Open Your Heart (Kings Grove #4) - Delancey Stewart Page 0,84

he grinned, standing to start that one next.

The version he’d put together for the Inn was equally impressive, and I knew Mike would be floored. “No wonder they pay you the big bucks down there in Hollywood,” I said.

“If they did, darlin’, I wouldn’t have come up here so eagerly,” he said, laughing. “And I wanted to ask you guys about that, actually.”

“About what?” Cam asked, turning the lights back on.

“About what would happen if I maybe didn’t go back.”

I looked at Cam and back at Tuck. “Didn’t go back? Or stayed here?”

“Both.”

“Yeah, man,” Cam said easily. “Definitely stay here.” He grinned.

“Yeah,” Tuck said, and I got the sense he hadn’t let himself really embrace the idea before passing it by Cam first. “And could I stay here? I mean live at the house?”

“No,” Cam said, and my mouth fell open, along with Tuck’s.

“No?” I asked, surprised.

Cam wrapped his hand around his neck and shook his head. “I mean, yes, of course. But only if we can switch.”

“Switch what?” Tuck asked.

“You live down here. I’m moving into the big house. If it’s okay with Harper, I mean.”

I nodded, completely happy with the solution. “Of course it’s okay.”

“Perfect,” Tuck said. “Let me take you guys to the diner for a burger and we’ll celebrate the two newest residents of Kings Grove.”

We did exactly that, sharing my news and Tuck’s with anyone we saw who might care. When we told Miranda, who was eating lunch with Sam at the next table, she practically danced in her seat. “That’s wonderful!” she said. And then her face became more serious. “Oh, hey, did my dad come up to see you?”

“No, why?” Cam asked her.

“They caught the mountain lion this morning,” she said. “He had a team come up from the valley with tranquilizer guns, and they finally caught it.”

“What do they do with it now?” I hated the idea of the big cat being hurt, though I wasn’t eager to have it continue living and hunting in my backyard.

“He said they’d fly it into the back country—like way back,” she said. “They put a collar on it so they can track it.”

I nodded. I didn’t know a whole lot about wildlife management, but that made sense to me. “That’s good,” I said.

“Thought you’d want to know,” Miranda said. “Especially since you’re sticking around.”

I grinned, feeling my blood warm as my heart seemed to swell with happiness. I took a deep breath, let it out, and realized my yoga teacher would be proud of me. Here, with my life finally settling and Cameron at my side, I could breathe. I could relax. And I was happy.

Epilogue

CAMERON

THREE MONTHS LATER

I wasn’t the guy who things worked out for.

I was cursed. I was the guy who lost everything he loved.

And sometimes, though life had gone much differently than I’d expected, I still felt like that guy and looked around surprised to see the things—the people—that surrounded me and proved day after day that things could change. That we could change.

“Earth to Cam,” my sister said, leaning over to poke me in the shoulder as we sat side by side around the fire pit between my house and Tuck’s. “Did you hear me?”

I laughed, squeezing Harper tighter on my lap. “Yeah, I’m just taking a minute to process,” I said.

“How do you think I felt?” Connor asked. “I needed a few hours. I’m not sure I’ve processed it yet, actually.”

Miranda stood, raising her beer in front of her on the other side of the circle of chairs, the warm fire crackling between us and casting her in a red glow. “To Maddie and Connor, and to baby Charles! I’m so happy for you—I know we all are. Congratulations!”

I raised my beer with the others, my head still spinning that my little sister could be having a baby.

I was going to be an uncle. Maddie and Connor had wasted no time starting their family.

“I’m happy for you guys,” I said, leaning toward my sister who was glowing with contentment.

Maddie turned to smile at me, her eyes shining. “I’m happy for you too,” she said. And as the words left her lips, my eyes were drawn upwards to the sky. It had been cold and gray all day, and there’d been talk of a storm in the village, but we hadn’t seen any reason to cancel plans for the get together tonight. But as Maddie spoke, the first snowflakes of the first winter’s storm drifted down from above, and soon our