“But doesn’t it rain a ton in England?”
“Ssh!” he croons, taking my tea from me, and setting it aside too.
Then we get busy making up.
And yes, that tea was the best thing I’d ever tasted.
But our happy ending tastes even better.
Epilogue
“Still no word from Gina?”
“No!” Billie answers. “The private investigator tracked her all the way to Wisconsin. But her trail disappears after that.”
“Maybe she really did make it to Canada before the border closed,” I suggest.
I want to offer both Billie and me some hope. And, it’s possible, since Gina’s French Canadian on her mother’s side. She’s never even visited Canada, but it came up a lot during her Queen America packages.
“I mean maybe, but I don’t understand why she wouldn’t just call us if that was the case—”
“Who are you talking to, krasotka?” a heavily accented voice asks in the background. “Is it Cyndarella? Hello! How are you and the Drosselholz Prince Charming?”
I smile at the sound of Billie’s totally unexpected quaranboo, Cheslav Rustanov—or Chess as he insists on being called by everyone but Billie. He’s my new favorite Russian, even if he does insists on referring to Billie as Krasotka, which apparently is Russian for Beauty, and to me as Cyndarella.
Billie giggles and rolls her eyes. “I have to go. But call me if you hear anything else from Gina. Anything at all.”
“Of course,” I answer.
I hang up and suddenly there are lips on my neck, making me giggle too.
“Who were you talking to, love?”
It’s Rhys, fresh out of the back house’s shower. We love running the newest DBCare clinic together. We’re using my father’s practice to gather data on practices like scaled pricing and preventative home visits like the farm rounds.
We’re also preparing to do frontline work for a possible wave of COVID cases. Unlike bigger cities, Audrain County, where Guadalajara is located has only had about fifteen cases so far in a population of around 25,000, and no deaths. Also, Mavis is off the ventilator and though she’s got a long road to full recovery, now that she’s hopefully immune to the virus, she’s already talking about making her RV trip in 2021. But with the state reopening, we know the number of cases will grow. So Rhys is helping to outfit all the US DBCare clinics with protective gear and working with the GuacBap to get them another ventilator and more PPE.
Funny that I was planning to leave Guadalajara behind forever just a few weeks ago. Now I’m essential. And as much as I’ll miss the twins whenever Carnegie Mellon decides to reopen, it feels good to be needed.
However, being essential means showers as soon as we get home these days. Me first, then him after work. And sometimes we’re good about going straight into making dinner afterwards, but a lot of times we’re bad.
“Stop,” I warn when Rhys’s neck kisses start making me shiver instead of giggle. “We have dinner with the twins and Reina in just a few minutes.”
With Rhys holding my hand, I’d called Reina a few weeks ago, and my shock, she’d been nearby. Less than an hour away actually. She’d been vague about why she’d left South Dakota, but I sensed there was a break up involved. A bad one, if the haunted look she got when she talked about leaving the state so suddenly was any indication.
But after five awkward days of getting to know each other from six feet away, it was agreed that Reina would move out of her hotel room in Guadalajara and into the main house—which we were no longer planning to sell. After a lot of back and forth, I’d agreed to let Rhys pay for the twins’ housing in Pittsburgh so that we could not only hang on to the house but eventually raise a family there.
And as it turned out the twins and Reina got along amazingly, especially after E discovered Reina not only knew how to play guitar but could also sing.
We’ve gotten used to after dinner serenades of show tunes from the 70s and 80s era musicals E and Reina like to watch together. Sometimes I play the piano inside the back house, while E and Reina create sweet harmonies outside. I don’t feel the itch to give my whole life over to music as Reina once did. But I love having the piano back in my life on a regular basis.
Also, Reina’s more than happy to cook and clean and take care of whatever else the twins need. And if that’s not enough, she’s a yoga teacher! She makes extra money teaching a morning class for the neighborhood on our front lawn.
A few months ago, I doubted anyone would have responded to the flyers she posted around town. But during these COVID times, her biggest problem is having to turn clients away when more than ten people show up, on a lawn that can only handle eleven socially distanced mats. Everybody living in Guadalajara isn’t down with the science of masks in the first place. And they can get pretty salty when they show up with the required face covering they don’t want to wear only to be told the class is all filled up.