Heading East (Part 2 of 2) (The True North Series) (19 page)

“I remember,” I said softly.

“But now I feel like a different person. I mean, I still have my moments of doubt—obviously—and I still get riled up way too easily. But I think the biggest difference is that I’m actually starting to believe that I can do this, that I can really live in New York and
be
a designer,” she said. “And you know the craziest part?”

“What?”

“That I’m starting to think I could belong in your world.” I opened my mouth to speak when she said, “No, I take that back.” She plucked the ring from my fingers and held it up between us, a hopeful smile on her face. “Let’s create our own world, one where we can both belong.”

I leaned forward until our foreheads touched and kissed her tenderly. “I’d like nothing more.”

EPILOGUE

WEST

Seven months later…

My heart was pounding when the white Jeep turned the corner and parked. All I could see was Kat’s face through the windshield, but that was enough to settle the nerves in my stomach. She was here. All was well.

I walked over in my black Armani suit and opened the door for her. She took my outstretched hand and climbed out, lifting the hem of her dress with care. Then she stood before me and smiled. “Hi,” she said and knocked the breath out of my lungs.

There, standing in the Alaskan sunshine, was Kat looking like a snow goddess in a long white dress, her hair pulled back into an elegant twisty kind of knot behind her neck, and holding a bouquet of white roses and tiny blue flowers.

“Is it too much?” she asked, pulling at the deep
vee neckline of the dress.

I stayed her hand, knowing it was nerves talking and not insecurity. “We’ve had this conversation before,” I said, my gaze traveling down the sleeveless dress to the slice of exposed skin at her chest, then to the long skirt that hugged her curves and ended in a pool of fabric at her feet. It was understated and beautiful, a worthy dress for the woman wearing it. “You look perfect.”

She smiled at me, her blue eyes taking me in. “You don’t look so bad yourself.” She plucked a blue flower from her bouquet and slipped it through the buttonhole on my lapel. “It’s a forget-me-not.”

I took her hand and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Never.”

The ceremony was a simple affair held in an open green field outside of Ayashe
with the snow-capped Chugach mountain ranges as our backdrop. Our guests stood around us in a semi-circle while Kat and I exchanged our vows, promising to love each other through sickness and health, for richer or poorer, until our dying days.

Before the wedding
officiant could conclude the ceremony, I took hold of Kat’s hands and said, “I know you didn’t want long winded vows, but there’s something I must say.”

She looked up at
me, her eyes already glistening with unshed tears, and took a deep, ragged breath.

“Kat, before we met, I was wandering around—literally lost at times—looking for direction in my life. And then you came along and you saved me in so many ways. You gave me the courage to go for my dreams. You gave me hope that a man is more than his past.”

I took a step closer and cradled her face in my hands, my chest tight with emotion. “I’m not lost anymore. I got my bearings the moment I met you and no matter where I go, my feet will always find a way to make it back to you. That’s because you’re my magnetic north and I was always and will always be moving towards you.”

She brought her hands up to cover my own and leaned forward, bringing our lips together.

From a faraway place I heard the officiant declaring us husband and wife and heard the cheering of our family and friends, but nothing could pull me from this moment as I kissed my wife out in this open field, the grass green below us and the sky a brilliant blue above. Right then, it was just Kat and me in our own world, where we both truly belonged.

~

KAT

“Congratulations, my dear,” Angelina Kohl said, giving me a warm embrace. “I can’t believe I have a daughter-in-law!”

I laughed, holding on a few seconds longer.

She pulled back, her eyes already brimming with tears. “My hope is that, one day, you’ll come to see me as a mother.”

If I wasn’t already emotional from the ceremony, that sentiment pushed me right over the edge. The tears I’d managed to hold back, even after West’s speech, surged out of my eyes and raced down my cheeks.

Angelina was quick with the tissues, dabbing at my face. “Oh, dear,” she said, wiping at her own cheeks. “Seems we’ll both need a touch-up before they introduce you two.”

I hugged her again, laughing despite the tears, my heart fit to burst.

“Hey, why are you making my bride cry?”
West asked, giving his mother a kiss on the cheek.

Angelina swiped under her eyes one last time. “Just some girl talk. I’ll see you two later,” she said before disappearing inside the white fabric tent.

The emcee introduced us simply as “Kat and Luke” as we walked
in and faced the crowd. My heart clamped at the sight of so many people, but this time it wasn’t panic that made it hard to breathe but elation. All of these people—family and friends alike, from Alaska and New York—seemed genuinely happy to be here, sharing in our day. Two years ago I thought only my dad cared about my wellbeing, and now here we were, surrounded by people.

When The Looters began to play a song on the small stage, Luke led me to the middle of the open space in the center of the room and put his hands around my waist. I wound my arms around his neck, shaking my head as we began to sway.

“What?” he asked, those dark eyebrows drawn together.

“This can’t be real,” I said, looking around. Lights were strung across the ceiling of the canopy and white tables and chairs were set directly onto the grass. On each table sat a floral centerpiece made up of white roses and forget-me-nots and various
other flowers that were in season. It was just the right amount of rustic and romance. “It’s all too perfect. I’m a little worried that I’ll wake up tomorrow in my old room and realize this was all a dream.”

Luke grinned, the dimple showing on his cheek. He held my chin between his fingers and said, “Close your eyes.” I tilted my head back and did as he asked, trusting him with everything, no longer afraid he’d do me wrong.

