Page 44 of Waiting For A Girl Like You (Haven House #4)

“ C an you see him?”

Josie stood to the side of the open window in their bedroom, the sheer curtains billowing around her in the coastal breeze. “He’s fine.”

From her place on the bed, Miranda could only see a strip of the overcast North Carolina sky, and Josie wished they could figure out a way to get her into a more upright position, but nothing had worked.

“The waves might be too rough,” Miranda replied. “It looks stormy out there.”

“You worry too much.”

“It’s my job.”

Still hidden behind the curtain, Josie tracked the slow return of their son. “He’s on his way back, but it might take a minute. That pack of girls who’ve been eyeing him finally worked up the nerve to say hello.”

“Does he look interested?”

“He’s a teenage boy.” Josie chuckled as Samuel balanced the surfboard with one arm, trying to look cool in front of the girls. “Of course, he’s interested.”

Chuckling, Miranda's thin fingers absently smoothed the thick pile of blankets piled on top of her. She’d been complaining of the cold lately, and when she asked to have some fresh air, Josie had wanted to make sure her wife was warm.

Her wife .

Never in a hundred years—never in a thousand—did Josie think she ever would have the chance to stand on a mountaintop and claim Miranda as her own.

It wasn’t legal, but it didn’t matter. The vows were made, and the pact eternally sealed.

With their boy at their side, she and Miranda had seized their chance at happiness.

Back in March, the doctors had told them to hurry.

They gave their I’m sorrys and make - the - m ost- of -it platitudes, but the message was clear.

None of it would halt the inevitable from coming.

Miranda’s body wouldn’t hold for one last battle, and if there was something she wanted to do, it needed to happen before April ended.

And so they lived.

Pulling Samuel from school, they lived. Every second, every day, with a kind of reckless joy.

Small adventures stitched together into something beautiful—a winding trail hike through the mountains, a quick trip to New York so Miranda could show her son the sights of her childhood.

They packed every moment they could into those first fragile weeks after the news.

But the grand finale had been so stunningly spectacular that nothing else could compare.

Josie would owe Benjamin Fairweather until the end of time.

And not just for that day, but for everything.

He had made their lives possible. He had given them their boy.

He had made them financially secure. He had accepted what she and Miranda were to each other long before anyone else dared.

And then, he threw them a wedding.

A real, honest-to-God wedding. For Samuel, more than anyone. He would need these moments to hold on to once Miranda was gone.

Samuel had been so awkward that day. He tried hard to get everything right, even though a recent growth spurt meant his suit no longer fit. His ankles showed, and his sleeves rode comically up his forearms. He hadn’t cared, too focused on making sure things went smoothly for his mom.

With his father’s help, of course. Ben arranged the whole thing.

A female officiant so that they would feel comfortable.

Miranda’s favorite flowers in the bouquets they carried.

A helicopter—Samuel’s favorite part—to take them to the mid-point before they transferred to an off-road vehicle that would bring them to the mountaintop where they would say their vows.

Just as Miranda wanted.

Ben had given them a place to speak openly of their love, leaving only God and the vast surrounding peaks to bear witness.

There had been just a single hitch in their plans. The weather. A cold front swept in the night before, and their extravagant wedding gowns weren’t made for wind chill. But wrapped in flannel blankets, they had their ceremony anyway, shivering and smiling.

Showing up at the last minute, as only a true Fairweather would, Ben came swooping in with a professional photographer in tow.

Miranda had been nervous at first, already unsettled by having an officiant present, but Josie had thanked him for thinking ahead.

Deep down, she knew Ben had done it for Samuel.

Their boy would need evidence of the day because time was the cruelest of thieves.

It made quick work of stealing precious memories, erasing them from the mind in the most merciless of ways.

After that impossibly perfect day was over, Josie took them to the North Carolina coast. Parkland Grounds, while a huge part of their lives, was theirs no longer. They said goodbye to the manor home, trading it for the small beach house she and Miranda loved so much.

A cozy, quiet place to say goodbye.

In the beginning, they continued to have fun, albeit on a smaller scale.

The summer days were spent doing everything and nothing at all.

Movie marathons and lazy afternoons ruled.

A board game here. A puzzle there. But their favorite pastime, without question, was people-watching from the back deck.

