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By any measure of imagination, the family-oriented Halloween and harvest event was a wild success. The event had been well attended with families coming from all over Paradise Valley. More than a hundred jack-o-lanterns had been carved, goodies that had been baked and donated had been won during the cakewalk and some even consumed during the impromptu picnic lunch as the booths set up by the local restaurants had their hands full with hungry families. The haiku tombstones had been enthusiastically embraced and Walker had been amazed at the creativity of Marietta’s children and their parents. The dress-up photo booth, which had been Shane’s quietly voiced suggestion, always had a line. The hayrides, small corn maze, and arts and crafts had kept many kids busy for far longer than the three hours Walker had planned for the festivities. The arts and crafts fair had been small, but all the merchants had been pleased with their sales and promised to participate as well next year.
The day couldn’t have gone better. The weather was crisp, but sunny. The hotel and the staff had really stepped up the service. So many Marietta families had thanked her and the staff and said they hoped this would become an annual Marietta tradition. The Graff had always participated along with other downtown merchants in the afternoon trick or treating, geared to keep kids safe and foster a sense of community, but a Halloween and harvest party had not yet been attempted by the Graff. Walker had astonished herself several times thinking of how she could make improvements for next year.
Could she? Would she still be here?
“It’s strange,” she murmured to Shane who had willingly come in early to help with the bobbing for apples on a string booth. “I’ve always been such a city girl. I thought I’d be here six months maybe a year, but I like Marietta. I like knowing people and people knowing me.”
She sounded amazed. She thought she saw tears in Shane’s eyes for a second, but when she blinked they were gone. Shane smiled that mysterious, half smile that was there and gone so fast that Walker was becoming accustomed to. Then she touched Walker’s hand gently where she had a scar that had healed following the bird rescue but hadn’t faded. Walker liked looking at it. It made her feel connected to Calum even though they hadn’t been alone together since the raptor rescue.
She told herself it was over. But it didn’t feel over. Instead, she felt like she was waiting for something important and certain. Waiting for him.
“You belong here,” Shane said. “It suits you and you suit the town.”
“So do you,” Walker had said, meaning it, but Shane drew back. “I have some customers.” She indicated three little girls who were holding hands and gazing up at the apples dangling from the strings. One of them was Kane’s daughter, Montana.
“You really rocked this,” Sky said. “This whole event seems out of a movie, and I love that the Graff is hosting it. This ballroom has seen so many elegant weddings and even a couple of holiday balls and New Year’s balls, but it’s lovely that it’s a place for families.”
“Speaking of which, Tucker told me you’re expecting again,” Walker said, not sure if Tucker was supposed to be spreading the news or not, but she’d announced it cheerfully as she’d unloaded the ponies from a trailer this morning. She’d brought local high school and middle school kids from the Future Farmers of America and 4-H groups to supervise the pony rides and petting zoo that she’d also set up for Walker. “Congratulations.”
“Thanks.” Sky laughed. “Kane’s so ridiculously over the moon you’d think he was the only man to accomplish knocking up his wife. He hovers constantly and wants to be involved in every little aspect of the pregnancy. I have nearly three months of this before he’s back on the tour again.” She didn’t seem bothered by Kane’s hyper involvement. She seemed thrilled and glowed. “He won’t be so fired up when the morning sickness kicks in 24/7.”
“Maybe it won’t be so bad this time,” Walker said, knowing nothing about babies or morning sickness and feeling the now familiar pang when the subject came up.
Dang. It was the town’s fault. It was just too out-of-a-movie perfect. And Calum’s fault for looking so ridiculously sexy when she caught glimpses of him and Laird and another Ghost Quests crew member filming a few scenes around the carnival.
So close. But so far.
Still, now that he was here, the day had become brighter. He’d come back to town several days ago. She’d learned from Laird that Calum had returned to his home in Ventura “to wrap things up”. He’d also had several meetings in LA.
It was crazy. They’d been apart longer than they’d been together, but she felt happier knowing he was close. Also, she’d sensed a change in him, an openness as they’d driven back to Marietta after rescuing the hawk. She’d let hope back into her heart and held it close. Her hope had soared when he’d stopped by the emergency room on the way back to ensure that her slight injuries were examined and cleaned. He’d waited for her to be treated and released and had even stood in line for her antibiotic prescription.
