Falling for Hope (10 page)

“To the cabin.
 
And to vacations.
 
And to friendship,” said Chris with a grin, raising her stick and
her wiener dog.

“Are you actually toasting with a
hot dog?” asked Irene, chuckling.
 

“What more noble thing could I
possibly toast with?” Chris shot back.

“Well, to friendship,” said
Lindsey, raising her hot dog stick with a huge grin.

“And to love, in all its forms,”
said Hope, glancing sidelong at Amy as she pulled the woman closer, kissing her
gently.

It was the oddest toast in the
world.
 
But also the tastiest.

---

“I think a good name for her is
Patches,” said Hope firmly, setting the kitten down onto her lap.
 

Patches, the calico kitten, stared
up at the two women and blinked slowly, beginning to purr.

“Patches it is.
 
She seems to like it,” said Amy with a
smile, patting the kitten on the head before hoisting her last bag up and onto
her shoulder.
 
“Are you ready?”

“Yeah…
 
This is always the hardest part,” muttered Hope, standing,
holding the kitten to her chest.
 

The cabin was already empty, with
the rest of the women gathered in the parking lot, beginning the long litany of
goodbyes and packing into their various cars, trucks and Jeeps their last
suitcases, coolers and other camping paraphernalia of which, as was tradition,
they’d used only about one-third.
 
Amy
and Hope could hear laughter and bright voices drifting through the open door.
 

“Who knows what’ll change in a
year?” asked Hope, then, glancing at Amy with a sigh.
 
“Last year…”
 
Her voice
trailed off, but Amy knew what she’d meant to say: Who could have known that
Melissa would pass away?

“But who can know anything?” asked
Amy, putting her arms around Hope.
 
“I
think we all just do the best we can with what we’re given.
 
And we love as much as we can with the time
we have,” she murmured, locking eyes with the taller woman before her.

Hope smiled her easy smile,
and—despite the
mew
of protest from the newly named Patches—she leaned
down and kissed Amy.

“So let’s love,” said Hope, weaving
her fingers through Amy’s while cradling the kitten with her other hand.
 

Arm in arm, Hope and Amy left the
cabin as the sunlight filtered through the trees, as the birds sang, and as a
beautiful future of possibilities opened up.

For everyone.

The End

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I live in the
northeast on a small farm with a few cats and dogs, my saintly wife, and more
weeds in the garden than anyone should ever have to tackle.
 
I have two great loves:
 
my wife and writing, and I’m so grateful to
be able to marry the two in the stories I write, about two women who have a
connection, who fall deeply in love with one another.
 

I wrote the Hope
stories during a transitional period in my life, and I fell in love with the
characters as I was writing them.
 
They’re not perfect, but that’s what makes us all human.
 
Thank you so much for coming along this
journey with me, and reading these stories!

I’d love to hear
from you!
 
Send me an email at
[email protected]
 
You can also visit my site at
http://natalievivien.wordpress.com

I would appreciate,
so much, if you would take a minute or two to leave a review on
Falling for
Hope
, and thank you so much for reading it!
 
Please look out for my other releases, coming soon!
 
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