Colin set his black coffee down. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” Maren took a sip of her latte—honey and lavender and perfect. “Better than okay, actually.”
“Good.”
Maren ate her sandwich and watched Lyons move past the glass. People walking dogs. Couples holding hands. A woman pushing a stroller. Normal life, happening all around her.
She’d almost forgotten what that looked like.
“Thank you,” she said to Colin and Charlie. To the room in general.
“For what?” Charlie asked.
“For this. For letting me feel human again.” Maren looked down at her plate. “For reminding me that the world is still out there. That it’s still good.”
Colin’s hand found hers under the table. Squeezed once.
“Always,” he said quietly.
And for the first time since the break-in, since the recording, since the cross-country drive in the dark—Maren let herself believe it.
When they’d finishedtheir late lunch, they bused the table, made their goodbyes with promises to see April, Rochelle, and Hannah at the book club, and headed outside. Maren had heard the sound of rushing water when they’d first parked. It sounded even louder now.
“Am I hearing the St. Vrain?” she asked.
“You are,” Charlie said, a hint of wistfulness in her voice. “It’s just down those stairs.” She pointed toward the part of the parking lot that wrapped around Riversong.
“I’d kind of like to see it before we head back. Is that all right?”
“Sure.” Charlie and Colin both took a quick look around, then they headed for the top of the stairs. They went about twenty feet down to a path that ran alongside the river.
“It’s running high this year,” Charlie said over the roar of the water. “It’s a shame the other side of the Divide is so dry.”
Maren watched the river flashing white in the sunlight as it poured over rocks in the narrow channel between the hill on this side and the sheer cliff wall on the other.
“I understand why Sean loved it,” she said. “It’s beautiful.”
Charlie nodded. “It is. It’s worth moving here just to be near it.”
Maren glanced up at Colin in time to see him staring at her before he looked swiftly away. Her mouth went dry and her heart flipped.
“Time to get back,” he said.
They pulledinto the Watchdog parking lot and Charlie let them out of the truck. Maren thanked Charlie again.
“That was exactly what I needed.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself,” Charlie said, still behind the wheel. “I had fun, too. I’ll see you at Arden’s. I’ve got to get Ben’s truck back to him.” She nodded at Colin, then backed out and drove away, leaving them alone together in the parking lot.
Maren blew out a breath and looked down at her shopping bags. “Back to the real world, I guess.”
“It’s not the real world,” Colin said. “This is temporary, Maren. You’ll get your life back sooner than you think.”
She nodded as she smiled up at him. “Thanks for making it?—”
“Bearable?”
“—wonderful,” she said at the same time.
