Page 102 of Where the Roses Bloom

“And you’re okay with this?”

Delilah exhaled, reaching out to grip my hand. “Oh honey…I’m so glad this dress is going to see its big day after all these years.”

I nodded once, biting back tears.

“Okay,” I said. “Let’s do it.”

And as we finally started to unfurl the dress for me to step into it, the fabric smelled overpoweringly of roses.

CHAPTER 35

Rhett

It would only bea matter of minutes before I walked out onto the lawn between the house and the forest, and I made Willow Rhodes my wife.

I couldn’t believe how quickly we were doing this, afraid that she would have doubts or hesitations—but I also couldn’t believe how long we’d waited. From the moment I’d found her sleeping at the end of the driveway, I had known she was it for me. Those golden-brown eyes had looked out through the crack in the door and Iknew.

And now we were here.

Preparing to start our life together…about to have a baby, though that was a secret only she and I shared. A quiet, flickering joy I kept folded up in my back pocket, along with the hastily written vows I’d slapped together and Hazel’s emerald ring.

I’d found the ring in Hazel’s jewelry box the night before, after everyone else had gone to bed. It was tucked in the back, in a velvet pouch worn thin at the edges, like it had been waiting for this moment. For her. I’d known the second I saw it that it was meant to be hers.

I buttoned my shirt with numb fingers, nervous even though I had no doubt this was forever.

Because on some level…I was still afraid that the curse held sway. We’d been so confident that we broke it, but that curse had hung onto this house, our family, the land, for more than three hundred years. Maybe Carter’s arrival was part of it.

Maybe his death was part of it too.

The house creaked around me, old bones shifting. The pipes moaned like they did when the weather turned. Ordinary sounds; familiar. But my skin prickled, hairs rising along my arms as if something was just behind me, watching.

We’d salted the windows. Burned rosemary at the doors. Laid out iron nails and drawn circles.

But curses didn’t always leave quietly.

Especially not when the dead still thought they had something to say.

I still wasn’t sure if what I’d seen in this very mirror had been Carter, but I didn’t want to leave it to chance.

So I cleared my throat.

And I spoke.

“You listenin’?”

There wasn’t any response, not that I’d expected one. The sound of voices filtered through the door from outside, people laughing, dishes clinking, doors opening and closing. Today was a far cry from when I’d been alone in the house while Willow tended to Jasmine.

That was probably a good sign, right? That he wouldn’t show his face when joy was in this house…and soon, joy would be the only thing.

“Well, if you are,” I continued, feeling like a damn fool, “I want you to know I’m going to treat her like the goddess she is.”

Silence.

“I don’t know if you came back ‘cause you want to hurther…or if you thought you were the best thing that could’ve happened to her. I’m not here to argue with you. What I want is for you to know it’s time to move on to that great hereafter, because she ain’t yours anymore.”

There was just a flash of movement…but it made my heart pick up a beat. Just a flicker in the mirror, enough to get my palms sweaty.

“If there’s any fragment of you still clingin’ to this place,” I said, “you oughta use it to walk away. Be decent for once. Let her go.”