Page 95 of Save a Wish

As Beckett and I stepped outside to leave the cabin, Orla and Fionn both bowed slightly before me as was custom in Verdalach.

I took their hands and shook my head. “You’re not my servants anymore.” I smiled at each of them. “You never really were. I’ve always considered the two of you to be so much more than that. You have been my friends for years. After Maeve passed, you both became family to me. What you risked to get me out of Verdalach showed me exactly how loyal you are.”

“What you almost risked to come save us,” Orla said, glancing at Beckett, “showed us how loyal you are.”

“We are bonded, the three of us,” I said. “Forever. And now we are truly free to be on equal ground, American ground. So bowing is no longer needed.”

Orla and Fionn stood a little taller, a clear sign they’d bloom here in Vermont, as I had.

Beckett took my hand to lead me to his SUV, and though he’d taken my hand many, many times over the months we’d been together, it never failed to send a little jolt through me.

“What time are your mom and Jimmy due back in Vermont?” I asked after we were seated in the SUV.

He glanced at the dashboard clock. “In about an hour or so.”

His mom and Jimmy had joined a group of seniors who went on vacations together. So far they’d been to Mexico and Greece. This most current expedition had taken them on a safari in Africa.

The Hartley siblings had initially been surprised that their mom wanted to travel. She’d never once expressed an interest in doing so.

“Your father and I had always planned to see the wildlife in the rest of the world,” she’d told them after announcing that first Mexico trip to the clan. “But we never got to it.” She’d patted Jimmy’s hand. “Now, however, I have a traveling buddy, and you kids can more than handle things at Hartley’s Nest.”

Their next trip was scheduled for July, and by the looks of things, married life was treating Beckett’s mom and Jimmy Slater quite well. The only serial-killer rumor that came to the surface in town every now and again was that his mother had only married Jimmy to keep him from slaying the entire family in a broken-hearted rampage. We’d turned that rumor into a drinking game so that whenever one of us heard it, we sent out a group text, met at the garden shed Jimmy had built at Hartley’s Nest with a drink in hand, and toasted to a small-town gossip mill that would probably never truly quit.

There had also been two more weddings in Beckett’s family. Isaac and Carina had gotten married in mid-December with a beautiful wintry theme, and Joshua and Sylvie had tied the knot as they said here in America last weekend. Darius and Flora had a July date picked out because they first met in the summer.

Then all the Hartleys would be married.

Except one.

I peeked at Beckett, wondering what he’d say if I came out and asked him to marry me. My insides swirled with a mix of delight and anxiety. If he said yes, I’d swim in a sea of bliss.

If he said no . . . I’d absolutely drown in devastation.

This little debate had been playing out in my head for a few weeks now. We’d only been together since October of last year. Was six months too soon to want to be with someone for the rest of one’s life? Beckett’s siblings had known they’d found their soulmates after a short time of being in a relationship, but from what I’d gathered from being here in the States, that generally wasn’t how it happened.

But I knew I didn’t want to be with anyone else. Beckett was it for me.

We arrived back at Hartley’s Nest and pulled into our driveway. Beckett helped me unpack from my trip and we had some lunch. BLTs. My favorite.

I’d expected some reunion sex. That was what we called it when we made love after we’d been apart. Though I hated to be away from Beckett, I loved everything about reunion sex. Beckett was unusually quiet though. Had he tapped into my thoughts about getting married?

And if he had, had that spooked him?

We got ready for Orla and Fionn’s welcome party, picked up my friends at Hank’s cabin, and enjoyed a night of revelry with the good people of Greenridge. Beckett and I ate and danced and interacted with everyone, but something still felt off. I tried to convince myself that I was being silly. That I was just tired from traveling or that I was readjusting to life in Vermont after spending time in Verdalach.

But that wasn’t quite it.

After the party ended and Orla and Fionn had been taken back to the cabin, Beckett and I readied for bed. Normally, reunion sex would be next. We always spent my first night back from a Verdalach trip wrapped up in each other in the best possible way. When I came into the bedroom from the bathroom, however, Beckett was in bed and lying on his side, facing away from me.

“Is everything okay?” I asked him as I stood by my side of the bed.

Slowly, Beckett rolled to his back, his gaze fixed on the ceiling. “Yeah. I’m just sleepy.”

I was disappointed, but he was allowed to be tired. Reunion sex could happen tomorrow I supposed. I slipped into bed, but when I reclined, the mattress felt odd on my back. I wiggled to the left a little then to the right, but a lump in the mattress poked into me.

“What happened to this mattress while I was away?” I asked.

“Happened?” Beckett asked, turning to face me. “What do you mean?”