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I hadn’t even allowed myself to hope we’d get here so soon.
I spread my hands over his chest. “If we’re going to Vegas, can you dress like Elvis?”
“I’d rather not.”
“Can we be married by Elvis?”
He runs a hand over my back. “Real Elvis or an impersonator?”
“Real Elvis.”
He laughs. “Onlyyouwould ask me to bring someone back from the dead to perform our wedding.”
“Fine,” I reply. “You don’t have to bring anyone back from the dead. I guess I’d better pack.”
He climbs from the bed and places my suitcase before me. “I already packed for us both while you were asleep.”
“I don’t trust you,” I say, unzipping it. “You probably packed six kinds of lingerie and no pants.”
Inside, there is indeed a staggering amount of lingerie for a two- or three-day trip, along with a white sundress he must have bought for me, and a small velvet bag off to the side. “What’s this?”
He shrugs. “Something of yours I thought you should have back.”
I open the pouch and my locket slides out. Goose bumps climb my arms as I press it to my chest and close my stinging eyes. I’d mostly given up the idea of getting it back. “How—?”
“I paid Kent a visit,” he says. “He let me take it.”
I raise a brow. That sounds unusuallycooperativeof Kent. “Just like that?”
“Well, I wound up knocking him unconscious, so it’s hard to say for sure, but yeah, I felt like he and I would be on the same page once he came to.”
The locket rests in the center of my palm. My hand curves tight around it as I hold back tears.
Beck comes to my side of the bed and wraps his arms around me. “I know it’s something Caleb gave you, but if this is going to work, I have to accept that he was a part of your life and in some ways, he always will be.”
I turn. “You thought the locket was aboutCaleb? Did youlookin it?”
His brow furrows. “No. It seemed too personal. If it’s not about Caleb…”
I click it open and allow my index finger to slide, briefly, on that single lock of her hair. “It was about Hannah, not Caleb.Everythingwas about Hannah.” I click the locket shut and set it on my dresser. “But I also don’t need it the way I used to.”
If she hadn’t died, I wouldn’t be here right now. I am never going to say that it was for the best, or that it was meant to be. But Icansay that sometimes from darkness a beautiful thing emerges, something you’ll call your own. And the man in front of me, and the future we share, is mine.
EPILOGUE
BECK
1 Year Later
It’s just after sunset when Grace Bennett Beck enters the world.
She has a head full of dark hair, which she got from me.
She screams when unhappy...she gotthatfrom her mom.
When I hold her for the first time, I’m stunned by how small she is. Somehow, I never expected her to feel so terrifyingly fragile. I place her in Kate’s arms as if she’s made of blown glass.
“She’s so perfect,” Kate says, choking up.
