Wherever It Leads(103)

“Geez, Mom. You weren’t kidding,” I laugh, taking a quick inventory of the dishes. “Did you make everything you have a recipe for?”

“Just about,” she laughs, whirling around and coming towards me. She takes a stutter step when she sees Fenton, but recovers quickly, pulling me in for a quick hug. “How are you, sweetheart?”

“Good,” I say. “This is Fenton. Fent, this is my mother.”

Mom wipes her hands on her apron and starts to stick her hand out to shake, then tosses it in the air and brings him into a hug. He looks at me over her head, patting her awkwardly on the back.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she says, her eyes brimming with tears. “I mean that. I want to thank you—”

“Ah, Mrs. Calloway—”

“Don’t you dare call me that!” she grins. “Call me Mom or Andrea or something but there will be no formalities. You are family.”

His boyish smile slips across his face as he looks at my mother. My heart bursts with happiness, all of my people together. Finally.

“Andrea,” Fenton tries again, this time with a smile, “it’s not necessary to thank me for anything.”

“The hell it isn’t!” my father booms, rounding the corner. He extends a hand and Fenton takes it. “We can never thank you enough for what you’ve done.”

“I . . .”

“A damn hero. That’s what you are,” my father boasts, seeing me for the first time. “Hi, Brynne Girl.”

“Hi, Daddy,” I blush.

“Your brother filled us in.” He looks back to Fenton. “And I couldn’t be more proud to welcome you into our family.”

“What?” Fenton’s eyes go wide and he looks at me.

“Daddy, we’re just seeing each other. We didn’t get married overnight!”

“And I know what kind of girl you are and I know what kind of man he is,” he says, his hand going around my mother’s waist in a move that now means more to me because I know what that feels like, what it means. “So I know there’s no way he’ll let you go and vice versa. It’s a matter of time.”

“Well, let’s have a summer wedding,” Presley exclaims, coming in from the back porch, Brady on her heels. “Because the summery dresses are prettier as bridesmaid gowns.”

“Will you shut up?” I laugh.

Brady grins a shit-eating grin. “How are you, Fenton?”

“Good, my man.” He shakes my brother’s hand, his posture relaxing tenfold. “How ya feel?”

“Not bad. Kinda sore where the AK hit me in the face, but otherwise, I’m all right. How are you? I heard about Mandla. I’m sorry. Truly.”

“Don’t be,” Fenton says, eyeing me out of the corner of his eye. “I think everything’s going to work out just fine. Just the way it should. You know, like we discussed.”

“With the rudo,” Brady grins, looking at me.

“I’m starving,” Presley whines to my mother, saving me from embarrassment, and heading into the kitchen. “Can I have a taste of that artichoke stuff we made earlier?”

“Absolutely, doll.”

We all trickle into the kitchen, my father behind me and Fenton and Brady taking up the rear. They’re talking like old friends, the ease in the room better than I ever imagined. I exchange a small smile with my mother who I know feels the same thing.

“The world works in mysterious ways, doesn’t it?” Mom whispers, handing a plate to Pres.

I watch my father, brother, and my love discuss some baseball statistic, filling Brady in on the homerun race. My cup overflows.

“It sure does, Mom. It sure does.”





Fenton





2 weeks later


The water ripples, swirls, trickles past the boat as we drift in a nameless harbor in a nameless country. I’m sure they have names. I’m even more sure Ivan, the captain, told me what they were . . . and I’m one-hundred percent confident that I don’t give a damn what they are.

The cool drink, some fruity concoction that tastes like rum and strawberries that Brynne proudly whipped up in the galley, melts in my hand. The sun warms my skin, an occasional bird calling out the only sound other than some pop band my girl has playing over the speakers. All in all, it’s perfect. And it would be perfect without the drink, without the bird, without the music. It would be beautiful without any of it, as long as Brynne was around.

She rearranged my life. I don’t know how, but that twinkle in her eye I saw the first time I saw her lock screen was a calling to my soul and I didn’t even know it. She changed everything, making things clear, bringing things full circle.

Someone told me once that love blurs things and I get that now. It makes things that were once important not so much anymore. It makes things that might’ve been on the back burner now the most important thing in the world. It reinvigorates you, puts passion back into your work. It refills your tank, pours fuel into your reserves and with it, you realize how many holes you had draining it.

She’s that for me.

Brynne Calloway is the love of my life.

She comes around the corner, a drink matching mine in her hand, a tiny pink bikini tied around her. It covers basically nothing and I know she’s wearing it just to rile me up. It works.