Walker supervised cleanup of the ballroom and then she and Shane worked on the setup for the evening. New vendors—beer and distilled spirits and even a few wineries—arrived. The food vendors were cleaning up and restocking for the evening event. Walker was equally tired and energized.
She squeezed in a shower and clothing change just as Lyle Tate started his first set for the evening. She smiled and waved at her cousins, who had been in the ballroom participating in the kids activities and had decided that with the help of a couple of babysitters they could all have a night out. Kane was riding high from his wife’s second pregnancy, celebrated AEBR finals performance as well as his accomplishment of ending another season mostly injury free.
He and Sky had closed on a huge tract of land that abutted the ranch where all the Wilders now lived and they’d already broken ground and had the foundation laid for their new house.
“We’ll be in before the baby comes,” he’d announced and by the determined glint in his eye, Walker didn’t want to mention that Montana’s notoriously cold and snow-filled winters might make that a challenge.
Laird, no longer crewing with Calum, poured samples of his beer and promoted his new Wilder Whiskey that was still in a barrel. Rafe helped at his cousin’s booth and looked so happy she was wondering how he was going to drag himself back to his life in Australia in another week. She hadn’t seen Calum since earlier in the afternoon, but she was seriously hoping he’d show.
She left the large tent and walked on the lawn to where she’d had a low wall of hale bales placed so if the weather permitted, couples could sit and cuddle and look at the stars when they didn’t want to dance. Through the trees, she could see the lights come on along main street as dusk became a deeper twilight and the lights of the courthouse glowed warm and secure in the distance. Walker sat on a hay bale and faced the hotel, spectacularly lit up with the orange twinkle lights. Bob had even been inspired and had directed someone from the maintenance crew to add a grinning jack o lantern in lights on the front of the hotel.
She could be happy here. Happy alone, but happier if she had someone she could share her life with, whatever that life looked like.
“Good day?”
She’d been waiting, hoping. Finally. She let herself relax a little.
“It might get better,” she said.
“Can I join you?”
Her heart thumped in anticipation and not a little fear, but she pushed that all away. Fortune didn’t favor the timid.
And just like that, the day, the night just skyrocketed.
“Always.”
She hoped he’d sit. Instead he stood behind her and his arms wrapped around her, pulled her close to his body. Walker closed her eyes against the torrent of emotion.
“I bought you something,” he whispered softly, his breath warm against her cheek.
“Yes?” Pleasure rolled over her.
He slipped something small and light over her head. She touched it the slouchy style knit beanie.
“Hand knit in Marietta. The colors of fall to remind you of our first Halloween together.”
“Calum, I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“No. I am.” And then he sat down on the hay bale and pulled her onto his lap. “I was rigid and self-righteous. I assumed a lot of things. I took your omission out of context like I was some middle school idiot.”
She angled her body so she could tuck her head against his shoulder. She needed to see him and to touch him.
“I thought about telling you,” she said. “I wanted to, but I don’t even think I’d come to terms with how my life had changed. Every day was still a struggle for me to cope with. I was still reeling from everything that had happened in DC. I was afraid people her would find out and judge me, and I’d have nowhere to go.”
She could tell by the way his arms tightened that he’d learned at least some of what she’d been through. She was relieved. She didn’t want to talk about it. She wanted to look forward. Together.
“I wish I’d been there for you,” he said, his voice thick with emotion. “I should have been holding you. Protecting you.”
“You can hold me now.”
And he was. Walker sighed feeling as if everything she’d held so tightly inside started to loosen its hold on her.
“And I needed to go through that on my own to grow.”
“Like hell. That’s what couples do. Stand strong with each other and for each other.”
Walker’s heart soared. He was here. And she felt like she could breathe again. She tucked her head against his chest, loving how she could hear his heartbeat against her cheek. Lyle broke into a soft love song, and Walker thought the evening couldn’t get much better. She listened to the music and felt dreamy. But there were things she needed to say. Clear the air so they could start over.
“I was shocked. Betrayed. Embarrassed. Trying to find my feet.”
“And I kicked your feet back out from under you again. I’m so sorry. I just didn’t trust us. It happened so fast. You walked across the room towards me and I was just lost. Completely lost in you,” he said. “You were right. All the losses I’ve had early in life did form so much of my career. I was trying to make sense of death. To feel like it wasn’t so final. Like there was a reason. That everyone I’d lost wasn’t really gone, that they were still, in a way, with me. I lost both my parents so abruptly and was trying to make sense of it. Then I lost a high school friend in a surfing accident and a few years later, in my first year of college, a girl I was friends with died while a group of us were camping.”
