Epilogue

EPILOGUE

“You’d think as much as we pay in taxes in this county, they’d put in nicer bleachers for graduation. My back will never be the same.”

I smiled at Burna Jones’s complaints as they floated around me while I worked on her hair. I’d lived in this town just over four years now, and Pearl was starting kindergarten in a few more months. She ruled the roost at preschool with her sassiness, and I expected her to do the same in “big” school.

“The caps and gowns they had weren’t worth a plugged nickel.” Burna sniffed. “My Hilda can do so much better than those cheap flimsy things.”

I spread more of the black color onto the woman’s roots as I attempted to distract her. “I understand Hilda got into the Savannah College of Art and Design.”

The older woman preened, and for a moment, I saw a smile flash across her face. A brief one. “Don’t know why she has to move so far away from home. We got perfectly good colleges ’round here.”

“That’s true, but that school is one of the best for fashion design. Plus, the grant she won will pay for nearly all the tuition there. Win-win, right?”

Other random bits of conversations floated around me as life continued to move forward.

“Tourists done flooded the town for the July Fourth holiday.”

“I tried to get a table at the Smoky Mountain Bistro, and the wait time was almost two hours.”

“My son got a job there washing dishes. Loves it.”

I exchanged glances with Tambre, who had Fauna in her chair. I enjoyed working with the restaurant owner’s corkscrew curls, but my boss was the master at the tight braids Fauna loved so much.

It amazed me how many changes I’d come through over the past few years.

Kimmie returned to her life in Minnesota. I heard from Mama J that she made a brief appearance at the Dutchmen MC compound and left again on the back of a nomad’s bike toward California. That was the last anyone saw her. I hoped she found her path in life and healed herself somewhere.

People still talked about the fire that burned up so much of the forests, but to look at them now, it was hard see any damage. Scorched trees had grown back, and the black scars were covered in bright green again as the mountains healed themselves. Deer, bear, and other wildlife returned to reclaim their territories. The weather cycled through seasons. People came and went. Kids grew up, and we moved forward.

Pastor Robert still preached to his flock at his church on Sundays. He’d met and married a woman who matched him perfectly. She directed the choir for him and personified the helpmate he needed. They made a great-looking couple, and I was genuinely happy for him.

The bell rang as another client came into the salon. “Hey, Opal. I know I’m early, but I’ll just sit a spell until you’re ready for me,” Natalie said. The cancer was in remission, but she’d decided she wanted to live her life in the fullest way possible. In other words, she didn’t give a rat’s ass what people thought of her. When she worked at the bank, there’d been a dress code she’d had to follow. Now she didn’t care and had me color her hair to whatever suited her mood. Pink, blue, teal, and now bright purple.

“I’ll be right with you, Nat.” I glanced at the clock and smirked. There was another reason Natalie was early to her appointment.

At exactly four thirty, the door opened, and a little blonde tornado rushed in. “Mommy, I drew a picture for you!”

Pearl drew pictures for me every single day, but her excitement in giving them to me never waned.

“Oh, how cute! Is that a horse?”

My little girl grinned at me and cocked her head to the side. “Mommy, you’re so silly. It’s a dog.”

I looked again at the four-legged figure. “Oh, I see it now.”

“Daddy says we can get one.”

I straightened up and shot my eyes to the figure coming in the door right behind my daughter. “He did, did he?”

Bryce smiled as he walked up to me. “I actually said we’d talk about it as a family. Glenda’s retriever has a new litter coming soon.”

I folded myself in his arms, not caring in the slightest about any onlookers. On his left cheek, neck, and underneath his uniform shirt, there were the marks left by the fire. The side of the shelter blew up from the hot wind of the blaze, and flames got to him. Somehow, he rolled himself and the shelter into the creek. Whatever guardian angel he had worked overtime that day, as he could easily have been dead from burning, drowning, smothering, or a combination of the three.

I didn’t remember the frantic trip to Asheville, only that Natalie and I clung to each other as a grim-faced Brick drove us. When we laid our eyes on Bryce, he was in a sterile single room, covered in white bandages and draped with tubes dripping fluids into his starved body. Even his hands were wrapped in gauze. The burns were serious but didn’t require skin grafts, at least. He was awake when I staggered to his bed and touched him to make sure he was real.

“Told’ja I’d be back.” He sounded like he’d swallowed a bucket of granite gravel, but he was alive and breathing. “Love you, babe.”

I’d burst into tears on the spot. “Bryce Turner, don’t you ever do that to me again!”

“I’ll do my best, sweetheart.”

Natalie had her hugs and tears, too, and all three of us cried our way through the weeks of healing and physical therapy.

Bryce had gone back to work as soon as he was given the all clear, and when Chief Wilson retired last year, Bryce became the new chief. Officer Fine also survived but left the forestry service because of lung damage—and to be honest, he really wasn’t into the job anyway.

The poaching investigation ended with the fire. Walt’s body was found a few miles from the burned-out shell of the cabin. Instead of running from the flames, he’d driven right into them, either by mistake or because of Clem’s death. We would never find out for sure.

The first time Pearl called Bryce “Daddy,” I thought he was going to fall over. His knees gave out, and he started tearing up. My eyes were also wet when he turned his to me and smiled. “If I’m going to be Pearl’s daddy, I should also be Opal’s husband.”

A year later, we were married, and he officially adopted my little girl. Natalie kept her bungalow, but the rest of us moved into a nice three-bedroom house just outside town. It was a fixer-upper, but between Bryce and me, plus the men of the DRMC, we renovated and turned it into the home we both wanted.

The word “happy” wasn’t big enough to cover all the joy in my heart.

“What do you want to eat tonight? Ingles has a sale on bratwurst. We can fire up the grill and have us a good ’ol Fourth of July cookout,” Natalie said as she joined us.

“Gramma!” Pearl exclaimed as she wrapped her little arms around the woman’s knees.

Betsey had to share the title.

Tambre finished up Fauna and handed her a mirror to check the back of her head. “The fourth isn’t until Thursday.”

“Don’t matter. I’m good with celebratin’ all week.”

Fauna tilted her head as she examined herself. “Who’s going to the fireworks?”

“Me!” Pearl yelled and let go of Natalie’s legs.

I laughed just as the timer buzzed. I shifted in Bryce’s arms. “Let me get Burna sorted. Then it’s your mom’s turn. You need a cut today?”

He moved his hands to my hips and shook his head. “Nope. I need to go file a report about a cougar sighting on the west ridges. I’m sure it’s Old Sam again. Only one of his kind here in North Carolina.”

“Seems a shame that he’s by himself.”

Bryce shrugged. “It’s better than being killed by a fire or on someone’s floor as a rug. I’ll take the munchkin, you bring the burgers and Mom, yeah?”

“Sure.”

“See you at home, babe.” He leaned down to kiss me, light and quick. “Love you.”

I planned on spending a lifetime with this man and never getting tired of hearing that. “Love you too.”

Behind me, I heard a familiar bellow. “I’m done!”

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