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I nod.
She takes a deep breath. “The follow-up interview went well. They want me as soon as possible. I told them I need to figure something out if I’m going to work there.”
“Do you want this job, Char?”
She goes silent. “Yes and no. I don’t want to leave, Bear. I want to stay here with you. I feel things for you that are so intense that it hurts me to think of a life without you. But if you’re going to keep being cold to me, if you’re going to be so fearful of any kind of commitment that you won’t even look at me? I don’t want to be around that either. I rather try to make something else happen in the city than just sit here, waiting for you to figure out if you can let yourself love me.”
There's tears in her eyes. She doesn’t want to do this. She doesn’t want to leave.
And I don’t want her to cry.
My heart pounds for her. I need her. I need her so damn hard that it’s overpowering. If I let her go, I’m never going to live it down. I’m going to be lonely and miserable, turning into a hateful old man who drinks whiskey before noon. Without Char’s sunshine, I’m hopeless.
I go to her. I wrap my arms around her, and look her right in the eyes. “Let’s give it our all, Char. Something might go wrong. We might change. Either of us could have a brain aneurysm and just drop dead, powerless to stop fate. But we’re both going to hate ourselves if we don’t give this a chance.”
She nods, a smile on her face, the first one I’ve seen in a long time. “So you’re not going to push me away for dumb reasons anymore? You’re going to give our relationship a real chance?”
“We need to talk. We need to communicate. Sometimes it’ll take a bit to get through my dense skull, but I hope that you can see past me being dumb sometimes. And I’ll try to get past being dumb to make things work.”
“Hey, I assure you, I can be dumb sometimes too. It’s a two way street, buddy.”
“You’re perfect though. And I won’t hear otherwise.”
“I strongly disagree.”
“Then we’re just going to have to agree to disagree, babe. But I’m going to make this work. Stay with me, and let’s build something wonderful together.”
She nods. “I love you, Bear. With all of my heart, and with all of my soul.”
“And I love you. If it was anything less than love, I’d have let you slip through my fingers.”
I hold her tightly. I’m not letting go of her.
I almost made a terrible mistake, because I feared making a commitment.
But all I got is love and the present.
Whatever the future brings, I’ll deal with it when it gets here.
epilogue
CHAR
It’s been a few weeks since Bear’s and my fight and reconciliation.
And they’ve been so sweet.
Since we realized this can be something real, the little things he’s done have been so nice that it makes my belief in forever all the more real.
I’m in his room, mending some of the other holes in his clothes that have become more numerous over the years that he’s let slide because of laziness or lack of time. There’s a lot. Turns out working around trees and sharp objects isn’t the best recipe for keeping your clothing perfectly intact.
While I passed up the job at the High Street Boutique, Bear brought me to a little seamstress shop in Evergreen Valley, run by an older woman named Clara. Savvy had already been working with her, and she happily took me on as another apprentice. She’s stated she’s getting up there in age, and would like to retire. Her own children have no interest in her craft, so she’s expressed interest in having us be her successors, because a town like Evergreen Valley is always going to need someone who can tailor and patch up clothes.
It’s a career worth taking, something to contribute to my community. Plus, I get to work with my best friend. What’s not to like?
Another flannel shirt patched up. Most of the holes in Bear’s clothes were so tiny that I understood why he didn’t even notice them.
I hear the Love Nest’s front door open, and I finish what I’m doing to go meet him. I’ve turned this into more of a home than it was when I got here, where it most definitely had bachelor-pad vibes. Some plants, some artwork, it’s home now, and I hope it remains home for decades to come.
