"You'll never have to."
A quiet smile spreads across her face.
"I know."
Instead of turning toward the clubhouse, I take the back road that winds through the edge of the compound.
She notices almost immediately.
"Where are we going?"
"I wanna show you something."
She doesn't ask anything else.
A few minutes later I pull onto a gravel drive and park beside a wide stretch of open land tucked against the trees.
Lucy climbs out beside me.
She slowly turns in a circle.
"It's beautiful."
The breeze stirs her hair as she looks across the property.
"It's quiet."
"That's why I bought it."
She looks back at me.
"You own this?"
I nod.
"Bought it about five years ago."
Her eyebrows lift.
"Five years?"
"Yeah."
She slips her hand into mine as we start walking through the grass.
"I figured you'd have built something by now."
"I could've."
"So why didn't you?"
I stop near the middle of the property.
The trees sway behind her.
Sunlight catches in her hair.
Because of everything we've been through, because I almost lost her, because I don't want to waste another second...
