came with an expectation. You had to give to get.”
“What do you mean?”
“I had a lot to live up to.”
Luke was silent, waiting for her to continue.
“I remember one semester my senior year, I got a B in a math class,” Shannon said. “First B I’d ever gotten. Do you know my hands actually shook when I showed my mother my grades? She got this terrible look of disappointment on her face, as if I’d betrayed the family or committed a crime. She never got angry or yelled. There was just this horrible silence.”
Shannon hadn’t thought about that in a long time, and she was surprised at how it still made her sick to think about it.
“I know it doesn’t seem like a big thing to you considering where you came from,” she went on, “and you’re right to feel that way. But things like that added up, little by little, until I felt as if I was drowning. No matter how hard I tried, I never quite measured up.”
“Which is why you’re just a little bit of a perfectionist?”
“You think?” She smiled briefly. Then her smile faded. “But you know, the day I showed my mother that grade, I went to the shelter. I walked from cage to cage, talking to the dogs. They didn’t care what I did, how I dressed, what grades I got. They loved me anyway. That’s why I’ll do anything for them. And they don’t ask for a damn thing in return except for me to feed them and treat them right.”
Luke reached over and took Shannon’s hand, and together they stared out at the valley.
“I’m glad Mildred insisted the valley stay untouched,” Shannon said quietly, as if a louder voice would disturb the animal spirits dozing peacefully beneath the full moon. “On a night like tonight, it’s easy to believe the animals really are there.”
“So you believe the legend?”
She lifted one shoulder in a tiny shrug. “We’ve had all kinds of animals come through the shelter. Ones who’ve been horribly mistreated. Some who didn’t make it.” She paused, her eyes growing misty. “Sometimes I need to believe, you know?”
Luke nodded.
“On the hardest days,” she said, “sometimes I think about what it would be like if I were to die and go to the valley. If you believe the legend, every animal I’ve ever loved would be there.”
Tears welled up in her eyes, and Luke gave her hand a gentle squeeze.
“Any pain they’d felt in this life would be gone,” she said. “They’d have no memory of abuse or neglect or anything else they might have suffered. Finally they’d all be healthy and happy. Then…” Her voice faltered. “Then there would be that moment when they’d look up and recognize me. They’d come running across the valley to meet me. And then”—she ducked her head and put her hand against her mouth, her voice choking up—“then a rainbow would appear…”
She squeezed her eyes closed. Tears streamed down her face, and her shoulders shook with sobs. Luke slipped his arm around her. She fell against him, and he took her in his arms. He held her tightly, running his hand up and down her back in long, soothing strokes. For a long time he just held her like that, the warmth of his embrace countering the cool night breeze, the gentleness of his touch coaxing her tears to subside.
Nothing felt better than being with him. Nothing.
Luke was warm and solid and comforting in ways she’d never expected him to be. He’d shown up there and reminded her what it felt like for her skin to prickle with excitement, only to turn around and show her how to breathe deeply and let her troubles go. Whatever she needed at the time, Luke always seemed to be there to provide it.
“The Rainbow Valley Overlook is nice,” he said. “But that’s for everyone else. This place was mine before. Now I’m giving it to you.”
She looked up at him, her eyes glittering with tears. “Can you do that?”
“I just did. It can be yours forever, as long as you don’t tell anyone about it.”
Long after he was gone, she could come here and remember this night. She didn’t know whether to feel comforted by that or start crying all over again.
Luke continued to hold Shannon, wanting desperately to protect her from anything that caused her misery, distress, or unhappiness. Then he remembered what Rita had asked him to do. While you’re here…will you watch out for her?