AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Thanks. I’m pretty proud of myself too. I mean, I think I might have blacked out a little at some points, but I didn’t let her get to me. Standing up to her was long overdue.”
“I’m just lucky I got to witness it. If the developer thing doesn’t work out, you might have a future in the law.”
“Yeah, no. My hands are still shaking so I think I’m going to stick to computers.”
“We’re really okay?”
“We’re more than okay.” I kissed him again, just a quick touch of my lips to his. “I love you, remember?”
“Believe me, I’ll never forget hearing those words.”
“And...?” I prompted, eyebrows raised expectantly. “Anything else you’d like to add?”
“No, I think that’s it.” I pinched his side and he chuckled, wrapping his hand around mine. “I love you, Sutton Buchanan.”
And I believed him. The first and last gift Sissy ever gave me was standing with his arms around me.
EPILOGUE
The sun had finally crested over the horizon, casting its warm light on the dock where we’d been for the past hour. I leaned my head back, enjoying the sunlight on my face, and smiled.
“It’s been a perfect morning,” I said, words I’d never thought would leave my mouth while fishing — but they were true, nonetheless.
“It would be perfect if I could catch a damn fish,” Holden grumbled, jiggling his pole in frustration.
“Don’t jiggle your pole,” I chided him for the millionth time, fighting the urge to smile.
I’d finally found something Holden was bad at. He’d been fishing every Saturday morning since he had moved back to Beacon Hill, but so far, he’d only caught one fish — and it was the smallest, saddest fish I’d ever seen. You would have thought that he’d caught a three-hundred-pound barracuda, though, with how proud he was. Daddy even offered to mount it for him, and the poor fish was now proudly displayed in Holden’s office. I had to fight not to laugh every time I visited him at work.
“Too much talking,” Daddy admonished in a whisper. “You’re both scaring the fish away.”
I mimed zipping my lips, putting down my book to reach for the coffee Thermos. I didn’t join them every Saturday, but the forecast had promised a morning too beautiful to miss. Holden rested his pole on the deck with all the confidence of a man who knew he wasn’t about to get a bite. He walked to my chair, bending down to place a quick kiss on my lips.
“Got any coffee left?” he asked, so hopefully that I gave him the cup I’d just poured for myself, even though I knew there was only enough for half a cup left in the Thermos. Sometimes love meant giving a person the bigger cup of coffee.
My love for this sad fisherman had grown more and more every single day of the year and a half we’d been together. Every time I discovered a new flaw — the man had no idea how to do his own laundry and I’d caught him looking at the vacuum like it was a spaceship more than once — my heart filled just a little more.
Holden had told the firm that he was leaving to take the city solicitor position the day he’d intended, despite the scene in his office. His father had been blindsided by the move but during the meeting with the partners, he’d made it sound like this was something they had all been planning together all along. Privately, he’d castigated his son and refused to talk to him for months.
Mrs. St. James took the news better and quickly refocused her energy on reminding us that it was important to continue the St. James line; like this was the 1800s and Holden was heir to a dukedom. Naturally, his grandaddy hadn’t been thrilled, but he wouldn’t have been happy with anything less than a blue-blooded debutante who could trace her lineage back to Plymouth. I would have been crushed by his dad and granddaddy’s barely restrained disapproval if I wasn’t so secure in Holden’s love for me. He wasn’t the best at giving me the words, but I had learned to hear them in every single thing he did for me.
After six months of long(ish)-distance dating, I’d had enough. I scheduled a meeting with my boss and asked if I could work remotely; if not, I would need to resign. Holden had spent hours coaching me on how to approach the conversation and I’d tried to channel every drop of his arrogant confidence. I knew I had enough in savings to live off of if I stayed with my parents while I built up my own client list as an independent contractor, but thankfully, my boss agreed to the arrangement as long as I was able to come in when needed. Leaving Max and Jin was the hardest part. I still talked to them both every day, but it wasn’t the same as seeing them.
Holden had laughed when I’d told him I would need to start looking for an apartment in Beacon Hill. He’d promptly moved me into the Bradford place, and I hadn’t even bothered to put up a fight. I couldn’t imagine anything better than waking up next to him every morning, even if those mornings started at five on Saturdays to fish.
Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined being happy to move back to Beacon Hill, but if the past year had taught me anything, it was the joy of being wrong.
I had been wrong about Macon and wrong about Holden. I had been wrong to assume that everyone in Beacon Hill was as stuck in the past as I had been, and I had been wrong to assume that I could never be happy here.
“Holden! Son!” Daddy yelled, dropping his pole and rushing to the pole Holden had left lying on the dock — the pole that was quickly being tugged off the dock and into the water. Holden dropped the cup in his hands, making a dive for the pole. Daddy’s hands landed just above his, and together they tugged it upright. Daddy was whooping and shouting instructions, and Holden alternated between asking him what to do and saying different variations of “this is it, it’s a big one.”
“Sutton, grab the net,” Daddy called over his shoulder. Casting a wistful look at the spilled coffee, I pushed out of my chair and did as he asked. I assumed the position, ready to catch the fish when it broke the surface. If this was a log, Holden and Daddy were going to be crushed. On the other hand, if it was a gigantic fish, there was a real chance I would scream and drop the net. ‘“Give it a little more slack! There you go. Good, son, you’re doing good.” Daddy relinquished his hold on the pole. “Reel it in, now, nice and slow.”
My legs started to cramp as I squatted on the edge watching them reel in the fish. When it finally broke the surface with a wild, erratic splash, I shrieked and tumbled backward, landing on my butt. I quickly recovered and scrambled forward, crawling back to the edge with the net extended.
“Holy cow, did you see the size of that thing?” Daddy was practically jumping up and down, his fishing hat now crushed between his hands.
I was more prepared the second time Holden managed to wrangle it out of the water, and I swooped it up into the net, helping him bring it onto the dock, where it flopped a little too close to my feet for comfort.
