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It turned out the asshole had only winged her. Kayla had taken a round in the shoulder, and it spun her around. She’d fallen, hit her head on the ground, and knocked herself out for a few moments. She’d suffered no worse than a flesh wound and recovered within a couple of days.
By the time I returned to Pops, he had passed. Kayla and I got him on the wagon, and we took him into town. There, the townsfolk gave the well-liked man a proper funeral service and buried him in the church cemetery.
Frank returned the day after we buried Pops, and Dino came around the day after that. Although they live with us now, they both make daily runs up the mountain to Pops’ place to check if he’d returned.
When I went back to take care of the man in the backyard, he had disappeared and never returned. The other bodies I dragged to the far side of my property and slid into a deep ravine. The bears, coyotes, raccoons, and all the other critters would eat well for a while.
Once we cleaned up the house and mobile home and removed all traces of the intruders, Kayla and I slipped into the habits of a daily life.
A week after we’d returned, I found Kayla sitting in a lawn chair out in the backyard. Off in the distance, Nutmeg ate the grass in the horse pasture. She wouldn’t be alone for long since we planned on adding other horses as soon as we could find them.
“Everything okay?” I asked as I sat down in the empty chair next to Kayla’s.
“Yeah. Fine. I’m just tired. It’s been a long month.”
I didn’t argue with that.
“Hey, I’ve been thinking. See that area just past the gardens?” I said, pointing to the side of Nutmeg’s pasture.
“Yeah.”
“I imagine that would be a great place to plant those cherry trees. Maybe we could plant apple, peach, and nectarine trees, too.”
Kayla smiled. “Sounds great. I make a wicked peach cobbler.”
“I love a good cobbler,” I said. The peach wasn’t my favorite fruit, but I’d hold that information back for now.
We watched Nutmeg in silence for several minutes.
“Baker?”
“Yeah?”
Kayla reached out for my hand, which I gave her without hesitation.
“Thanks for keeping your promise.”
“Thanks for calling me. I’ve thought of you every single day since the last time I saw you.”
“You’re a good man, Baker.”
I shook my head. “Not really. You’ve seen me do terrible things.”
“Things to save us.”
I couldn’t deny that.
Kayla, not letting go of my hand, got out of her chair and kneeled down before me.
“I love you, Baker.”
“I love you, Kayla.”
She tipped her head and leaned forward. I took the hint and kissed her. A soft, gentle, lingering kiss. The first kiss. A kiss to remember. A kiss more than a dozen years in the making. We kissed a second time, then she rose and wrapped her arms around me, and I encased her in mine. And for the first time since the world ended, I sensed a new beginning. I was at peace, in love, and I assumed the future was going to turn out just the way we needed it to be.
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DAN DEKONING WAS BORN and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with his wife and their cats.
He is a storyteller and poet who loves to write in a variety of genres and themes. He is also a voracious reader who loves to read anything he can get his hands on.
When he’s not writing, you can find him hunting for treasures in used bookstores, or out exploring the planet, or geocaching, or searching for adventures and stories to tell.
This is Dan DeKoning’s complete library at the time of publication, but Dan has new books coming out all the time. Sign up for his newsletter at DanDeKoning.com to stay up to date on new releases.
Fiction
Déjà Vu
The Haunting of Hyacinth House
How Deep the Darkness
Geocaching Mystery Series
The Cacheland Conspiracy
The Quincy Bay Quandary
The Secret of the Seven Valleys
The Geocaching Mystery Omnibus – Volume 1
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Codi Cassidy Cozy Mystery Series
Acoustics and Alibis
Ballads and Bloodshed
Codas and Calibers
Codi Cassidy Cozy Omnibus – Volume 1
Poetry Collections
Lost and Found
Random Thoughts
