Page 14 of Found on the Prairie

Epilogue

KIM

"Oh, doesn’t it look sweet!” Lucy exclaims, as she steps back and casts her eye over the little knitted blanket that she’s finally finished working on.

"Looks perfect," I tell her, giving her arm a grateful squeeze. "Thanks, Lucy. You’re going to be a wonderful aunt..."

"I sure am," she agrees, as she rises to her feet, taking a step back to survey the room around us. Up until a few weeks ago, it was their mother’s bedroom, sitting there in the house as a shrine to her – but, with the baby only a few months away, Lucy made the executive desicion that we were going to turn it into a nursery for the new addition to the family, and she has been hard at work trying to get it together ever since.

In fact, she insisted on it, given that I’ve been spending a lot of my time up at the retreat with Riley, figuring out how best to put my teaching skills into practice. It’s certainly going to take a lot of adaptation to find a way to match my English Literature career with teaching in a broader sense like this, but whenever I find myself second-guessing it, I remind myself of what I will be able to give people here.

The lives that people might be able to live because I have showed them a little more of the world, the opportunities they might see and make and take in the process.

And, as I glance around the room – decorated with a few paintings that Cade worked on, of rabbits and bunnies and other sweet little woodland creature – I say a silent thank-you to the woman who once lived here. She’s the reason that I can stay at all, the reason that Cade has been so willing to support me in my focus in developing decent education for the women here.

I might never have had a chance to meet her, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t feel her presence in this place every damn day. I wish that she could have been around long enough to see what we were making here, maybe even to take advantage of it herself, but, with the stories Lucy and Cade tell me about her, sometimes, it feels as though she is.

I hear footsteps on the stairs, and Lucy and I glance around to see Cade leaning in the doorway, his leather satchel tossed over one shoulder, full of vegetables fresh from the garden that he is taking down to town to sell.

I have done my best to pull my weight in the gardens, but God knows I haven’t exactly got a green thumb. Cade keeps telling me I’ll get better at it, and I keep telling him that if I haven’t by now, I doubt I ever will. Still, he believes in me. And the vote of confidence is everything I need right now.

He lets out a low whistle through his teeth as he steps in, wrapping his arms around me from behind and pulling me against him warmly.

"Lookin’ pretty damn good," he remarks. "You girls have done a good job..."

"You say it like you ever doubted us," I shoot back, and he laughs, dropping a kiss on the side of my neck.

"Never let it be said," he replies. "You want to come to town with me? It’s a pretty day out..."

"Yeah, that sounds lovely," I reply, and I glance over at Lucy. "That okay with you, Luce?”

"If it means that I don’t have to watch you all over each other," she replies, waving her hand. "The sooner the better, I say."

I laugh. Lucy, for all that she teases us about how mushy we are with each other, has been the first in line to celebrate our newfound relationship, and I know she’s only joshing.

"Then we’ll leave you to it," I reply, and I slip my hand into his. "You ready?”

"Whenever you are," he replies, as he winds his fingers around mine and gives my hand a squeeze. And, with that, the two of us head for the door, making our way downstairs and out into the warm sunshine beyond.

For a moment, when the sun hits my face, I am reminded of the day I arrived here. My car on the side of the road, struggling to find a signal, feeling like I was lost with no way out. And, while I sure as hell might have had no idea where I stood when I got to this place, to this time – I can see now that it’s where I belong.

With him, with my new family, in my new home, turning my skills to a whole new set of possibilities.

He draws my hand to his mouth and drops a kiss against it as we hit the road, the sunlight picking out our way ahead of us. And, though he doesn’t say anything, I know exactly what he’s thinking.

That soon enough, we’ll be walking our child down this same path. A new generation to welcome into the world, a new start.

The start of the rest of my life, right here, at his side.