Page 109 of See It Through
Her smile came on slowly, curving the corners of her mouth then spreading to her cheeks and lighting up her eyes. “I’m happy to be doing this with you.”
My heart thumped, and I pulled her closer, curling my arm around her shoulders. “Ah, Hannah-girl, how I love you,” I crooned. “More and more every day.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh yeah.”
It’d been close. If Henry hadn’t bypassed the fire to check on Hannah, I would’ve lost her. That weighed on me, and it would for a long time. How could it not?
Hannah hopped up and reached for my hand. “Come on. Soon, it’s going to be too cold to do this. It’s our last chance until summer.”
I let her lead me to the creek, walking straight into the burbling water. We waded out to the middle, jeans rolled up to our knees. There we stopped, rocks beneath our bare feet. The cold, lapping stream hitting our calves. I took her by the waist and pulled her flush with me, her toes overlapping mine.
A smile broke free as I looked at her, the wind lifting her hair, sun glinting off her rosy cheeks, her chin quivering.
“I’m thinking we’re too late, Han. There are fucking ice cubes floating past us.”
She laughed. “What do you mean? It’s so balmy.”
“You lie, sweetheart. But if you wanna stay in here, I’ll stay with you.”
She poked my chest. “You’ve gotten weak. Don’t worry; one Wyoming winter will toughen you right back up.”
“You might be right about that.”
She trailed her fingertip along the outer corner of my eye. “When you smile, you get these gorgeous lines that look like starbursts. I love your starburst smiles, Remington.” She touched her lips to mine. “I’m ready to move back to the house. Are you?”
Since the night of the fire, we’d been staying at Hannah’s apartment. Along with rebuilding the garage, work had been done inside the house too. I hadn’t been sure Hannah would ever want to step foot in there again, but I’d needed to make certain there was no evidence of the violence that had taken place if she did.
Elena and Lily had put themselves in charge of redoing the bedrooms, moving our bed and belongings to the primary bedroom that had once been my father’s. The fact of the matter was, even if Hannah was okay sleeping in the room where Christine had intended on ending her life, I never would be.
“I go where you go, Hannah. I know you love the house—”
She sucked in a breath. “I’m ready. I’m not letting one person take away the place that’s always felt like home to me. She doesn’t get that.” She flattened her palm on my chest, right over my heart. “You had bad memories there, but we rewrote them together. We’ll do the same now and make so many new ones the bad ones will be specks in our history. That house, that land, it’s where we belong.”
I kissed her forehead and stroked her silky, wind-whipped hair. “Like I said, I go wherever you go. If you think you’ll feel safe, I’m more than willing to move back to the house.”
“It’s over, Rem.” Her lashes brushed her cheeks as she exhaled a soft breath. “Those people will never touch us again.”
The same night of the fire, the police had taken Cleve Jones into custody, and he’d sung like a canary. According to him, Christine had been the one who’d left the notes and forced him to slash Hannah’s tires. He’d said she’d been behind the wheel when the truck had jumped the curb, almost hitting us. He claimed not to have known his wife had intended to kill Hannah, but we’d never know how true that was.
He wouldn’t see the inside of a jail cell, but he’d left us alone. Last weekend, we’d gone grocery shopping and Cleve had turned down the aisle we were browsing. One look at us, and he wheeled around and went the other way. Legally, he’d had to, given the protective order Hannah had been granted against him.
There wasn’t a lot of good about Cleve, but he was pretty much all bluster and very little bravery. I had a feeling he would do a lot to keep out of jail, and that meant staying far, far away from Hannah. Rumor had it his landlord was evicting him and he’d be moving to Utah to live with his brother.
Brady and Teller hadn’t been so lucky. They’d been picked up outside a diner in Idaho and both were in jail, awaiting trial. Hannah would have to face that, but for now, it wasn’t anything we were worrying about.
Hannah was safe, and we were together. We would see the rest of it through when it came time to face it.
“Then we’ll move back to the house.”
She shot me the sweetest grin. “And fix up the stables so we can get a few horses.”
“I thought we were going to steal some from the ranch. I’m taking a liking to Dynamite over there.”
“That’s an option. I think I could sweet-talk my dad and Caleb into almost anything right now. I’ve got to milk the almost-dying-twice thing for all it's worth.”
“Hannah,” I sighed, resting my forehead on hers, “I’m not ready to make jokes about that yet. Maybe not ever.”