“What if she moves in with us and hates it?” Finn said. “What if you convince her and it turns out she doesn’t want to be with you forever? Or us? What if she doesn’t like teenage boys?”

“Remember how she was when you cut your hand? Remember her chicken thing she fed you, Sean? She might not know how to live with a bunch of men, but she likes us. And you know what I’d like? I’d like to have a woman around again. Your mom and I had a good relationship—we got along, knew how to compromise and had fun doing it. Not all couples work out so well but we have a great reason to try.”

“Maybe she doesn’t love you,” Sean said.

But she did, that’s what Rob believed. They had long discussions about serious things, talked about silly things, agreed more than they disagreed, had similar tastes and those things they didn’t agree on were insignificant. They both loved breakfast best. She hated cilantro but he loved it; she liked love ballads and he like jazz. He loved trying out special restaurants, she loved eating but wasn’t much of a cook. And when their bodies came together, they fit like tongue in groove. It was not purely physical; you can’t really love a person like that without the emotion of it guiding you.

Okay, some people could. But their relationship wasn’t like that. They’d shared day after day, week after week, of longing, of trusting. Unless he knew nothing about her, Leigh was not one of those people. She was as emotionally invested as he was.

And yet she was so scared.

“I think we’re right for each other,” Rob said. “It feels like love to me but I understand her nervousness. This happened so suddenly. And the only person Leigh has ever shared her space with is her aunt.”

“What are you going to do?” Finn asked.

“I don’t know,” he said. “For right now I’m going to go easy. I’ll take care of her as much as she’ll let me, but damn, she’s one bossy, independent woman.” He shook his head. “I’m open to suggestions if you have any.”

Finn and Sean exchanged looks. They were not exactly experts on this subject. “Um, Dad, you might want to ask someone else,” Sean said.

* * *

When Helen got back to Timberlake, she called Leigh’s cell phone. It went straight to voice mail. “I suppose you’re seeing patients,” she said. “Just as well. I’m back from San Francisco and I’m going out to the Crossing. I hope to get a little writing done this afternoon. If you’re not doing anything this evening, why not come out to Sully’s for dinner? I know he’s going to ask me if I can stay. I haven’t seen him in two weeks.”

Helen secretly hoped Leigh would be otherwise engaged.

Sully was so happy to see her he wrapped his arms around her. “You were gone a year, right?” he asked.

“I think maybe you missed me,” she said.

“I know we talked but now that you’re back I want you to tell me about it.”

“Have you eaten? Because I’m starving.”

Sully made her a sandwich and then left Brenda Canaday in charge of the store while they sat on the porch at the house together. This was the third Canaday kid to work at the Crossing in the last few years and it freed up Sully to do whatever he needed to do. And right now he needed time with Helen.

Between bites Helen told him almost the same things she’d told him over the phone. She loved Maureen’s guesthouse and Maureen’s husband, a sweet man who left them mostly to their own devices. She had dinner with Maureen every night and on some days they went out to favorite restaurants. She and Maureen were both writers and had been friends for a long time.

“I always have a wonderful time in San Francisco and with Maureen but I wouldn’t have stayed away so long except for Leigh. I was hoping she’d spend a lot of quality time with Rob and maybe work some things out.”

“Did she say anything about that?” Sully wanted to know.

“Nothing except that they continue to get along beautifully,” Helen said. “I don’t suppose you heard anything?”

“I have Frank, remember,” Sully said. “Don’t know how Frank knows so much—he hardly moves out of that chair in the front of the store—but he knows everyone’s business. The story is, they’re together every day. If she’s not at the pub for lunch or dinner, Rob’s car is in her drive.”

“That’s good!” Helen said. “I want them talking!”

“I think it’s pretty obvious they’ve been doing more than talking. Do you know what you want for her, Helen?”

“I want her to be happy! I’ve never seen her so happy as when she started seeing Rob. I don’t think she’s even unhappy with this surprise pregnancy. I told her not to do anything unless she was completely sure. I didn’t realize it was going to take her so long!”

