Page 46

Eve

A Whole Lot of Magic

Two weeks later

I leaned back against Harper, who had both arms wrapped around my waist. Her chin pressed into the top of my shoulder, and her breath tickled my ear.

In front of us was the Santa Fe Museum, and draped across the front was a brand-new banner that read: “ Queer Joy is Resistance: Priscilla Blackburn, Adeline Grant, and the Missing Diamonds .”

The exhibition—which would showcase the letters, photographs, and lives of Priscilla, Adeline, Harry, and Eugene—would be debuting at the museum this coming winter. And there were already plans in place to make it a traveling exhibit.

Priscilla and Adeline’s story was going to be told after all.

“I’ve seen the sign a dozen times at this point, and I still get a kick out of seeing it,” I said, turning to kiss Harper’s cheek.

“Now everyone will know they were the heroes all along,” she said, giving me a squeeze.

Her phone beeped with a text message, and I already knew who it was.

This was confirmed when I heard her soft chuckle.

“That was your aunt, leaving me another fifteen voice memos about the book. At this rate, we’re gonna need to add on a sequel. ”

It’d been a busy couple weeks since we’d discovered the diamonds and letters.

Besides working with the museum, Harper and I had visited Waylon Boyle at Devil’s Kiln one night to thank him for lending a hand.

When we told him the entire grand story of his uncle’s heroic gestures, he’d gone pink in the cheeks from excitement and couldn’t wait to get home and share the news with his husband.

Monty had asked Eve and me to make the announcement in X Marks the Spot, and she and Ruby had been flooded with callers and well-wishes at their house ever since.

Monty was pretending that she didn’t want any fanfare or fuss, except every time a former friend swung by for a visit, she was extra cheerful the whole next day.

As promised, Jensen had been fully involved every step of the way, stopping by Monty and Ruby’s house often for a glass of whiskey, a cigar, and to reminisce about old times.

And Harper had approached Monty about helping her write a book.

Specifically, a memoir—a chance to tell her own story, on everything from finding La Venganza with Ruby to the legacy of Priscilla Blackburn. I’d been shocked—and then absurdly delighted—when Monty had wholeheartedly agreed.

“Did you ever think you’d be helping the Monty Montana write her memoir?” I asked.

She chewed on her bottom lip, trying to contain her smile. “Not in a million years. But she deserves to take her power back and for the world to finally get to know the real Monty. I think a lot of people are going to see themselves in those pages.”

She pressed her mouth to the hair at my temple. “Nothing in my life has ever felt as right as helping Monty write this memoir. Except for when I met you, of course.”

I turned in my arms and pushed her gently against the side of the Airstream trailer. Kissed her thoroughly, long and lingering in the late fall sunlight. The leaves were changing in New Mexico, all that autumnal sun turning the foothills a honey-gold.

Not that we’d be around to see it. We were taking off on our treasure hunt, and Faith had lent us the honeymoon-themed trailer for the trip. We’d be road-tripping through the West, with friends and family coming out to adventure with us along the way. Daphne and Cleo. Monty and Ruby.

One month of watching sunrises with the woman who made me want to fight for love.

And after that, Harper would be subletting a place in Santa Fe to keep working on the book with Monty—and so we could start figuring out the next steps of our life together.

Harper started laughing against my mouth as I deepened our kiss. “Stop distracting me, you utter scoundrel . I’m supposed to be showing you your surprise.”

“And it’s inside the museum?” I asked, nuzzling her ear.

“Sure is,” she sang. She kissed my knuckles and tugged me forward, heading toward the front door. “One last stop before we hit the road.”

Inside, the staff waved us through to the installation room, where they were putting together the research and layout for Priscilla’s exhibit. All four of us had been by a few times already, and it never ceased to leave me momentarily breathless.

Spread out, all around us, were the letters and pictures that had been hidden in that box, buried underground.

Arranged like this, the full gravity of what Priscilla, Adeline, Eugene, and Harry had accomplished was staggering.

The happy letters, the happy couples, the intimate glimpse into their daily lives.