Well, Samuel was girl-watching, but close enough.

“I wonder what kind of woman he’ll end up with,” Miranda had mused one evening as they sat cuddled under a blanket, watching Samuel surfing his final wave. “Or how many women if he turns out to be anything like his father.”

Josie nudged her shoulder. “Remember that Christmas LJ said she thought Evie and Samuel would end up together someday? That was hilarious.”

Miranda had smiled at the memory, but it faltered a beat later. “That was our last good Christmas. We were all so hopeful.”

“Life changes in an instant.” Josie had nothing more to say, no other words to give.

They’d hashed it out a thousand times, talking through the pain so that they could live their days and not waste them.

“But here we are, still talking about LJ and her crazy ideas. We’ll always love and remember her. ”

“Yeah, we will.” Miranda wiped away a tear just as she burst into laughter when a wave took Samuel down hard. “He needs someone like her. Not Evie exactly, but someone who won’t back down. Someone just as stubborn as he is.”

She wasn’t wrong. Samuel was at that messy midpoint of adolescence—bullheaded and sensitive in equal measure. He had time for fun now, time to surf and flirt and stumble through these last bits of childhood, but there would come a day when he’d need someone to help him find his footing.

They would have to help guide him.

No.

Not they .

There would be no more they .

This was the end.

Their time was up.

It would only be her from now on. She would have to do it alone, without Miranda’s calming nature to keep them steady.

Ben would be there. That was a given. Ben was always there for his son, but it wasn’t the same. Samuel wanted nothing more than to impress his father, and never truly permitted his vulnerability to show.

“Josie?”

“He stopped to talk to the girls.” Leaning against the balcony door frame, Josie smiled at Samuel’s attempts to act smooth and flirt. “Oh, goodness. He’s nervous. I can see that rash on his neck blooming from here.”

Miranda’s laughter floated through the air, warm and raspy. Josie stepped away from the door and returned to the bed, reaching for her hand.

“Go ahead and rest a little. He’ll be inside soon,” Josie told her as Miranda’s eyes drifted closed. “Then I’ll make him lunch.”

Samuel was the only one eating these days. Josie’s stomach stayed tied in knots, and Miranda... well, eating was something only the living did, or so the hospice nurse said. The dying, if they chose to partake, only did so to make those around them feel more comfortable .

There was a crash on the first floor. Samuel had yet to learn how to do things gently and always managed to knock a few things over whenever he slammed the back door.

“Mom!”

His size fourteen feet thundered on the stairs. He never liked leaving Miranda for long, only surfing when she forced him to take a break.

“I caught a barrel wave!” Soaked and still in his wetsuit, Samuel skidded to a halt at their bedroom entrance. “And I didn’t wipe out!”

Miranda’s eyes stayed closed, her voice thin as she smiled. “That’s so wonderful.”

The overcast skies shifted, allowing a hint of sun to peek through, slanting across the room in warm bands of gold.

It illuminated the pieces of their life scattered about.

All the things Miranda had wanted near her as she prepared to depart.

Photos and trinkets, the little nothings that would soon be all that was left.

A gull cried from somewhere nearby, mixing with the waves greeting the shore and Miranda’s ragged breathing.

“Mom?” Samuel crossed the room to his usual chair on the far side of the bed. He would spend hours in it reading to Miranda or just talking to her about nothing at all. “Did you hear me?”

“I did.” The shallow rise and fall of his mother’s chest stalled momentarily, and Miranda opened her eyes to look at her son. “I love you.”

Those three little words were uttered every day in this house.

But today, it was different. Today, the I love you falling from Miranda’s lips wasn’t a normal one.

It wasn’t the I love you mothers said to their children in the hurried rush of life.

It wasn’t the kind that was uttered with pride when they’d achieved a goal, or the kind that was whispered when trying to console their broken hearts.

This time—this I love you —was the final one.

The one reserved for the end. The goodbye. The promise to always watch over him.

Samuel’s face drained of color, and he clutched his mother’s hand, recognizing the power behind the words. “I love you, too.”

“Look after your father and Josie,” Miranda whispered, her voice barely audible. “Look after them all, my darling boy. They’re yours now.”

Samuel nodded through his tears. “I will. ”