“I’d like her to get settled, too,” Sully said.

“You know, when my eighteen-year-old sister came to me and said she was pregnant, there was no loving man trying to do anything he could to help. She wouldn’t even tell me who it was. She said, Maybe someday. She died so young and she never told me who Leigh’s father was. We toyed with the idea of a search but Leigh wasn’t interested. She said it had become irrelevant.

“But this baby in her, this is a well-known and well-respected local man’s baby. He seems a good man.”

“I would vouch for that,” Sully said. “That don’t mean she loves him enough to marry him, but he is a good man.”

“And he should have complete access to his child. If she isn’t invested enough to make a commitment, they should agree on some custody arrangement. He should have a hand in that child’s upbringing.”

“Helen, I want to talk about us,” Sully said. “I want to talk about our future.”

“What’s on your mind, Sully?” she asked, taking another bite of her sandwich.

“Us, that’s what’s on my mind. Do we have a future together? I mean, together?”

“I don’t follow,” she said.

“Helen, I’m happy every day we spend together. I want to spend every day together from now on. I don’t think I’ve loved a woman till you. I’m mighty old to be feeling this for the first time. Now, I realize you like to take trips and I don’t. But there’s lots of time that you’re not taking trips. Maybe we should talk about getting married.”

“Married?” she said, stunned. “Are you crazy? Why get married now? I’m not pregnant!”

“Does this run in the family?” Sully asked.

“Seriously, why get married now? Can’t we just be together? Live in sin?”

“If that’s what you got, I’ll take it. Can you stand this house? If you want to gut it and redo it, I don’t care. I got land if you want to start from scratch, though I can’t help as much anymore. Twenty years ago I could practically build it for you, but now I can only lend a hand. But we got us that new mattress, which, by the way, was a good idea. I don’t think my back has been this good in ten years.”

“Because your mattress was twenty years old, I think. Listen, Sully, I feel the same way. You make me happy. This place makes me happy. But I’m not making any kind of commitment until I get through one of your winters. I might not be able to handle it.”

“You’ll learn to handle it if you got a grandbaby here,” he said. “I’ll do my best to keep you warm.”

“You in some big hurry, Sully?”

“At my age?” he asked. “We should probably get hitched before sundown! Plus, I read another one of your books. The one about the dead girl...”

“Half of them are about a dead girl,” she said, biting into her sandwich.

“You can say that so innocently, like it has nothing to do with you. Let me ask you—you don’t have any books about a seventy-two-year-old shopkeeper, do you?”

She smiled. “Not yet.”

“I just want you overnight,” he said. “While I still have a little time left. You’re just a pup. You prolly have a few boyfriends left in you after I give out.”

“I hope you’re not planning to leave me too soon,” she said. “I’m just getting used to you.”

“I’ll prolly be around awhile,” he said. “Hope so. You make me feel young. I might even go on a trip with you sometime.”

“Why, Sully! Don’t be rash,” she said, laughing.

“No promises. I’m kind of set in my ways. But you can gut that house if you want to. Do anything you want. Just live in it with me. You know you want to.”

“I want to,” she said. “But first I’m going to see my niece a little more settled than she is.”

“She’s a big girl,” Sully said. “If she’s not gonna do anything to sort this out for herself, I’m not inclined to wait on her. You should prolly pull the rug out from under her.”

“Oh, I couldn’t do that,” Helen said. “We’re all we have—each other.”

“I know that. And the two of you could each use more others.”

* * *

Finn and Maia sat close together on her patio in twin lounge chairs, sharing a throw. They’d been kissing their brains out and doing a little innocent petting under that throw. Anyone who looked at them out the kitchen window would be able to figure out what was going on, but no one looked. Her parents were so happy she was alive they didn’t push too hard on her. Besides, they had been so grateful for Finn and his support.

“You have orientation in Boulder pretty soon,” she said.

“A couple of weeks. But school doesn’t start until after Labor Day.”

“I’ve made a decision,” she said. “I’m not going to start in September. I’m taking off another semester.”

“Are you okay with that?” he asked.