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“Come on,” he said, taking my hand and pulling me out the front door and over to Cam’s house.
“What?” I asked again, my voice shrill.
“Patience,” he told me, pushing open the door and dodging dogs to settle me in a chair facing a big screen that had been set up at one end of the living room. Cam sat in the other chair, and I got up and repositioned myself in his lap.
Tuck turned to look at us and feigned an annoyed sigh. “You two,” he said with a grin.
“Just making a place for you to sit,” I told him.
Tuck turned the lights off and started the projector he’d set up next to his laptop, and suddenly, we were back in the Sequoia grove, at Maddie’s wedding. We watched the wedding unfold, shots of people interspersed with views of the setting—the mighty trees, the sweeping sky. The music from the ceremony continued lightly in the background as the movie replayed the vows Maddie and Connor had exchanged, and then captured the reception, including the long kiss Cam and I had shared against the far railing toward the end of the night. The film was beautiful.
I turned to face Tuck. “That was amazing. I’m in awe.”
“Wait till you see the one I did for the Inn,” he grinned, standing to start that one next.
The version he’d put together for the Inn was equally impressive, and I knew Mike would be floored. “No wonder they pay you the big bucks down there in Hollywood,” I said.
“If they did, darlin’, I wouldn’t have come up here so eagerly,” he said, laughing. “And I wanted to ask you guys about that, actually.”
“About what?” Cam asked, turning the lights back on.
“About what would happen if I maybe didn’t go back.”
I looked at Cam and back at Tuck. “Didn’t go back? Or stayed here?”
“Both.”
“Yeah, man,” Cam said easily. “Definitely stay here.” He grinned.
“Yeah,” Tuck said, and I got the sense he hadn’t let himself really embrace the idea before passing it by Cam first. “And could I stay here? I mean live at the house?”
“No,” Cam said, and my mouth fell open, along with Tuck’s.
“No?” I asked, surprised.
Cam wrapped his hand around his neck and shook his head. “I mean, yes, of course. But only if we can switch.”
“Switch what?” Tuck asked.
“You live down here. I’m moving into the big house. If it’s okay with Harper, I mean.”
I nodded, completely happy with the solution. “Of course it’s okay.”
“Perfect,” Tuck said. “Let me take you guys to the diner for a burger and we’ll celebrate the two newest residents of Kings Grove.”
We did exactly that, sharing my news and Tuck’s with anyone we saw who might care. When we told Miranda, who was eating lunch with Sam at the next table, she practically danced in her seat. “That’s wonderful!” she said. And then her face became more serious. “Oh, hey, did my dad come up to see you?”
“No, why?” Cam asked her.
“They caught the mountain lion this morning,” she said. “He had a team come up from the valley with tranquilizer guns, and they finally caught it.”
“What do they do with it now?” I hated the idea of the big cat being hurt, though I wasn’t eager to have it continue living and hunting in my backyard.
“He said they’d fly it into the back country—like way back,” she said. “They put a collar on it so they can track it.”
I nodded. I didn’t know a whole lot about wildlife management, but that made sense to me. “That’s good,” I said.
“Thought you’d want to know,” Miranda said. “Especially since you’re sticking around.”
