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Sev is the first to come out of their room, smiling, her blanket in one arm and her spell book in the other. Tossing both on the couch next to me, she crawls up on my lap.
“Hey, little girl,” I whisper, kissing her forehead.
“They’s makin’ my head hurt,” she tells me, rolling her eyes.
“Are you happy Kacy’s back?”
She looks up at me, her smile a little brighter. “I likes my mom.”
I don’t correct her, and I know I should, but all I can think is, me too, kid. Me too.
I… found peace.
KACY
My experience with New Year’s Eve has always been fancy parties, uncomfortable dresses that make you itch everywhere, and never kissed at midnight. I take that back. I was kissed by a girl when I was seventeen on New Year’s Eve. She wasn’t wearing cherry Chapstick, and I did not enjoy it. Katy Perry was wrong.
But this New Year’s Eve, I’m staring at a fifty-foot-tall bonfire, had my first s’more, and drinking straight whiskey from a Yeti cup wearing a flannel. It’s perfection if you ask me.
Morgan and Lillian are sitting next to one another on the back of a tailgate, sharingnottequila from a flask and kissing. It’s nice to see her happy with him.
With country music playing and the girls dancing at our feet, sparklers in hand, I lean into Barron, who’s next to me on a makeshift bench out of a tree stump. He smells like smoke and leather, and his kisses taste like memories in the making. I look down at my cup. “Yeti cups are like, indestructible. Cool as shit. I feel like someone could shoot me, and I could hold up this Yeti cup and block that bitch. And they’d be like, whoa, she’s Wonder Woman. What the F? And I’d be like, nah, it’s my Yeti.”
Barron’s shoulders shake with laughter as he hugs me to his side. “I’m glad your back.”
“Missed me?”
“I did.” He shifts, reaching to adjust Camdyn’s hat that keeps falling off her head. I love that no matter what’s happening, he’s always focused on the girls. Always aware.
I curl my arm into his, refusing to allow space between us. “I might have missed you more.”
He pulls back, smiling at me, his expression hopeful. “Does this mean you’re staying?”
I don’t even know how to answer it.
My eyes drift over the sparkly frosted field filled with smoke. The moon hangs over the water, the wind slapping our faces as usual, but it’s the one waiting on my words that shines brighter than the stars in the sky above us. Twisting toward him, I touch the side of his face, his jaw, his distinct cheekbones, and smile. He watches me carefully, unsure what this means having me here. We haven’t talked about it yet. “I think a new year deserves a new beginning. And I want to love you in all the ways you believed you were not good enough for. Because you are.”
He swallows, his eyes searching mine, his voice soft like his touch when he takes my hand in his. He looks different than the day I left. I can’t explain it, but it’s there. Happiness. The way he watches me, I feel beautiful and... enough. Leaning in, his breath hits my face when he says, “You did that already by coming back.”
Camdyn and Sev distract us with sparklers. “Sev,” Barron groans. “Don’t point that at your sister.”
This isn’t the first time we’ve had to warn her about this. I’m impressed no one has been burned yet.
While Morgan lights off fireworks, Barron draws me into his chest. “If you stay now, I’m going to marry you someday.”
I smile softly, looking up at him. “If I stay, I want more babies from you.”
I wonder if he’s going to catch onto the way I said more babies. His lips quirk into a smile, drifting to the girls and then back to mine. “Sev really wants a brother.”
“Uh, yeah. I was in the bathroom the other day and she asked for my pee.”
He laughs. “Jesus Christ.”
“Where we’re heading, I think he might approve this time,” I say, winking at him.
And for the first time, I’m kissed at midnight, and by a cowboy who helped me find where I belonged.
“Why can’t you just say ‘Happy New Year’ like normal people?”