Luke was momentarily stunned into speechlessness. After dwelling on what he’d lost when Madeline had gone back to Orlando, he’d finally pushed down all those emotions, along with the love he’d felt for her, into a tight little ball. He squinted at her, unsure if he could trust her or not, unsure if he could allow that ball to uncoil and set those emotions free again. “So what are you saying?” he asked. “That you want to get back together?”
Madeline laughed. She gripped his hand tightly, and like he’d done once, lifted it to her mouth and kissed his knuckles. “I’m asking you to marry me, Luke Kendrick. But I will settle for getting back together, openly and proudly. I mean, if you will have me.”
The ball exploded. Everything Luke had ever felt for this woman unfurled, filling him up. He couldn’t believe this was happening, that at long last, someone was doing something for him, giving him what he needed. That Madeline had somehow found her footing and had leaped off the cliff into life. He couldn’t believe how much he needed her, and with a fierceness that he’d never felt for another person. Nothing had changed for him—he still needed her beside him as he faced the uncertainties of the future. He needed her in his bed, at his table, and bearing his children.
Luke suddenly grabbed her up in his arms, pressed her cheek against his shoulder, closed his eyes and let the moment seep into him. “Yes,” he said. “Yes. I love you, Maddie. I always did. And I never stopped.”
She gasped with delight and lifted her head. “Really?”
“Are you kidding? Really.”
“Even when you knew how crazy I was?”
“Don’t remind me and ruin the moment—but yeah, even then.”
Madeline threw her arms around his neck, kissed his face, his mouth. “Thank God,” she sighed into his ear. “Thank you God.”
He pulled the cap off her head, closed his eyes, and buried his face in her neck. She smelled like lilacs.
He really liked lilacs.
EPILOGUE
Okay, Grant Tyler may have started this story, but it doesn’t end with him. So much has happened, starting with the magnificent news that I got a killer new game, “Aliens Attack IV.” I am the undisputed king. Many have tried and failed to best me. Guess who is my biggest competition. Guess! It’s not Luke, it’s Blue Eyes! Once that girl figured out how to use her opposable thumbs on the controller, she totally got into it, and now, Luke has to take the controller from her and put it away. She’s like a cat with catnip, a jock with a lot of bold talk about how she’s going to beat me.
Her trash talk needs a lot of work.
I know you’re wondering about me, and who wouldn’t be? I’m the spice in this pie! First, the new seizure medicine is working—I’ve only had one since the Big Kahuna. So forget that, because what I really want to tell you is that my brilliance has landed me a trip to the Denver Broncos home opener this fall! That’s right, yours truly will be sitting in a skybox, with Dante, who—drumroll—is in remission! No, we didn’t get the trip from Make-A-Wish Foundation, because apparently, they frown upon sending kids in remission with their color commentators to big fancy skyboxes. But Marisol and Dani worked it out with a local charity. I am so stoked, and so is Dante. The last two times I saw him he was wearing these really ugly Denver Broncos orange sweatpants.
We had a picnic at Homecoming Ranch so Dad and I could see the changes. I haven’t been up there in months, but Luke goes every day. That’s what he does now, he sort of works for Homecoming Ranch. Jackson figured out how to pay him a salary to keep things zipping along up there, which is really cool. I asked Luke if they were going to really build cabins for people to stay in and he said he didn’t know, but it looked like there would be at least two weddings, and who knows after that? I wonder if one of them will be his. Because it doesn’t take a genius to figure out if he marries Maddie, we’re back in the ranch business, right?
Anyway, while we were up there, Libby told me she heard Julie Daugherty had divorced her husband and got a job at the bank, and that maybe she was dating Eric Kutzheimer. Look, the Kutz played football with me at Colorado School of Mines. Between you and me and anyone else who cares to listen, Eric had to be the dumbest right tackle who ever dragged knuckles across a football field. But then he went into business with his dad in some ore mining operation and now he’s dirty, filthy rich. So good for Julie and her stink-eyed baby.
Jackson Crane was there, too, of course. Dani said that she’d heard some things about him, like maybe there was something shady in his past, which totally wouldn’t surprise me, because Jackson knows way too many people and he just showed up in Pine River one day. Just showed up, rented that gray building, and hung out a shingle. But I dig Jackson. He has some really cool red pants that he rolls up at the ankles and wears with loafers. I think sometimes he thinks he is playing the lead in a movie in his head. Hey, it’s better than the sound of crickets up there.