Fay's Six

EPILOGUE

ONE MONTH LATER…

“Are we really doing this?”Fay stared at Walker’s front door. Her pulse hammered so fast she wasn’t sure where one beat ended and the next one began.

Walker tapped her shoulder. “I’d say that moving van says we sure are.”

She let out a slow breath. Everything she owned was in that truck.

Everything.

Right down to her grandmother’s rocking chair and Fay’s favorite books. The ones that were always on her bookshelves wherever she called home.

Home.

Moving to Fool’s Gold was one thing. Living with Walker was something else entirely.

“Are you having second thoughts?”

“No. Are you?”

Walker laughed. “It’s going to be an adjustment for both of us.” He wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her temple. “I’ve never lived with anyone other than my parents and my sister.”

Fay rested her head on his strong shoulder. Today marked the anniversary of his sister’s death. When Fay realized what day it was, she tried to change the move-in date, but Walker wouldn’t hear of it. He wanted to change the narrative.

He wanted to share something good with his sister. He told her that’s what she would want and who was Fay to argue with that logic.

“She’d like you.”

Fay tilted her head and smiled. “You always forget I met her.”

“She’d like that we’re together,” Walker corrected. “You’re exactly the kind of person Tammy would have wanted me to meet and fall in love with.”

Love.They hadn’t used that word. Whenever the appropriate time came up for either one of them to declare their feelings, they found other topics to discuss. It was as if they avoided what was happening between them because it scared them or they were afraid if they vocalized it, the reality would disappear in the blink of an eye.

“Don’t you think it’s time we say it since you’re moving in with me?”

“What? That you’ve got my six? And I’ve got yours?”

“Well. That.” He kissed her nose. “And the fact that I love you and I’m hoping you feel the same way.”

She patted his chest. “Of course I do.”

He groaned. “Are you really going to leave me hanging?”

“Do you really need the words?”

“I need the words.” He nodded like a big, goofy kid.

Her heart swelled. Never in a million years did she think she could be this happy. Her life had always been a series of satisfactions, but nothing that made her feel as though she were sitting on top of the world.

She always knew she could be anything she wanted. That wasn’t arrogance. It wasn’t even confidence. It was the knowledge that she mattered. That she counted as a human being. She didn’t need a man to give her that.

However, Walker’s love added something to her life that no one else could.

She palmed his cheek. “I love you, Walker. With all my heart and soul.”