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“I promise,” I replied.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “You sure are making a lot of promises to me, Mr. Anderson. You think you can keep them all?”
“I’d do anything for you,” I replied.
“Good,” Lettie said, smiling.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small box. “Can I give you your birthday gift early?”
“You got me a gift? You didn’t have to get me a gift!” she said as she reached for the box and I handed it to her.
“I wanted to.”
She looked up at me curiously before slowly opening the box and pulling out the golden necklace.
“Tuck.” Her eyes filled with tears. “This is beautiful.” She rubbed her fingers around the necklace gently. A round pendant with engravings of flowers on the outside.
“Open it,” I said, then watched as she opened the locket and read what was inside.
“‘Their happiness was in each other’s keeping, and both were unafraid,’” she read.
“It’s from Anne’s House of Dreams,” I said. “Lenora helped me.”
“I… Tuck… This… This is the most beautiful thing I have ever owned in my life. Thank you.”
She held up her hair as I placed the necklace around her neck, clasping it at the back. Then I kissed her neck and shoulders until she turned around and my mouth found her lips, wanting to savor her.
FORTY-NINE
TUCK
Lettieand I planned her move down to the last detail. She wouldn’t tell her parents, knowing they would try to stop her, but instead would leave them a note stating that she was safe but moving and had no plans to come home. We would meet the day after the ball and I would help her settle into Green Gables before our inevitable “see you later.” She would turn eighteen a few days later and wouldn’t contact them until then, when they couldn’t legally bring her back.
When she went home that evening, I watched her drive away and felt a pit in my stomach. I didn’t want Lettie to uproot her life for me, and if I truly thought she was doing it only for that reason, I would object, but the truth was, I knew it was more than that.
I got home and it was dark, my father was asleep in his room for the first time in months, and I’d just finished packing when I heard a knock at the front door. I smiled to myself, thinking that it better not be Lettie after I had just sent her on her way back home to get to bed early. We’d had trouble parting ourselves from each other. We were practically down to hours before we would only speak letter-to-letter, and even though we could have spent the entire night together, tangled up in the sheets in Avonlea, she had to be up early for the archaic ball to announce her entrance into womanhood.
I heard the knock again and opened the door, but instead of Lettie, there was a very well-manicured guy with an orange-collared shirt that was practically glowing in the moonlight. The watch on his left arm looked like it cost more than our house, and his shoes looked like something someone would wear on a yacht, not in a small town like Aveline.
Maybe he was selling yachts.
If so, I didn’t know what the hell he was doing here.
“Can I help you?” I asked, trying not to compare his attire to my old, khaki cargo shorts and cutoff t-shirt.
The guy looked me over, and an arrogant smile spread across his lips. He held out his hand, uncalloused and clearly manicured, and spoke confidently. “I believe you can. I’m Theo Martin. You must be…”
He wasn’t a yacht salesman after all.
He was Theo fucking Martin, and I couldn’t help but wonder how Lettie’s pretend boyfriend had found me and what he was doing on my doorstep.
“Tuck,” I replied, taking his hand in mine.
FIFTY
LETTIE
I clutchedthe locket in my hands, feeling the coolness of it against my skin, and I forced back the lump in my throat. It was the day of the debutante ball, and my heart was racing. It wasn’t the ball that was making my stomach do twirls and twists; it was the fact that tomorrow I would be out of this house and out of this life. The prospect of leaving and starting over without anything terrified me, but it also seemed that everything felt lighter in a way. I held onto the hope that my parents would understand and still want to be in my life, but I was preparing for the opposite. I was preparing for them to shut me out. And truthfully, I would be okay with that.
