“You know, the head’s up you gave Faye about Ma set her up to deal with that. You at my side when that shit went down with Faye and what you did with Dad –”

“Brother, we don’t discuss that shit.”

“We don’t. Also don’t care. In those instances, you gotta know you got my gratitude.”

“I already know it, Chace.”

“Well, give me somethin’, man, and accept it anyway.”

“You’ve had my back a lot of times,” Deck reminded him.

“Not one where someone you loved was buried alive.”

“This is true,” Deck muttered.

“So just give me this and accept my gratitude.”

Deck was silent.

Then he whispered, “Do anything for you, man.”

“I know,” Chace whispered back.

“You know why.”

“I do.”

“Losin’ her was the worst thing to happen to me.”

Chace pulled in breath. Deck didn’t bring her up. Ever. She wasn’t a ghost. She wasn’t a memory. As far as Deck was concerned, she didn’t exist.

Then, still whispering, he said, “I know.”

“Your ending was a fuckuva lot better than mine.”

“I know, Deck.”

“You kept me from flyin’ apart.”

Chace didn’t reply.

“Do anything for you,” Deck whispered.

“Then give me this,” Chace pushed. “Move past her. She’s gone. Quit dickin’ around. Find what I got, Deck. You know how it feels. Find it again.”

Deck was silent.

Then he muttered, “We’ll see what Denver brings.”

Chace knew that was as good as it was going to get so he let it alone.

Chace took a drag from his beer and Deck did the same.

They stared at the plain in silence.

Deck broke it. “Happy for you, brother.”

“Not as happy as me.”

“No,” Deck agreed. “And that’s precisely why I’m happy.”

Chace grinned at his beer bottle before he took another drag.

Then he sat with his best friend in silence, contemplating what the next day would bring and beyond that, the island adventure that his soon-to-be wife didn’t know she was getting for her honeymoon.

Which meant he sat beside his best friend in silence and he did it still grinning.

* * *

Faye

The next afternoon, Chace and Faye’s wedding reception

It was a moment alone.

A moment after dinner, my first dance with Chace, dancing to (of course) Ella Mae singing “Holding out for a Hero”. A moment after my dance with my Dad and Chace’s with Valerie. A moment after we cut the enormous, ornate but awesome cake, that moment not being one where we shoved it in each other’s faces but we did lick the frosting off each other’s fingers to hoots and catcalls we barely heard. After that moment Chace kissed me and he’d done it deeply. And after that moment he’d whispered, “Cake. Better than bubblemint.” Which made me all melty as well as slightly turned on.

I was sitting by myself and watching Ty and Lexie dancing, Ty having one arm around his again pregnant wife, his other arm holding his daughter and they were close, grinning at each other and whispering while sweet, pretty Ella pulled at her Mom’s hair.

My eyes moved to Bubba dancing close with Krystal. Then they moved to Tate doing the same with Laurie, then they moved to my sister doing the same with Boyd and Max doing the same with Nina. And then they moved to Twyla doing the same with her partner Cindy. Not done, my eyes glided through Mom and Dad, Valerie and Trane, Sunny and Shambles, Wood and Maggie and Sam Sterling and his woman Jada all doing the same thing.

Last, they moved to Chace who was holding both of Becky’s hands and her feet were on top of his feet, she was arched back, grinning up at him and he had his neck bent and he was grinning down at her in her little bridesmaid gown.

Yeah, Chace needed a princess.

Or, another one.

My gaze shifted from my husband…

My husband.

At that thought, I smiled a small smile to myself as my eyes took in friends and family including my brother Jude chatting up Amber, one of the waitresses at Bubba’s and Deck, laughing with Jim-Billy, Stoney and Wings. Finally, they lighted on Miah looking like he was getting into trouble with Robbie and Jarot. Robbie was crawling under a table, Miah stooping to do the same while Jarot appeared to be playing look out.

All was well in my world.

Very well.

Fraking brilliant.

My body started when two chairs were dragged up to either side of me. I looked up and to my right to see Ally moving in to sit on that side then I looked to the left to see the short man with narrow shoulders, a big belly, thinning light brown hair and a sweet smile taking the seat there.

Benji.

The second he settled, my body drooped to the side, hit his and his arm slid around me.

“So glad you came,” I muttered and looked to Ally. “Both of you.”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Ally muttered.

“Me either,” Benji also muttered.

My eyes went to Benji. “It was a long way for you.”

His eyes caught mine. “Better than a TV show. Better than a book. Because it’s real. Once in a lifetime. So no way I’d miss it. I’d beam to the moon to see you this happy.”

“Totally,” Ally muttered and I felt her hand find mine, wrap around and squeeze.

I squeezed back.

Then my gaze went to the dance floor again and I sighed.

“Coming back for Comic-Con. Now that the seal has been broken and we all know each other as in know each other, expect you and Chace to meet me there,” Benji told me and my mind filled with thoughts of Chace at a Comic-Con.

Because it did, I burst out laughing.

Chace’s eyes came right to me and seeing the look on his face, openly happy, I sighed again but this time on the inside.

I grinned at him but murmured, “I’m not sure that’ll ever happen.”

“I am,” Ally replied and I tore my eyes away from my husband…

My husband.

I looked to her. “No way.”

