They got to the bedroom, too, and made love the
same way. But at some point—before he stripped her
of her clothes and she stripped him of his—she told him
she wouldn’t just be coming up to Thunder Mountain
on breaks. She would take a year’s leave of absence
from Willamette Prep. She wanted to be with him. She
could finish her master’s degree long-distance, and be
an innkeeper’s wife.
Sometime after they made love, she also told him
Willow’s father had agreed to make a reservation for one
of the cabins the same week Dieter’s parents had already
booked another one. “And I was thinking,” she said.
“That we could invite all the kids to come? Their
families, too?”
“Something like that, I guess.”
“What do you say,” he suggested, “that we hold our
wedding then? Where we met? The lodge is big enough
to house our families, our friends…”
Fiona cried again, but from happiness.
And in between her offer to bury herself in the wilderness with him, and his idea of a summer wedding, they did make love. In those moments, as close to her as it was
humanly possible to be with a woman, John knew for sure
he, too, could be happy. It was even possible that what he
felt now was richer, because it hadn’t come easily.
Wouldn’t come easily in the future.
“I’m going to backslide,” he warned, holding her
sprawled atop him, a few curly strands of her hair wandering to tickle his nose.
“Um,” she murmured in agreement, seemingly undisturbed. She rubbed her cheek against his chest, then lifted her head to smile at him. “But, you see, it won’t
be the same. Because I’ll always be there to catch you.”
She couldn’t have offered a declaration of love that
meant more to him. John’s heart squeezed and he closed
his eyes, wishing the boys could know.
Wondering if they did.
* * * * *