When Stars Collide

by Sara Furlong-Burr

  Peter’s face softened as he processed my confession, longing returning to eyes that contained nothing but pain only a second ago. “Are you sure? God, Mena, I’ve been such a trainwreck.”

  “We’re both trainwrecks, Peter. I’m just better at making it appear like I have my shit together.”

  “You know I can’t pick up and move to New York, right?”

  “Yeah, which is why I’ve decided to move here. If you’ll have me, of course.”

  He cupped my cheek in his hand, running his thumb along my cheekbone. “I want that. Christ, Mena, I want that so badly. But I can’t ask you to do that for me. You’d be giving up everything you’ve worked for. That’s too much of a sacrifice to ask you to make.”

  “Well, then it’s a good thing I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for me. The only way I would be giving up anything was if I stayed in New York. I may have a life there, but I have a home here. You and Jackson have always been my home, Peter.”

  He shook his head, a smile of disbelief overspreading his face. “Damn it, I love you, Mena Straszewski. I never thought I’d get to say that to you again.”

  “Hey, you two!” Luke’s thunderous voice echoed across the yard, drawing our attention back to the tent where he and Elle stood watching us.

  “Are you guys just going to stare at each other all day?” Elle added.

  “Clock’s ticking, Monroe.” Luke mimicked tapping a non-existent watch on his wrist. “Just kiss her already!”

  “Yeah, we’re trying to have a reception here.”

  Peter chuckled. “We … very much deserve this.”

  I nodded. “That we do. And we’d better not let them down.”

  Peter leaned in, his lips, at first, barely brushing mine before he allowed himself to crash into me like he needed my touch to convince himself that all of this was real. Satisfied that it was, he enfolded me in his arms, surprising me when he picked me up and spun me around. From inside of the tent, a round of applause erupted. Whether that was also Luke and Elle’s doing, I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. All that mattered was the moment I was in right then, right there.

  I pulled Peter closer to me just as he began to pull away, capturing his mouth in mine for a moment longer. Without hesitation, he clasped his arms around my waist, bringing me in flush against his body until, reluctantly, he broke away from me, resting his forehead against mine.

  “Well, Peter Monroe.”

  “Yes, Mena Straszewski?”

  “Here’s the happily ever after you wanted.”

  EPILOGUE

  One Year Later

  Frazzled, I pulled into the parking lot of the park Elle told me to meet her at, trying to gather my thoughts. The last six months had been frantic, to say the least. My transition from New York to Roanoke and moving into Peter’s apartment went smoothly enough, but the sheer amount of change I’d gone through in a brief amount of time left me feeling like I had been run over by a truck.

  After returning to New York, I’d fully intended to hand Phineas my letter of resignation from Drake Publishing and find something else to hold me over until my lease was up. Phineas had different ideas, though, offering me an opportunity to work remotely in Virginia, with trips to New York every other month. The guilt I’d felt when I walked into his office the day after I’d returned from the wedding had been indescribable. He, on the other hand, had handled himself beautifully, looking at me no differently than he had the day I’d interviewed with him. His poker face, although admirable, was not infallible, however. Every now and then, he would let his guard down when he didn’t think I was looking, allowing me to catch a glimpse of the struggle in his eyes. He hadn’t been in the office much near the end of my residency in New York. The monumental success of Drake Publishing allowed him to open another office in Manhattan, and he’d spent much of his time there. A part of me wondered whether that was his way of staying away from me without it being too obvious.

  Jo and I moved out of our apartment on the same day, promising that we would make time to see each other again whenever I was in New York. We’d managed to keep that promise only once since my move, meeting up for coffee four months ago. Since then, our more frequent interactions had mainly been limited to sharing the occasional meme by text.

  I walked down the trail where Elle told me to meet her. After all the time we’d been spending together lately, what with the book tour and collaborating on a second book of poetry together, I would have thought she’d had enough of me. Turns out I was wrong.

