Page 72 of Traitor
“You’re very optimistic today. What’s with that? Where’s my pessimistic grouch?”
“He’s on vacation. I’ve got a pretty girl, a cold beer waiting in a cooler, and some fish with my name on them. I’m thinking fish fry tomorrow. Maybe we invite Mercy and Lexie over, Nell and her family. Make it a whole thing.”
“We should invite Hadley, too. He deserves it after we gave him such a hard time the past couple months.”
“Well, all right then.” When I tug on her arms she comes with me, her weight resting on my chest as I take us deeper into the water. “That’s it, baby. I’ve got you. Just let your legs float up. I’m not gonna let anything happen to you.”
Her arms wrap around my shoulders and I have to admit I could get used to these swimming lessons. I’ll take any excuse to have her half naked body pressed against mine.
“I have something to talk to you about. I figure now is a good time since I’ve got a good hold on you, so you won’t be able to run away.”
“I’m not going anywhere, so why don’t we give floating a try.”
She squints at me again. “You’re not allowed to make a quick escape, Ford Collier.”
“I won’t.” I help her flip over and steady her with my hands splayed over her spine. “The trick is to relax your body, it does most of the work for you. If you start to sink, arch your spine a little and bend your knees. That’s it. You’re doing great.”
“I like having you as my own personal cheerleader. I could get used to it. Did they teach that in the Marines?”
“Keep talking,” I tell her and then whisper all the filthy things I can do to that smart mouth if she keeps it up.
When I finish, her skin is flushed, but it isn’t from the sun. She clears her throat. “Anyway, I got a phone call from Uncle Bradley today. The lawyer who embezzled the rest of the funds from my parents’ accounts has been charged, and the emergency relief fund generated by the bar associations for these sort of circumstances is cutting me a check for the amount he stole.”
My eyes trail down her tight stomach and the flare of her hips. “That’s great news. I’m happy for you.”
“Would you still be happy if I told you I was going to stay in Windy Point? Permanently.”
My head jerks back, my body stiffens, and I study her serene expression intently. “Permanently?”
Her hands make lazy angel wings on the surface of the water. “That’s right. After Alice was convicted, you know her husband put the business up for sale. It seems he’s going to move back to his hometown up north.”
My throat goes tight. “I heard that somewhere. Small towns, you know.”
A smile plays at her lips. “I’ve heard that somewhere. Anyway, I decided to buy it using the money from the trust. I’m going to reopen it doing the same things, but also offer children’s classes, art showings from local artists. I have a ton of ideas.”
“You’re staying?” I manage, all jokes aside. I hadn’t given much thought to what would happen after everything settled down. In the moment, I’d only been concerned about keeping Peyton alive, and then about enjoying what time I had with her. I couldn’t ask her to put her life on hold for me, not when she was finally enjoying her freedom again. The last thing I wanted to do was put her in a cage.
“Of course I’m staying. My life is here.”
“The business is a great opportunity for you. I’m proud of you.”
She gets to her feet, faces me. “I wasn’t talking about the business, although that’s one part of it. I was talking about you.”
Suddenly, I’m the one afraid, although it’s not because of the water. “Me?”
“That is, if you’ll have me?” Her eyes shine up at me, and I wonder what I did to deserve someone so perfect for me in every way.
I cup her jaw and brush my lips over hers. “I was going to ask you at some point, but I wanted to give you time. I guess you beat me to it.”
“You were taking too long. I got impatient when I saw the way you were looking at me. You aren’t mad that I didn’t let you be the dashing hero and let you ask me first?”
“I don’t give a damn about that. All I want is you, any and every way I can have you.”
“I love you, Ford. So much,” she says against my mouth. “I don’t want to go a day without saying that to you.”
“And I don’t want to go a day without you.”
Tears slide down her cheeks and she brushes them away with her fingers. “I’m not going to cry and since today is a day for firsts—the first day of the rest of our lives together, because now you’re stuck with me—I’m going to swim.”
I squeeze her hand to let her know I’ll be here, whenever she needs me. With a deep inhalation, she dives into the waist-deep water and begins to kick her feet. Her first attempts are more error than success, but with each trial, she goes a little deeper, stays up a little longer.
By the time the sun starts its descent and most of the other people have cleared out, she’s streaking through the water like a dolphin, and I’ve retreated to the chairs set halfway in the gentle waves for my first beer. I’d planned on fishing hours ago, but that can wait for tomorrow. There’s plenty of time for solitude, I’ve had enough of that for one lifetime anyway.
Speaking of solitude, I think of the contents of the box Tate’s family had forwarded to me. I’d called his mother when I finally got the balls to open it and we spent some time remembering Ryan. She asked me what it was like when he died and I told her the truth. He’d fallen asleep and it was as peaceful as any one of us could have wished. When she thanked me, she asked that I pass along the contents of the box to the appropriate parties. Considering it was the least I could do, the package and its contents were now on their way to Cal, who’d either kill me or worse when he realized who it was from.
But I’d deal with it either way, because I wasn’t alone anymore, and I never would be again.
When Peyton comes back to me to sit on my lap and kiss me crazy, then bounds off to dive back into the water, I realize she needed someone to give her room to breathe and I needed someone who’d stick—no matter how much I tried to push them away.
As her laughter rings in my ears, I relax back into my chair. If every day from now until my dying day is a repeat of this one, I’d go to the grave a happy man.