have to worry about Sean—and that went doubly true for Emily, who finally had her worst nightmare gone. I’d lost the mansion, but insurance had given me enough money to put me in a temporary Air BnB while I searched for a house. It would be a step down, and I hated that a family treasure of sorts had burned down, but at least I still owned the property. I could rebuild later, or I could sell—I hadn’t truly lost everything.
But I’d lost Liam.
Thankfully, not to death. But when he ran off and disappeared, he might as well have died. I’d always had a fear in the back of my mind that this would be exactly what would happen. I’d finally get Charlotte’s father back in her life, and then he’d…disappear again, I guess. He had warned me, but I’d always felt like that was him just hedging his bets.
At least Charlotte seemed like she would be OK. She had not suffered permanent lung damage, just some temporary damage, and by now had fully recovered. Emily, for her part, had convinced work to give her a year off to figure out her life. She’d never struck me as the kids-and-house type of woman, but I guess the events had changed her mind. Maybe she’d feel safer having kids knowing Sean was dead.
That, at least, seemed to be the suggestion she gave as we drove to the Denver airport to get her back to Miami.
“So we’ll see. I never thought Sean would come back, so at this point, why should I be surprised if something else happens, like me having kids?”
“Because it would go against the previous decade or so of what you’ve believed?”
Emily got a laugh out of that—a beautiful, unburdened laugh that didn’t imply any worries at all. She truly felt free and relaxed.
“I suppose so, but you’re proof lots can change quickly,” she said. “I never envisioned you having a dog that hunts bears.”
“Chases bears,” I clarified. Bucky, too, had made a full recovery and perhaps had forgotten that he could slow down now. “But anyway, I don’t know that you want to go through what I have.”
“Oh, that goes without saying, Kelly. If anything, I feel bad I’m leaving you right now. Not like I have work to worry about.”
This time, we both laughed.
“Don’t be. We can’t all just lock ourselves up for the rest of our lives. At some point, we all need to move on.”
Easier said than done for myself, though. As I thought about that, I realized moving on from Liam wouldn’t be that easy. In a weird way, even though Sean had come for me in Breckenridge, Liam had mostly resolved Emily’s problem, not mine. Granted, my problem wasn’t one that could be solved with secret agent skills.
“You’re thinking about him, aren’t you?”
“What?” I said, but I knew full well what Emily had asked. Damn best friends being able to intuitively read each other.
“Liam,” she said.
I nodded.
“You know, call me crazy, but I’ve known him longer than you have. He might just show up to you one of these days. Maybe he just needs time to think.”
“Yeah, sure, as if he can find me with the house burned down.”
“Have you forgotten what he does for a living?”
I said nothing. Emily, as usual, had a point she could easily see without being wrapped up in my world.
“I just don’t know that I’d take him…back…”
“See, I can hear the doubt in your voice!” Emily said, this time the only one laughing. “You have a right to be angry. By now, yeah, most guys would have come back. But trust me, as a detached person, I know Liam is a good guy. He’s got a lot of demons he’s fighting, though.”
“None like the way my hand will slap him, though.”
“And then kiss him and make love to him?”
I said nothing, but my blushing gave me away.
“I knew it!”
This time, I at least half-heartedly joined Emily in a laugh. I got her to the departures lane five minutes later, shared one of the longest hugs of my life with her, and then waved as she disappeared into the terminal—free of the burden of Sean Price, finally.
The question was now, when would I figure out if the possibility of Liam’s return was a burden or a gift?
When I got back to the Air BnB house, I immediately went to Charlotte’s room. A full month may have passed, and I may have known that there was absolutely no risk whatsoever of Sean coming back—I literally saw Liam throw his bullet-filled body into the woods—I could never shake the fear that something would happen when I left Charlotte. One trip to the shower had been all it had taken when Sean showed up.
I suppose this overbearing nature would become a problem as Charlotte matured. For now, I didn’t try and justify it.
I found her, pulled her in close, and gave her a hug. And for the first time in about a month, I was alone again. No Emily. No Liam. Just Charlotte.
And, as he entered the room and panted, Bucky. At least I had the buddy to take care of me. He wasn’t quite his normal self, as I sometimes caught him just blankly staring into the distance, but at least he wasn’t totally brain dead.
“Bucky, buddy,” I said, petting him with my free hand, “things feel awfully strange without anyone else in here.”
Not that this is my place.
“I wonder what Liam is up to. You think I should go and look for him again?”
That seemed to make Bucky pant harder and faster. I could read dog; I knew what he was suggesting. But damnit, did I really want to try that again?
