"Yes,” she whispered. “I'll stay."
Paradise, she'd tuck into her heart no matter where they ended up. She'd have it with her. Always.
Epilogue
The following winter, Eddie and I moved in together. I never went to back to Boston after all; I discovered that the something I'd been searching to fill my life wasn't as far away as I'd thought. Instead, I took over as full-time manager at the restaurant; sometimes I teach a law course or two at the local junior college. After Eddie finished three months of physical therapy, he opened his own motorcycle repair shop. Today we live in Newburg Heights, a quiet suburb about halfway between Boston and Paradise. We still laugh and drink a beer or two on our front porch and make love almost every night.
Jen stayed in Boston, though we've kept in touch, so she passes along the city gossip every now and again. She works at the mayor's office, and she has no plans to settle down anytime soon. She's taken up photography, even sells some of her prints at a shop downtown. I stopped in one time to see them, and they're really good. She always noticed details, now that I think about it. She has a few photos of Paradise, and one of Lycian Street that I didn't recognize at first. She'd taken it in the fall, and the trees had all turned this orange-red that jumped off the paper. The street was narrower than I remembered, and the houses not quite as tall. It looked peaceful but empty, like any other side street in a pretty New England town in the month of October. And I realized then that the true beauty, the passion that colored that summer in Paradise, I discovered with Eddie.
Last month, on Valentine's Day, he proposed to me, gave me a beautiful ring which must have cost him half a year's salary and asked with tears in his eyes if I'd spend the rest of time with him. I laughed, said, “Of course,” then traced those faded scars and wondered why he'd taken so long to ask.
"It's always been you, Ash. From the day we moved in..."
My parents and my sisters don't always understand my choices, though they try. They think I'll miss politics; they think someday I'll return to the city and adopt the Kirk lifestyle again. I watch the deer feeding outside my front window. I wave to the Anderson twins playing down the street. I think of the students who will greet me in class tomorrow morning, and I know how wrong they are.
It's funny, I think, how far we'll go to flee our ghosts and how much we'll do to protect our secrets. I know now that being lost is sometimes the best thing that can happen to a girl. In darkness, in sadness, and in loss, I found Eddie. I found love. And most of all, I found myself.
Sometimes you just have to close your eyes and jump.
A word about the author...
Allie Boniface is a romance novelist and high school English teacher living with her husband in the northern New York City suburbs. She's had a soft spot for love stories and happy endings since the time she could read. When she's not writing, shoveling snow, or grading papers, she's traveling the United States and Europe in search of sunshine, back roads, and the perfect little pub.
Contact Allie at [email protected]
Visit Allie at www.allieboniface.com
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