The director had already laid out some design ideas, scribbled questions on Post-it notes.

I could see it coming together in my mind, the way people would get drawn into these stories.

Snapshots of a full life, a singular, beautiful moment in time.

“When you saw Monty and Ruby last night, did they give you an update on the diamonds?” Harper asked.

“They did, yeah. One will stay here, for display only, but the rest will be distributed to the community,” I said. “Ruby had the diamonds appraised, the guy said they were probably worth at least twenty-five thousand dollars.”

Harper was leaning over a glass case, staring at a picture of two men, kissing in a photobooth. “ Whoa , that much?”

I nodded. “We talked about it, what Priscilla and Harry had wanted, which certainly would have been for Monty and Ruby to spread the wealth around as much as possible. Ruby’s best friend runs a mutual aid fund that supports queer elders of the Navajo Nation.

About half will go there. Then I suggested a place in Santa Fe that helps homeless queer and trans kids who have been kicked out of their houses.

They have funds set up to directly pay rent and other bills. ”

“Priscilla and Harry would have loved that,” Harper said. “What a legacy you inherited, Eve.”

I gave her a sweet smile and pulled her against me. “More than I ever could have hoped for.”

We were stopped in front of a collection of letters from Priscilla to Harry, and my eye caught one at random: And maybe it’s not just about the diamonds , she’d written. It’s also what it says: we see you, you are one of us, we are in this together. It’s about the hope.

“Come on,” Harper said softly, “your surprise is this way.”

We walked past row after row of letters and photographs until we reached the very back of the exhibit.

The few pieces hanging there were backlit, glowing against the wall, and finishing the space was the antique bar that Cleo and I had rescued a month earlier.

We’d talked it over and felt that the big gay bar was most at home here, surrounded by the evidence that queer love could thrive, even in the harshest environments.

“I worked with some of the staff here to do some extra research, so you’re the first person seeing this,” Harper said, pointing at a framed picture of a house.

It looked like a tiny bluebell, surrounded on both sides by Victorian homes. The squat bungalow had a porch with white railings, red flower boxes, and ivy climbing up the right wall.

“Here’s your surprise, Eve Bardot: the last known residence of Priscilla and Adeline. They both taught at the school that was down the street.”

My mouth dropped open, tears immediately filling my eyes. “You…wait…you found where they lived ?”

“And quite happily, it seems,” Harper said. “Adeline died at the age of sixty, which was fairly old for the time. Priscilla followed just a month later.”

I pressed a hand to my mouth. “They were truly together until the very end. I can’t believe it.”

Beneath the picture was a framed letter. It was my favorite, the last one that Priscilla had written.

The longer Addie and I are here, the longer I’ve realized that until we stepped foot in this house, I had never taken a full breath.

Never fully filled my lungs with air, so concerned was I that I’d give my secret away.

Be caught out as a fraud, an interloper, something to be feared.

It’s exhausting, as you well know, yet now I’m not sure how I survived for so long.

Taking small sips of life, lest I be discovered for what I really was.

There is no describing it, what it feels to live in the open like this.

To appreciate the quiet moments with Addie—to hold her hand while in the garden.

To plait her hair at night before bed. To peel oranges together on a warm summer morning.

This, above all else, has made our arduous journey worth it.

I was fully crying by the end of it, Harper wiping my cheeks and kissing my temples. “Thank you,” I finally said. “Thank you so much for showing me this.”

She turned my head to kiss me properly, right there in the exhibit, surrounded by pages and pages of bold and defiant words. Brave and honest words. Revolutionary words. “I love you, Eve. You’ve made the arduous worth it. So very, very worth it.”

With my thumbs, I swiped away her tears and felt my own heart bursting with hope. “I love you so much, Harper. I want to spend the rest of my life going on adventures with you.”

She reached into her pocket and unfurled the treasure map I’d made her with a big, beaming smile. “I’m ready if you are.”

So we did just that, tearing off down the road toward our next destination with the windows rolled down and the music turned up.

We had a whole lot of magic in this world left to see.

The love doesn’t end here…