Ally looked to me. “That man would do anything for you. Even commune with a bunch of geeks.”

Well, I figured she would know. Since she had one like mine.

I grinned at her.

The song changed to Norah Jones’s “Come Away with Me” and I watched Dad claim Becky and Chace’s gaze come to me.

Then he lifted a hand and crooked a finger.

“Hot,” Ally muttered then, “Righteous.”

“I’m being summoned,” I told them something they couldn’t miss.

“Go, darling,” Benji encouraged, his arm giving me a squeeze.

I tossed them both a smile, got up and walked across the grass to the dance floor. I was two feet away when Chace leaned down, grabbed my hand, guided me up and pulled me immediately into his arms. Close. Tight. My arms wrapped around his shoulders and he started us swaying.

I didn’t even hear the song. I just felt Chace.

My husband.

“Havin’ a good day?” he murmured into the hair on the side of my head where his jaw was resting.

“The best. You?”

His arms gave me a squeeze. “Yeah, baby.”

He meant that.

He meant it deeply.

I pressed closer.

“Have I told you I love you today?” I asked.

“Fifteen times,” he answered and my head went slightly back so his tipped down so he could look at me.

“You counted?”

“Never miss you sayin’ those words, Faye.”

My heart melted.

Then I whispered, “Here’s sixteen. I love you Detective Keaton.”

He grinned and his grinning lips came to mine before he whispered back, “Love you too, Mrs. Keaton.”

I smiled against his mouth but didn’t finish that action since my husband… my husband… kissed me.

* * *

Six years later

“I’m supposed to talk about my class’s future. I’m supposed to reminisce about our past. I’m not going to do either. I know no one is going to remember this speech except me. So I’m going to use it as the opportunity to say what I’ve needed to say for a long time.”

My shoulder in Chace’s armpit, his arm around me, our eldest son in his seat at my side, our second eldest boy fidgeting in his seat at Chace’s, our toddler daughter sleeping curled up in her Daddy’s lap, my eyes were trained across the auditorium to Miah giving his Valedictorian speech.

“Most everyone here knows what happened to me and my sister. A lot of you even know a number of good people in a town called Carnal that’s a state away looked out for us. What you don’t know is that when I was alone and scared and hungry and cold, two of those people went out of their way to save me.”

Chace’s back went straight at the same time as mine.

Miah kept talking.

“They didn’t know a thing about me. They didn’t know what happened to me or just how bad it was. They didn’t know what happened to my sister. But they didn’t care. They just knew something was wrong so they did something about it. They bought me food and a sleeping bag and books to read and wrote me notes, telling me about them, the only human connection I had for three years that was good and pure and right. After they started doing that, for the first time in three years, even though I was sleeping in a shed in the forest in the winter cold, I went to sleep not scared. I went to sleep knowing someone was looking out for me. I went to sleep for the first time in a long time knowing that there was good in the world. Weeks later, after I’d again tried to save my sister, I was injured and alone, I lay in that shed in that sleeping bag, but even as the days passed, I knew they wouldn’t give up. I knew they would find me. And they did.”

My lips started trembling as tears welled up quickly and slid out of my eyes.

“My mother was murdered,” Miah continued and a deep hush stole through the already silent crowd. “My sister and I kidnapped and confined. But even with that, when they came into my life, I learned a lesson that was different than the one I’d been learning for three years. That this world was infested with dark and it can drag you in, hold you down and make you believe that’s all there is. But they taught me with the dark comes light and light is stronger and more powerful because it never gives up. That there were good people in this world who sense wrong being done and set about making it right. They didn’t talk about it. They didn’t think about it. They did it. It cost them time and money and emotion. All of this for a kid they did not know. But they still did it. So if there’s anything I want my fellow graduates to take away from today, from this speech, as they move on in their lives, learning to be adults, learning to fit into this world, no matter what they decide to do, who they decide to be, they should endeavor to be good and pure and right. They should be the kind of people who sense wrong being done and set about making it right. Not talk about it or think about it but do it. Because the wrong being done can be very wrong. It can destroy lives. It can eat away happiness in a way that it will never come back. But if it’s stopped and light shines through the dark, it could end in a kid who lost everything but his sister, had no power, was terrified but, years later, stands in front of a room full of people making a Valedictorian speech.”

Miah’s red, wet gaze came to Chace and me.

“I stand here because of you, my Aslan, my Faye, my protectors and I make the promise that what you gave me, what you taught me, I will live those lessons. I cannot repay you for what you gave me. That’s all I can do. All I can do is learn the lesson you taught me and go forward in my life good and pure and right.” His voice dipped to a whisper in the microphone and he finished, “Thank you.”

Through watery eyes, I watched Miah duck his head and move away from the podium.

I was quietly blubbering.

The auditorium was on their feet.

Chace’s arm tightened around my shoulders, I heard him clear his throat but I felt a little arm slide around my belly so I looked down at my son, Jacob.

“Mommy, who’s Miah talkin’ about?”

I lifted my hand to his cheek, looked into my husband’s beautiful eyes in my son’s beloved face and whispered, “Your Daddy and me.”

Jake looked to his Dad then the podium and back at me.

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, baby,” I was still whispering. “Absolutely fine.”

And I absolutely was.

Because I knew, without a doubt, finally, that Miah was.

* * *

Chace