  As I rounded a corner, I found Elle perched atop a boulder. When I caught sight of the lively little girl balancing on her legs, nothing could have stopped the smile that overcame my face. Born the day after I moved back to Virginia, little Elizabeth—Lizzie for short, as I refused to call her Betsy—had both her parents and her godparents wrapped around her chubby, sometimes sticky, fingers. Elle had taken to mothering Luke’s clone like a natural, throwing herself into late night feedings, play dates, and tummy time like a boss, all while taking on the role of rising star in the literary industry.

  “There’s my little bundle of recessive genes.” I stooped down to greet Lizzie, twirling one of her blonde curls around my finger, her blue eyes sparkling. She smiled at me, revealing a lone tooth. Every time she smiled my heart melted into a puddle inside of my chest. “Seriously, couldn’t your genes have shown up … somewhere? Even her toes look like Luke’s.” I glanced up at Elle, readjusting the sunhat I’d bought for Lizzie.

  “Tell me about it. It doesn’t seem genetically legal, since my body was the one that made her, carried her, and birthed her. She does have my blood type, though. So, I guess there’s that.”

  “It’s a good thing your daddy doesn’t look like hot garbage, then, isn’t it?” Lizzie giggled as I ran my fingertips up and down her bare, cherub-like, chubby legs.

  “If ‘hot’ and ‘garbage’ are her first words, I swear I’m revoking your godmother status.”

  “Psh … idle threats.” Elle rolled Lizzie’s stroller over with her foot and proceeded to strap her inside. “Are you going to tell me why I had to walk two miles to meet you?”

  “Mena, I can see the parking lot from here.”

  I looked over my shoulder, catching sight of my car in the distance. “Only because it’s not foggy.”

  Elle rolled her eyes and proceeded down the trail without answering my question. Staring straight ahead, her eyes never left the trail ahead of us, no matter how much I tried to get her attention, a dead giveaway that something was up.

  “Are you pregnant again?”

  “What? God no. I mean, not for a while yet. Mommy loves you, Lizzie.” She patted Lizzie on the shoulder, comforting her from the sting of words she couldn’t understand.

  “Okay … Are you and Luke doing okay? Because I meant what I said at your reception. If you decide to go all Elizabeth Taylor on me, you’re going to have to find another maid of honor for your subsequent weddings. Unless, of course, it’s his fault. Then I’ll help you hide the body.”

  “Luke and I have never been better.” She chuckled. “Although, it’s nice to know you aren’t above murder. I’ll keep that in mind.”

  “More aiding and abetting than outright murder. I don’t like getting my hands dirty, and—” A sudden impact with another person on the trail, interrupted me. “Oh, geez. I’m sor— Wait … Kirsten?”

  “Hey!” Surprised, she hurried in for a quick hug.

  “Fancy meeting you here.” I looked back at Elle, who met my curious stare with a simple shrug.

  “Yeah, you know. It’s such a nice day. I thought I’d get my hike on.”

  “Do you normally hike in sandals?”

  “Uh … yes? Doesn’t everyone?”

  “Only those named Kirsten, apparently.”

  “Why don’t you join us?” Elle asked her.

  “Only if I’m not going to impose.”

  Confused, I looked between Elle and Kirsten. Something about the wa
y Kirsten answered Elle had felt so … rehearsed.

  “You’re no imposition whatsoever.”

  Elle began walking with Kirsten, with me following in their footsteps. It wasn’t like Elle to keep secrets from me. I thought our friendship had moved past that. But maybe it hadn’t, after all.

  Before I could mull things over any further, Kirsten’s shrill shriek startled me, tearing me away from my thoughts.

  “Violet! Alex! Whatever are you two doing here?” Kirsten looked back at me with faux surprise written all over her face. An actress she was not.

  Annoyed, I peered over to where Elle stood off the side of the trail, shaking her head as she pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly frustrated.

  “Hey, ladies!” Violet exclaimed far too animatedly to be real. “How did the book tour go?” It was hard to tell who she was asking. Her eyes darted back and forth from Elle to me and back again.

