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“I know.” A sudden lightness filled her as if a balloon were lifting up her heart. “It’s okay. I mean, it’s sad and not what I’d expected, but a lot of very unexpected things have happened in the past week. All of them wild and challenging and amazing. And I think that’s the lesson I was meant to learn all along. That change doesn’t have to be scary or lonely. That if you open your eyes and recognize all the possibilities that change can bring, you’ll realize it might actually be what you’ve been longing for. You might discover that change is your dreams coming true.”
He just looked at her in complete bafflement. Bee squeezed his hands and stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. “I know. In scientific terms, this is a total one-eighty. But I swear it’s the right thing.”
“What about the tourists and the publicity?” Adam asked. “How can you stand to lose the library and this house after all you’ve done to try to save it?”
“I thought the publicity would be a good thing, but no one in Bliss Cove will want the town to be overrun by tourists or amateur ghost hunters, or turn into a gigantic Halloweenville the entire month of October,” Bee said. “And I wasn’t meant to save the house. I was supposed to set John and Millicent free. Now that we’ve done that, they’ve moved on. It’s time for me to move on too.”
“You’re going to leave Bliss Cove?”
The question dampened Bee’s certainty a bit because she didn’t want to leave Bliss Cove. Despite all her determination to avoid getting attached to either people or places, she’d fallen head over heels in love with this town and the people.
She’d made friends here—good friends who looked out for her and supported her and made her laugh. She had a bird and a cat, and the Java Works baristas all knew her favorite coffee drink. Eleanor Prescott always saved her a Morning Glory muffin at Sugar Joy on Tuesday mornings.
Without Bee even realizing it, Bliss Cove had become her home. The one she’d been searching for throughout so many years of her life. The place she wanted to stay.
But change was inevitable. And she’d go anywhere if Adam were at her side. They both still had a lot to figure out and plan, so she had to think of moving away as an opportunity rather than a disappointment.
“I guess I’ll have to move if the library closes,” she said. “I don’t have the right qualifications for an information specialist position at the Media Center, and I might not be able to find another job in the area. But that’s okay. If John and Millicent can move away from Bliss Cove after all this time, then so can I.”
Adam disentangled his hand from hers and pulled his phone from his pocket. Though his eyebrows were still drawn together in confusion, the lines of his shoulders relaxed. He leaned down to kiss the tip of her nose.
“I get it,” he said.
“You do?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged and handed her the phone. “I thought I wanted to get away from pseudoscience TV. I was supposed to get a job as a physicist at the Department of Defense or NASA or find another Ivy League professor position. But when I went back to DC, I realized I didn’t want to be that person again. I’ll always believe in science, but I’m open to a lot more unexplainable things now. I think I changed the second I crashed into you…and I don’t want to go back. I want to go forward…and only with you.”
Bee didn’t think her heart and soul could be filled with this much happiness and hope.
Adam brought up the video on his phone, and together, they watched the shadows of Captain Marcus and Millicent coming together one last time.
Then Bee pressed the delete button, and the evidence of the ghosts disappeared forever into the ether.
Adam gathered her into his arms. Bee rested her face against his chest and absorbed his warm strength. She felt both the irrefutable reality of his presence and the unexplainable bond of their love.
“Destiny was right,” he murmured against her hair.
“Excuse me?” She lifted her head to look at him. “Did you just say Destiny was right?”
“Yeah.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t believe the words either. “She and I had an interesting conversation about equilibrium. Turns out that Millicent was Captain Marcus’s restoring force. And you’re mine.”
“What’s a restoring force?”
“I’ll ask Destiny to tell you about it when I stop at Moonbeams for my astrological chart reading.”
Bee stared at him. “Who are you, and what have you done with my scientist?”
“I’m the man who believes in both you and the mysteries of other worlds.” He brushed a lock of hair away from her forehead. “The man whose love for you is the strongest force in the universe.”
Oh, she was attached to him, all right. Epoxy-like. “I love you too, Adam.”
He grinned, his beautiful eyes crinkling at the corners. “Prove it.”
She did.
