I is for Ian

“Is Hawk one of them?” he asked.

“He is,” I said, grinning. “My friend Dee invited me to a few of their weekly bonfires, but I didn’t go very often. I told them it was because of my work, but honestly, I just didn’t want to go because I didn’t have a date. They all have people, you know?”

“Well,” he said, “now you do too.”

“Good,” I said, smiling. “Then it’s a date.”

EPILOGUE

MINA

June was usually my favorite month, and this one was no exception. The way the weather warmed up, but it still wasn’t hot, the way the mountains were lush and green, and every day you could find a new trail to hike through or backwoods road to drive down with the windows down. It was just perfect.

But this June evening was going to be even more special than they normally were. This June evening, I had some big news to share with Ian and the rest of the friends Ian and even Amanda had quickly become so close with. They were going to be thrilled when they found out, and I was absolutely buzzing to tell them. I had been, for a couple of days, but this was going to be the perfect place. The perfect time.

“You ready for tonight?” Amanda asked as she came in my front door unannounced.

She was the only person who was allowed to do that, and she did it rather often. It had been tradition for us to do so to each other for years since college, and apparently me living with Ian wasn’t going to stop her at all. It made for some potentially embarrassing situations, but Ian just laughed them off. He said he liked that I had someone I was so close with the way he was growing close with Hawk and some of the other guys in our little group.

“I think so,” I said. “I really feel like being surrounded by all our friends is the best way of doing it, but part of me is worried he won’t feel like it's special since he’ll find out with everyone else.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Amanda said, unloading the bags of groceries she had gone off to get before coming over. “You did say you had sugar, right? Enough for a cake?”

“Yeah, in the pantry. You got everything else, though?”

“I did,” she said. “That’s an awful lot of chocolate. And bacon?”

“Trust me. It’ll mean something to him.”

Amanda shrugged and crossed the floor to the pantry.

“Well, I’m going to help you with this, and then I’m going to head out a little early to go get ready. I need to stop by the store and grab some stuff I need for my place first.”

“Why didn’t you just get it and bring it here? We have to pass your place before we get to the bonfire anyway.”

“I didn’t think about it,” she said. “No worries. I’ll make sure I’m there before you make any announcements.”

She grinned as she came up beside me and sat the sugar down in front of her.

“You better,” I said.

“Trust me, I wouldn’t miss tonight for the world,” she said. “Now, let’s bake a weird chocolate bacon cake thing.”

Amanda left an hour before we were set to arrive at the bonfire, so I went to finish getting ready myself. Ian was still at work, having joined his friend Carl in a business in East Tennessee while they worked up the plans on launching their own company. With connections like the boys at the lumber company, there was a distinct chance they would get off the ground in the next year, which was great timing. Especially considering what I had in store to tell Ian later that evening.

With a few minutes left before Ian was due to arrive, I finished my makeup and practiced what I was going to say in the mirror. There were a couple of different ways I had been thinking of saying it but had mostly settled on one. Now it was all about getting the delivery right. And the timing. I wanted everyone to be listening.

The door in the living room opened, and I hopped out of the chair I was sitting in to go to it. Ian was coming in, looking decidedly spiffy. I stopped, confused, where I was in the hallway and looked at him with my head tilted to the side as he sat down his briefcase on the coffee table.

“Um,” I said, “I thought you were at work?”

“I was,” he said, grinning, “for a little while.”

“What does that mean?” I asked suspiciously.

“It means that after I got done with what I needed to do at work, which was a meeting, I had some other things to take care of. And now I get to show you what they were.”

“Okay. What are they?’

“It isn’t here,” he said. “We have to go to it.”