  “Oh, you know,” I answered her before Elle could, “we went from city to city, and Elle talked about her book while I tried not to say something that would get us both banned from the bookstore. The usual. So, is the fact that you two are here together a coincidence, too? Alex, did you choose today to fly in from Indiana, where you just happened to run into Violet in the park we’re all at now?”

  Violet and Alex exchanged a brief glance before responding in unison, “Yes.”

  I nodded. “That checks out. Well, we may as well keep on moving to see what pot of gold awaits us at the end of this rainbow.”

  Elle moved to walk next to me, and I joined her in avoiding eye contact as we plodded down the trail with our band of merry women in tow.

  “How many more people are we going to encounter?” I asked, already knowing I wouldn’t be receiving a straight answer.

  “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

  “Seriously, Elle, what the fu—” I glanced down at Lizzie, who’d taken to gnawing on her fingers, “—udge is going on?”

  “Hey!” A familiar voice caused me to stop dead in my tracks. “Are you just going to walk past me without saying hello?”

  “Jo?” I turned around, my eyes taking in the woman belonging to the voice I’d just heard. “What are you doing here?” Dumbfounded, I held her into my arms without even realizing I was doing so.

  “Virginia’s made you soft.” She patted me on the back when I let go. “I can see why. It’s very scenic—not much concrete in sight.”

  “I take it you being here is by sheer coincidence and not at all planned, too?”

  Jo shrugged. “Sure.”

  “It must be a full moon,” another voice said behind me.

  My head whipped around so fast it was a miracle when I didn’t give myself whiplash. “Melissa?” Stunned, I walked away from Jo to greet my sister with the same awkward hug, peering anxiously over her shoulder.

  “Don’t worry, Mom isn’t here.”

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t do that to you,” Elle chimed in.

  “Exactly what are you doing to me, then?”

  “You’ll find out soon enough.” Elle motioned down the trail with a nod, and we all started following her; me because I had no idea what the hell else to do, and everyone else because they knew what the hell they were doing.

  Soon, the trail we were on led out of the wooded area where we’d been walking and straight into a clearing. In that clearing, Luke stood with the little boy I’d come to think of as my own.

  “Would you look at this.” I ruffled Jackson’s hair, dodging his attempts to swat my hand away. “There really was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

  “If I’m the gold, what is Uncle Luke?”

  “The leprechaun.”

  Jackson laughed, putting his hand up in the air for a high five. I gladly reciprocated, thankful for the bond he and I had developed, especially when it came to making jokes at Luke’s expense.

  “So, gang’s almost all here.” I looked around at our group, noticing that there was only one person who was missing. “What, is this some kind of intervention Peter put together? I swear it’s perfectly normal to keep a bottle of wine in your nightstand in case of emergencies.”

  “You keep wine in your nightstand, too?” Kirsten asked, relief washing over her. Next to her, Violet stood shaking her head.

  “No intervention,” Elle answered. “Although, I wouldn’t rule that out for the future.”

  “Okay, then what is it?”

  Luke nodded to a stone stairway carved into the side of the small mountain we’d just hiked across. “Your answer is waiting for you at the bottom of those steps.”

  “Look at you, being all cryptic and sending me on quests. You really are an overgrown leprechaun.”

  “I don’t think that’s how leprechauns work.” Luke rolled his eyes. “Just go down the stairs.”

  “All right, all right. Geez. You’re not even half as pleasant as the leprechaun on that cereal box.”

  Heart pounding, I began my descent down the stone steps that wound down the side of the mountain to an overlook at the bottom. I didn’t know why I was so nervous. I already knew who was waiting for me. Still, even that knowledge wasn’t enough to keep the butterflies away.

  Halfway down the stairs, I caught sight of the view this particular overlook was famous for. So exquisite was its splendor that the very sight of it held me in place where I stood. Before me, spread out as far as the eyes could see, was the city of Roanoke. The community that had inadvertently helped to mold me into the person I was today. Until six months ago, I’d considered Roanoke more of a means to an end, a necessary layover on the way to my final destination. Little did I know a decade ago that I was already home.