I felt him press a soft kiss on each eyelid then his voice was right by my ear, husky and deep. “Then let’s keep dreaming and never wake up.”

After we ate, Luke and I made our way around the room, thanking people for attending.

“So are you a big time designer now?” was one of the most commonly asked questions from our guests.

“Not quite,” I replied. “But I am working for a small design house as a junior designer.”

Amanda Blake had called me a few days after my show and had told me about the opening at Jupiter Fashion, saying she had put in a good word for me with the owner. After sending in my portfolio they had called me in for an interview, and the rest, as they say, was history.

“And Luke, are you constantly touring and selling millions of albums?”

“Not quite,”
he said with a smile. “I’m still working for Kohl Media and doing music on the side.” He had told me once that performing was an exhilarating experience but had dark, seductive qualities that he no longer enjoyed.

“I’ll always write and perform music,” he said. “But I don’t know if touring and promoting is the life for me. There are far more important things,” he
added, squeezing my waist.

Eventually we came up to a table full of Ayashe townsfolk, half of whom I had only met in passing but was nevertheless glad to see.

“My bum leg is throbbing today,” said an old woman I recognized from The Diner.

Her husband nodded beside her. “And I’ve been stopped up for two days. You
know what that means.”

I nodded, trying my best to keep from bursting into laughter.

“What was that about?” West asked as we walked away.

“Nothing,” I said, biting down my smile. “Just… don’t ever talk about your ass timetable, okay?”

“My what?”

I let out the lau
gh I’d been holding back while West just shook his head with a bewildered smile on his face.

“I’m so proud of you, Katie-bug,” Dad said during the father and daughter dance, hugging me close. “Of the woman you’ve become.”

“You mean you didn’t like me before?” I asked in mock anger.

“Oh, I did,” he said with a chuckle. “But you have to agree, you were difficult.”

I grinned. “To put it mildly.”

“I’m just glad you were brave enough to open up and let someone in,” he said. “I know it couldn’t have been easy.”

I opened my mouth to respond when, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a person ambling towards us.

“May I have this dance?” Dale Hokkeland said, looking like he’d showered and changed his clothes, but still smelling like alcohol. He bent over and did a flourish with his hand, then stumbled before regaining his balance.

Dad glanced at me and I gave a nod. “Sure, why not.”

“So you really did it,” Dale said as he put one hand on my waist and held one up to the side. “Ya got hitched.”

“I sure did,” I said.

“You still going to go around punching people and threatening to shoot them if they wander onto your property in the middle of the night?”

“Probably.”

He let out a crooked, toothy grin. “Still a wildcat through and through.” He patted my shoulder when he saw West taking long strides toward us. “Ah, here’s the lion tamer himself. May God bless his brave soul.”

West
gave me a questioning look before taking Dale’s place. “Why does it feel like I never know what these people are saying?” he asked. “It’s like Ayashe has its own language.”

I laughed. “
Stay a little bit longer and you’ll get it too.”

The party lasted into the night, the band playing songs that brought people out onto the dance floor, some going barefoot on the grass as they jumped and danced around.

I noticed Decker
having a good time with his date; he caught my eye and cast a wink in my direction. Franny and Drew, too, danced together, seemingly in their own little world.

Needing a moment of peace, I took hold of Luke’s hand and dragged him to the edge of the tent and past the cloth walls. We walked a little ways in the dark field until the music was barely a muffled sound.

“Wow,” Luke said, turning in a circle as he took in the view. We stood out in that open field, darkness all around us, the mountains a dark jagged silhouette in the distance and the moon a muted orb in the inky sky. “It’s beautiful out here.”

I
nodded, my eyes fixed firmly on his handsome face, then shivered. “The temperature has dropped though,” I said. “Winter is almost here.”

He took off his jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders, covering me in his heat.

“You’re such a gentleman,” I said, pulling the jacket tighter around me.

“But you are no lady,” he said, taking my face in his big, warm hands. “You are a woman, a fighter, a wild animal, a force of nature.”

“Are you talking about me or a National Geographic documentary?” I asked with a grin. It was then I noticed puffs tiny drifting down from the sky, slowly at first then falling faster, surrounding us in white.

He looked around. “It’s snowing. In August,” he said, throwing his head back and catching some flakes with his tongue. He turned back to me, his entire face lit up. “You know, they say the Eskimos have hundreds of words for snow.”

“I had heard that,” I said, brushing snowflakes from his nose.

“I’m afraid that, despite all my pretty words and fancy learning, I have only one word to describe this blissful moment with you.”

I looked up at him, feeling the word even if it didn’t yet have a name. “What’s that?”

He pulled me against him and kissed me, long and tender. “Heaven,” he whispered against my lips. “We’re in heaven.”

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my husband and daughters: thank you once again for your patience and understanding. I know it’s not easy living with a moody writer sometimes.

To my beta readers: Beth, Lara, Kerry, Shannon, Gillian, and Liza. Thank you, ladies!

Thank you to my editor, Mary at Clean Leaf Editing. You continue to amaze me.

And for the readers: Storytelling is my passion, reading is yours. Thank you for once again meeting with me in that magical place where fiction supersedes reality.

Visit
June Gray’s Blog
for more information on upcoming projects, news, and short stories.