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Reaching over to toss her notebook away, I band an arm around Jen’s back and tug her close. “You don’t need your notes to talk to me. I’ll tell you everything you want to know, Jen. Ask me anything, and I’ll do my best to answer.”
Her brows climb. “Now you want to talk about it? You’ve had a change of heart.”
“I’ve had a revelation,” I answer.
“Oh yeah?”
I nod. “Yep.”
“What’s that?”
“That I love you,” I say. “I’m crazy about you. Can’t live without you—and the only way for me to do that is move on from my past.” I cup her cheek, thumb brushing the slight hollows under her eyes. “I also realized that I don’t need to be defined by my past. It’s time for me to move on. If you’ll let me, I’d like to grow into the type of man who’s worthy of you.”
Jen’s eyes fill with tears as she places her palm over my hand, tilting her face into the touch. “Fallon, you don’t need to grow into anything. You’re already the perfect man for me.”
“Jen,” I say through a tight throat, “I’ve acted like a fool, but that’ll change. No more running. No more pushing you away. No more hiding all my scars. I want to be better.”
“What could be better than you?” Her hands drift to my chest, sliding up to wrap around my neck. “I love you just the way you are, Fallon. Wouldn’t change a thing.” She brushes her lips against mine, then pulls away, a serious expression on her face. “But I draw the line at the crows. They might have saved me today, but I won’t have flocks of birds following us around everywhere.”
Grinning, I lean my forehead against hers. “Deal.”
Then I kiss the woman of my dreams, lay her down on the bed, and love her till we fall asleep in each other’s arms.
For the first time since I was a child, my heart beats easy, and I’m at peace.
Epilogue
JEN
It turns out Fallon had nothing to do with the robbery that landed him in jail. He wasn’t even there. Some deadbeat used Fallon’s father’s knife, the knife got tied to Fallon, and he got bullied into accepting a guilty plea.
Fallon’s been beating himself up about it for decades.
I’d give him stink about it, but I’d be the pot to his kettle. I’ve been beating myself up for decades because I’ve never lived up to some impossible standard that was embedded in my brain when I was too young to know any better. Just like him, I never questioned the story I told myself about, well, myself. I thought I was a winner. I thought I was successful. I thought my success was what made me worthy of love.
But the magical thing about Fallon is he’s made me understand that what makes me worthy of love is that I’m me. He loves me just the way I am, quirks and houseplants and all. And I love him for him, weird hang-ups about misspent youth and all.
Slowly, we’re working through it.
We stay in the guesthouse for another three days, mostly in bed with a few food and shower breaks in between bouts of crazy-hot sex. I turn my phone off when Candice starts blowing it up on the second day, knowing the girls will give me a mountain of shit for shutting them out.
I don’t care.
My man is here, he’s in my bed, and I can have a couple of days to enjoy that fact.
I find out that Fallon texted Candice when he arrived in town to ask where I was, since I wasn’t home when he stopped by. That’s who she was texting furiously when I left the library the evening of my confrontation with Guillaume.
Since Fallon already gave up his apartment in town, he moves in with me. I make him promise not to touch my plants. He jokes about buying a bird feeder to add to the balcony garden, then laughs at the look on my face.
Then his arms are around me, and we end up christening my bed…and the couch…and the kitchen counter…and the bathroom…
The police keep Guillaume in custody and end up pressing charges against him when they found a tent in the forest not far from our guesthouse. He’d stolen a bunch of my underwear and had lots of photos of me. He’ll be assessed for psychological problems and hopefully kept in custody for a long time. There’s a restraining order against him as well, so if he ever comes near me again, he’ll be straight back in jail or a psychological facility. To be honest, I don’t even care. I hope he gets the help he needs.
Fallon is with me, and I know he’ll keep me safe. There’s nothing that can bring me down from the high I’m on—not even a creepy ex-boss.
My parents ended up leaving Heart’s Cove in a huff the day after the confrontation. I couldn’t give a shit, and it’s the best feeling in the world. They get put on a strict information diet. In our first phone call after the incident, they criticize the fact that I refused Bernard Franco and threaten to cut me out of their will. I’m just…done. Now that I’ve seen what it’s like to be supported unconditionally, the way my parents use emotional manipulation and threats leaves me feeling oily and unclean.
I’ll call them on their birthdays, but I won’t work myself to the bone trying to make them love me.