  At the bottom of the stairs, taking in the same view, Peter stood, leaning against a stone barrier. He had to have heard me walking down the stairs, but he didn’t turn around, which was fine with me. The last thing I wanted was for him to see how nervous I was. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I slowly padded over to him and stood beside him, leaning my body against the barrier right along with him.

  “That’s quite the ensemble you assembled up there.”

  He turned his body to face me as the smug smile I adored so much appeared across his face. “I figured it would be nice to go out and celebrate with some of the people who have played a large part in our lives over the last couple of years.”

  “What exactly are we celebrating?”

  Peter exhaled, holding out his hands for me to take. “As you know, I’m not all that great with this sentimental stuff.”

  “That’s good, because as you know, I despise sentimental stuff.”

  “Which is one of the reasons why we make such great team.” He squeezed my hand. “With that said, I must let you know that I’m going to need to go all Hallmark movie on you for minute. But don’t worry, it’ll be brief, and if it makes you feel more comfortable, I can pepper in some four-letter words here and there.”

  I shook my head. “No, say what you’re going to say.”

  “Oh, crap!” Jo’s voice echoed down at us from the top of the stairs. “Did she just turn him down?”

  Peter closed his eyes, squinting them together tightly. “Not yet, Jo,” he called up to her.

  “You should have properly vetted each of them before asking them here today.”

  “You think?” He sucked in a breath and locked his eyes with mine, mentally preparing himself to deliver the speech he’d rehearsed in his head. “Mena, I’ve lost you twice. The first time … well, the first time I blame on Luke and Elle. Mainly Elle.”

  “Hey!” Elle shouted from up above.

  “I mean, he’s not wrong,” I called up to her.

  “But that second time … that second time I lost you, I completely own.”

  “As you should.”

  “As I should.” He nodded. “When we broke up the first time, I managed to get back to my life as best as I could, stumbling through it, taking the good with the bad. I moved on in the physical defi
nition of the word, but never the emotional. I thought about you often, wondering whether I should try to find you and reach out to you. Wondering whether you would even want to hear from me if I did. After a while, I convinced myself that you wouldn’t, and so I abandoned the idea altogether, until Luke’s accident brought Elle back into my life.

  “When Elle returned to Roanoke, and she and Luke were given a second chance, I knew that I had to go for my own second chance with you. But then, I messed up …”

  “Again!” Luke called down to Peter.

  “Not again!” Peter raked his hand through his hair. “Maybe inviting the peanut gallery to tag along today wasn’t the best idea. Anyway, after I lost you the second time, I was a wreck. Nothing made sense to me anymore. Up was down; right was left. I was a complete and total disaster. You’re my world, Mena—well, you and Jackson, of course. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to lose you a third time.”

  With his hands still firmly clasping mine, Peter knelt on one knee in front of me. I’d suspected this may be the reason why we were all out here the second Luke had commanded me to walk down those stone steps, but I was still in total shock, nonetheless. The slightest tremble made its way through my body as tears threatened to fall down my face. Equally as nervous, Peter reached into the pocket of his jeans—I liked that he felt comfortable enough with himself not to feel the need to dress up to impress me. Honestly, him wearing anything other than blue jeans would have been weird.

  Hand shaking, he pulled out a box, opening it to reveal a ring that sparkled brilliantly in the afternoon sun. “Mena Straszewski, will you do me the honor of putting up with me for the rest of our lives?”

  “Like how long are we talking here? A year? Three years?”

  “With my genetics, probably five tops.”

  I smiled, permitting the tears to flow unchecked down my face. “Peter Monroe, you know I’ll marry you.”

  “So that’s a yes, then?”

  “That’s a hell yes.”

  He let go of my hand long enough to fit the ring around my finger, immediately scooping me up into his arms amid congratulatory shouts and applause from our friends above and the Roanoke skyline in the distance, a symbol of our past, present, and future together.