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“The whole time the storm was raging,” I go on, “I didn’t think about it. I didn’t think about the past and I didn’t let the silly fears…”
She glares and I giggle.
“Okay, not silly, just the fears… I didn’t let them take me over. I didn’t let them cripple me. Somehow, I was able to just be with Roman and Tanker. It was like the rest of the world didn’t exist.”
“That’s amazing.”
Millie’s voice flutters with disbelief and something else… acceptance, happiness? Can I really let myself hope and dream?
“Honestly,” she goes on, “the fact that you’re writing again, Dad, and that you didn’t freak out at the storm, Rayla… it’s incredible. I won’t pretend to understand it. But surely it’s proof something is happening here.”
She pauses, stroking her chin. I fight the urge to tease her about it, the way I often do when she does this.
Normally I’d lightly banter with her, telling her she knows there isn’t a beard there, right?
But I don’t think it would be the most appropriate timing right now.
Millie smiles at me, reading my expression, and then lets her hand drop. “Oops.”
I giggle, shaking my head. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“You didn’t have to.” She sighs. “Did this really only start a few days ago?”
“Yes,” I say firmly.
“Yes,” Roman replies quickly.
“And this is a long-term thing? You’re not going to get all lovey-dovey and then suddenly break it off, are you? Because think about how awkward that would be if I ever invited Rayla over for Thanksgiving.”
I blink back another wave of hot tears. “You mean there’s a chance you’d still want to do that?”
“Of course.” Millie looks at me, her eyes a mirror of mine, shimmering with the onset of tears. “I waited my whole life to find a best friend like you, Rayla. And this must’ve been so crazy, so fast, I can hardly blame you for not immediately telling me. It’s not like you waited very long when I got here.”
“We’re in this for the long haul, Millie,” Roman says with conviction.
Then he does something dangerous. He reaches across and squeezes onto my hand, wrapping his finger firmly around mine, his touch sending comforting signals through my body even as an alarm screeches through me.
This is going to be too much for Millie. We’re flaunting it.
But when I return my gaze to her, I see a slight smile touching her lips.
“We’re going to be a family together,” Roman goes on. “Give you little brothers and sisters. You’ve always said you wanted me to settle down and be happy. I used to think it was impossible. But now I’ve found her – the only woman who will ever be able to make me feel like a proper person.”
Suddenly it’s too much for us.
Millie and I let out a sob at the same time, the sound joining in a crackle, like the thunder which brought Roman and me together.
We cry at the same time, the emotion bursting out of us.
After a moment Roman stands and pulls me around the table to Millie’s side. She stands with Tanker cradled to her chest and the three of us – the four of us including the little terrier – embrace, holding onto each other.
We stay like that for a long time, frozen, and then Millie leans back and giggles.
“If you’d told me this was how I’d spend my first day at the cabin, no freaking way would I have believed you.”
“Does that laugh mean we have your blessing?” Roman asks.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Millie says. “Yes, you have my blessing. I won’t say I don’t find it a little weird. But nobody could look at the two of you and see anything but happiness. And as long as you’re not going to break up and leave me without a best friend—”
“Never,” Roman and I say at the same time, with the same passion brimming in our voices.
“Then I have nothing to complain about. Just promise me you’ll be happy, both of you.”
“Together?” Roman looks across at me, his lips twitching into a smile, not his usual smirk. “It would be impossible to be anything but happy.”
I love you, I cry in my mind. So, so much.
But I can’t push things too fast in that direction, because he might not say it back. Maybe the whiplash will destroy us both.
For now, this is enough – the closeness, the emotion, the acceptance.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Roman
“Dad, relax,” Millie says. “You’re going to go crazy. Just calm down.”
I do my best to smile across at her, but I can’t stop the anxiety from bubbling up inside of me. We’re sitting in the living room, the remains of our breakfast on the coffee table between us. Tanker paces up and down near the table, glancing up at me every few moments as though checking if my attention has lapsed and he can hop up there and lap at the remains of our toast.