Walker rubbed a slow soothing circle on his shoulder. “It was so random and yet felt weirdly like destiny. A windstorm kicked up. She wanted to pack up her things. I said leave it, we’d come back but she insisted. I grabbed her arm to get her to hustle out down the trail into an area clearer of trees because I didn’t like the way they were groaning and moaning and creaking. They sounded so human, and then she pulled away. I let go. I let go,” he repeated, lost in the memory. “and she ran back toward her tent and a tree came down.”
“Calum,” she whispered.
“If I’d held on five seconds longer, she might be alive, but I was pissed that she was being so stupid.”
Lyle’s voice continued to croon across the party, just him and his guitar for the moment. “My first year out of college just as I was realizing that my show could actually become a career, one of the friends who’d been on my crew left during a shoot. Had had fight with his girl and he wanted to drive home to talk it out. He took the van, stranding us, promising he’d come back in a day or two—definitely before we were done shooting—but he was killed ten miles away, hit by a drunk driver, and I felt like it I’d kept the keys in my pocket so he couldn’t have grabbed them...” His voice trailed off.
Tears rolled down Walker’s cheeks and she let them.
“Life is so random. I realized when you held that hawk with such determination even though it scared you, that I’d been running scared for most of my life. I thought I was tackling it head-on, but instead I was burying myself with ghosts. I’ve lived my life trying to find meaning and I don’t think there is any, except that I need to live and to love as hard as I can and enjoy each moment because it could be gone in a flash.”
“I think we are both due for some happy.”
“Depends.”
“That’s not what you’re supposed to say.”
“What was I supposed to say?”
She could hardly contain her smile. He was back. They were back. She looped her arms around his neck and brushed her lips against his. He responded. Everywhere. She could hardly contain the thrill that washed through her heart and then her body.
“You’re supposed to say, ‘Dance with me Walker Wilder’.”
“I will later.” He kissed her lips so tenderly, like a whisper. “I was going to say it depends on what makes you happy.”
“You do. And oddly this town. And my brother being so close although he hasn’t told me when he has to leave again exactly, and I really, really want him to stay. And also the Wilders—that big, loud, crowded and growing family makes me happy even though I am just getting to know them. I’d like to know them a whole lot better.”
“Me too.”
“And I’d like to know you a whole lot better. If you will let me. If you will let me in.”
“Then, yes.” His fingers slicked through her hair ridding it of the elastic and jeweled bobby pins. Then he ran it through his fingers.
“I’ve put my house in California on the market,” he said. “And while I did not buy a snap front western-style shirt, your brother bought one for me and I’m terrified Kane will get me a Stetson.”
Walker’s lips parted in surprise, which he took advantage of.
“Wait.” He stopped. “I’ve been so focused on what I needed to say to you tonight, I wasn’t paying enough attention. Are these jeans, Walker Wilder?” He felt the denim.
“Guilty. Not boot cut. I couldn’t jump in that deep, but I did get skinny jeans with Shane and Tucker’s help, and this is my first pair of boots. Kane brought them back for me from the AEBR finals. He got to pick boots for part of his swag and he thought of me. Sky said it was a symbolic ask to get me to stay in Marietta. They even offered me a trailer to live in on the property.”
“I think you and I can do better than a trailer,” he whispered in her ear and then his tongue traced along her It sounds like a country love song. Shane can pluck out the bass line. I can’t stop thinking of you, Walker Wilder. I missed you.”
“I’ve missed you too.”
“Good. Although I’m not going to give you much chance to do that in the future, I feel I need to warn you.” He tipped her face to his. The moon lit her face and tears of happiness glittered on her lashes. “I’ve got more scenes to film for my special, but then I want to stay on in Marietta. Take a hiatus from my show—maybe permanently. Maybe I’ll do a special here or there, but I feel done with ghosts, and I’ve made enough money that I can take my time figuring out my next step, which I want to be with you. I really want to just enjoy being alive and being with you if you’ll have me.”
She looked into his dark eyes, so serious for once and traced the lines that feathered down from the corners of his eyes and then his lips.
“Oh, I’ll have you,” she said. “Definitely, but, fair warning to you too, I won’t give you back.”
