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She climbed up the slope of the back property, looking for her favorite place on the farm. Somehow she expected it to have changed, but when she finally reached it, everything was just as she remembered. There, jutting out of the side of the hill, was a large, flat rock. She had come out here to sit and think when she was younger. The household was always full
of kids and this was a place she could be alone.
Julianne dusted off the snow and sat down on the rock, turning to face the slope of the property laid out in front of her. To the left, she could see the roofline and lights of Wade and Tori’s house over the hill. In front of her was the whole of the Garden of Eden. Her own little paradise.
It was nearing sunset, but the fat, gray clouds blocked out the color of the sky. The light was fading, but she could still make out the rows of trees stretching in front of her. The big house, with glowing windows and black smoke rising from the chimney, lay beyond it. Then the dark shape of the bunkhouse with Heath’s silver Porsche out front.
Heath. Her ex-husband. Julianne sighed and snuggled deeper into her coat. With Sheriff Duke’s unexpected arrival, she hadn’t had much time to process her new marital status. While they had come clean about Tommy, they had deliberately opted not to tell anyone about the marriage. That was too much for one day. It might not be something they ever needed to tell. What would it matter, really? It only impacted the two of them since they were the only ones aware of it. And since it was done...it would only hurt her family to find out now.
But, like anything else in her life, keeping her feelings inside made it harder to deal with it.
Maybe if she hadn’t come back to stay in Cornwall she would feel differently about her freedom. If she hadn’t made love to him. If they hadn’t gone to Paris together. If the last month and a half never happened she might feel relieved and ready to move on her with life.
But it had happened. She had let herself get closer to Heath than she ever had in the eleven years of their marriage and then it was all done. How was she supposed to just walk away? How was she going to learn to stop loving him? Eleven years apart hadn’t done it. Was she doomed to another eleven years of quiet pining for him?
In the gathering darkness, Julianne noticed a dancing light coming up the main tree lane from the house. The snow had let up a little, making it easier to see the figure was walking toward her with a flashlight. She tensed. She was at a tentative truce with the trees, but she wasn’t sure if adding another person would work. It didn’t feel as secure as being here alone.
Then she made out the distinctive bright blue of the coat and realized it was Heath. She sighed. Why had he followed her out here? She needed some time alone to mourn their relationship and deal with a hellish day.
Heath stopped a few feet short of the rock, not crowding into her space. “Your rock has missed you.”
At that Julianne chuckled. Even Heath remembered how much time she had spent sitting in this very spot when they were kids. “Fortunately, time is relative to a rock.”
“I still feel bad for it. I know I couldn’t go that long without you in my life.”
The light atmosphere between then shifted. Her gaze lifted to meet his, her smile fading. “Life doesn’t always work out the way you plan. Even for a rock.”
“I disagree. Life might throw obstacles in your path, but if you want something with your whole heart and soul, you have to fight for it. Nothing that’s easy is worth having and nothing worth having is easy. You, Julianne, have been incredibly difficult.”
“I’m going to take that as a compliment.”
He smiled. “You should. I meant it as one. You’re worth every moment of pain and frustration and confusion I’ve gone through. And I think, perhaps, that we might have weathered the trials. In every fairy tale, the prince and the maiden have obstacles to triumph over and strengthen their love. I think the evil villain has been defeated. I’m ready for the happy ending.”
It sounded good. Really, it did. But so much had happened. Could they really ever get back to a happy ending? “Life isn’t a fairy tale, Heath. We’re divorced. I’ve never read a story where the prince and his princess divorce.”
“Yeah, but they have angry dragons and evil wizards. I’ll take a divorce any day because things can always change. We don’t have to stay divorced. We can slay this dragon, if you’re willing to face it with me.”
She watched as his hand slipped into his coat pocket and retrieved a small box. A jewelry box. Her heart stilled in her chest. What was he doing? They’d been divorced for two days. He wasn’t really...he couldn’t possibly want this after everything that had happened.
“Heath...” she began.
“Let me say what I need to say,” he insisted. “When we were eighteen, we got married for all the wrong reasons. We loved each other but we were young and stupid. We didn’t think it through. Life is complicated and we were unprepared for the reality of it. But I also think we got divorced for all the wrong reasons.”
Heath crouched down at the foot of the rock, looking up at her. “I love you. I’ve always loved you. I never imagined my life or my future without you in it. I was hurt that you wouldn’t open up to me and I used our divorce to punish you for it. Now, I understand why you held back. And I realized that everything you did that hurt me was also meant to somehow protect me.
“You said at the police station today that I was willing to go to jail for you. And you were right. I was willing to take on years of misery behind bars to protect you. Just as you were willing to give me a divorce and face a future alone in the hopes that I could find someone to make me happy.”
“That’s not the same,” she insisted.
“A self-imposed prison is just as difficult to escape as one of iron and stone, Jules.” He held up the box and looked her square in the eye. “Consider this a jailbreak.”
“Are you honestly telling me that between Parisian jet lag, getting divorced, getting arrested and spending all day at the police station, you had the time to go to the jeweler and buy an engagement ring?”
“No,” he said.
Julianne instantly felt foolish. Had she misinterpreted the whole thing? If there were earrings in that box she would feel like an idiot. “Then what is going on? If you’re not proposing, what are you doing?”
“I am proposing. But you asked if I went to a jeweler and I didn’t. I went to talk to Ken.”
