Page 90 of No More Hiding

He laughed. “Very good.”

“Where do we go from here?” she asked.

“I know where I’d like to go. I’d like to rewind time and stop myself from doing what I did.”

Again, that told her more than anything. “But we can’t rewind time. We’ve got to walk through the next seconds. Minutes. Years. We can do it together, or separately.”

“I know my answer to that,” he said. “What is yours?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have the answer I’m hoping you do,” she said.

“Together,” he said.

“Then together it will be,” she said. “Unless you need to get to work, it’s time for you to know what you want about me.”

“I know enough,” he said. “I know what I need to. I love Vivian Getman. I love the woman standing in front of me. Nothing else matters. Nothing exists.”

She started to cry. “For a man who had a problem talking, you know the right things to say at the right time.”

“It’s good to know I could figure this out on my own for once,” he said. “Come here.”

She went into his arms and let herself be held. “I love you, Brent. That is the most important thing right now. We’ll get through the rest.”

“I love you too. We’ll get there because we want it.”

Sammie started to jump on them. She moved away from Brent and pet Sammie. “And I want you too. You’re a team.”

“And we’re a family,” Brent said.

“Yes, we are.”

Epilogue

Six months later

“I can’t believeyou wanted to have lunch here today,” Brent said, shaking his head. Next weekend was the Fourth of July holiday and they were going to have a picnic with his family.

It’d been months since they both discovered the other's secret and neither had talked about it since. It was a silent agreement they didn’t know information even if they did.

It didn’t change what they felt for each other. It didn’t change who they were today at this time.

He had what he wanted in life and he was going to make sure he didn’t lose it.

“Listen. You’re the one who didn’t know there was an alpaca farm here. I think after more than a year you don’t know where half the things are or that they exist.”

“Nope,” he said. “And I’m fine with that. I hear enough about things through you from your work and your clients. I don’t have to experience it though.”

Of course she had no idea today’s experience was going to be something neither of them would ever forget.

“We can go pet them first if you want,” Vivian said. “They’ve got one here called Chewpaca.”

He laughed. “That’s original.”

“Just like Paradise Place is unique too,” she said. “A place we both came to start over and luckily found each other.”

“We did,” he agreed. They got close enough to the fence, saw a few alpacas come over. He reached his hand out to pet one. They seemed tame enough for him, though they weren’t as cute and cuddly as many would say. Not in his eyes.

Vivian was oohing and ahhing over it. “They’ve got a shop here with clothing made from their fleece. I think we might need to go check it out.”