Hilltop, AK—Saturday, three weeks later, 10:30 p.m. AKDT
Amarok sat at the bar, the tie loosened on his tux as he nursed one final cold one. His wedding, which he’d believed might never happen, was over. Many of his and Evelyn’s guests were drifting off, making it less crowded and more relaxed—like the Moosehead normally was. That they’d been able to go ahead and have the ceremony without a delay, after all they’d been through, was almost a miracle. But Evelyn had insisted she didn’t want to wait. Amarok had been hesitant to put it off, too, what with the baby coming in a few weeks. Soon he’d be a father as well as a husband—just what he’d hoped for ever since he first fell in love with Evelyn.
This was a good day. He wasn’t sure he’d ever had a better one.
“You going to have trouble getting used to that thing?” Shorty joked, coming up on the other side of the bar and angling his head toward Amarok’s left hand.
Amarok turned the simple gold band on his third finger. “Not at all. I like the feel of it.”
“You like the meaning behind it.”
He glanced over to see Evelyn talking to Molly in the corner, by where they’d served the cake. Fortunately, the swelling and bruising on her face were gone. “That too.”
Shorty popped the top on another beer, this one for himself. “You’re a lucky man. I guess I can tell you now that I didn’t think you’d get her back alive.”
Amarok shook his head as he remembered those dark days, knowing he’d never forget them. “I guess I can tell you now that I didn’t, either.”
Clinking his bottle against Amarok’s, Shorty took a long pull before changing the subject. “I expected some of Evelyn’s family to fly out for this. Kinda surprised that Brianne, at least, didn’t make it.”
“She’s got to help look out for Evelyn’s mother.”
“Evelyn told me Lara … struggles. That hasn’t improved?”
“It has. She’s doing better these days, but Brianne’s baby is only a month old. Didn’t make sense to put him on a plane when we’ll be going there in the fall for a second reception.”
“Guess not,” Shorty agreed. “I was just hoping to see her again, that’s all. She doing okay?”
Amarok nodded. It had been a touchy situation to have Brianne as a guest in his home last fall, right after she’d learned she was pregnant and before Jasper was caught. “Better than she was when she was here before—I can tell you that,” he said wryly.
Shorty chuckled. “It’s still hard for me to believe she struck up a friendship with Jasper Moore while she was here. I shake my head whenever I remember seeing them dancing together.”
“Yeah, well, he was Andy Smith then—a correctional officer at the prison. She wasn’t the only one who was fooled.”
“True.” Shorty straightened. “What’s up with him these days, anyway? He out of the infirmary yet?”
“He was just transferred back to his cell this week.”
“So he’s going to be okay.”
“That depends on how well he gets along with the other inmates moving forward. He’s not the type who makes friends easily—especially not now that the mask has come off.”
“Deserves whatever he gets. That’s my take.”
“A lot of people would agree. But Evelyn’s seen to it that they’ve suspended the guards who were responsible for him when it happened. They can’t let that kind of shit occur.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Shorty wasn’t one who stopped to chat for very long when he was working the bar. But with the wedding over, Amarok could tell he was warming up to the question he really wanted to ask.
After Shorty had put so much into making the wedding as nice as it had been, Amarok decided to save him the trouble of searching for the right lead-in. “I decided to invite her,” he said, out of the blue.
Amarok knew he was right, that Shorty had wanted to ask about Alistair’s appearance at the wedding, when Shorty didn’t say, Who?
“Change of heart, huh?” he said instead.
“I don’t know. Life just seems too short to carry that kind of resentment around.”
“She kept her distance and left as soon as it was over. I think she’s trying to respect your boundaries.”
“I got that, too. And I’m grateful.” Amarok wasn’t sure how much interaction he’d have with his mother in the future, but he supposed it was a step in the right direction.
He scratched off the label of his beer, lost in thought for a bit. Their relationship would become more of an issue now that she would have a grandchild through him. Deciding he didn’t want to have a relationship with her seemed selfish when it meant his daughter wouldn’t have one of her grandmothers.
Evelyn came up and rested her hand on his shoulder as she reached over to grab a handful of nuts. “I’m exhausted,” she said. “You about ready to head home?”
He slid his empty bottle toward Shorty. “I’ve just been waiting for you.”
She gave him the smile that never failed to steal his breath. “Then let’s go, Husband.”
They thanked Shorty and, her hand clasped in his, left the bar—only to find his truck decorated with so much shoe polish, balloons and crepe paper, he didn’t think he’d be able to see out of the windshield to drive.
“Good thing we hid my car around back,” she said, and they hurried to reach it—only to find that the locals hadn’t been fooled.
They’d decorated both vehicles.
“There are no secrets in Hilltop,” Amarok grumbled.
Those who’d lingered to follow them were joined by others who came out from the trees, where they’d been hiding, to razz them and film their reaction.
It took longer to clean the windshield than it did to drive home. While there were some drawbacks of living in such a small town, there were definite advantages, too.
Amarok helped Evelyn out of the vehicle and then seemed determined to carry her across the threshold.
“What about your shoulder?” she asked when he stopped her from going in on her own power.
“It’s fine. Almost healed.”
“This could break it open again. Are you sure you really want to do this?”
“Call me traditional,” he said, and they both laughed as he swept her into his arms.