Parking the car, a couple of feet away from the cabin, Harris gets out, dressed in the same fucking suit that Michaels always insisted that I wear and Harris eyes widen when they land on us. I know what we must look like. Barefoot. A short beard on my face and Meadow’s hair isn’t combed and her legs are naked.
We look feral.
And I’m guessing Harris takes the hint but despite that he clears his throat, straightening. “Mr. Michaels sent me. He and Mrs. Michaels are back from Iowa.” His eyes go to mine. “Your services are needed, Slade.”
Not once does he glance at Meadow and I feel her hand turn light as a feather in my palm so I clasp it harder.
“Not going,” I say in a firm tone. “I’m staying here. So is the girl.”
Harris doesn’t protest. Instead he simply lowers his head, murmuring, “Very well.” He quickly gets into the car, driving off and I turn to look at Meadow. Her head is bent, like she doesn’t want to meet my gaze but I never want her to hide from me, murmuring,
“Look at me.”
She does and her eyes shimmer with forced back tears. “He only asked for you.” She swallows, “Do you think that maybe my parents wanted me to come back too even if Harris didn’t say it? Do you think that maybe they care deep down even if they don’t show it?”
No, I don’t. I still remember what her father told me that time on the phone and my fists clench. I will never tell Meadow about it because I don’t want to be responsible for ever putting a hurt look on her face.
“Yeah, I do,” I lie and the corners of her lips twitch slightly and I know she’s comforted. But I still want to shoot a bullet between her parent’s eyes, when she lets me hug her.
“Thanks,” she whispers, “deep down, right?” She pauses for a second before adding, “Dom, do you remember when I ran from you into the woods?”
I nod because how can I forget when she nearly gave me a heart attack. Caused my gaze to go red when she ran and I felt like a hunter chasing her through those woods, terrified she’d get away. Terrified she’d find her way to the city and fall back into her old patterns. And fuck, I know I act like I’m allergic to the city but in a way I am.
In the city, she and I never could have been what we are now. Too many obstacles would have blocked us. Out here those obstacles melted away, stripping us to our core, revealing our basic needs and our most basic one is that we need each other.
“It wasn’t because I didn’t want you,” Meadow continues. “It’s because I know I have to find Melody. I have to reunite with my sister.”
Stroking her over the head, I promise, “We’ll find her. I’ll track her down for you, you have my word.”
Her eyes glimmer and they are still a spunky grey but she is more docile now, more mine. “Did I tell you that I love you?”
“Maybe. Can’t remember. Say it again.”
Shaking her head in amusement, she whispers, “I love you, Dom.”
“Love you too, sweetheart. And I’ll never stop.” Wouldn’t be able to, even if I wanted to. Before Meadow, I thought the wild was a part of me. What I didn’t know was that it was just holding space, filling a void. A void that Meadow now fills.
“Say that again,” she says, her body so close to mine that it feels like I am absorbing her, absorbing her the way the rich earth drinks in a much longed for rainfall.
“I’ll never stop.”
She smiles at me, making my heart ache from adoration and she purrs, “I know.”
Epilogue
Meadow-Three years later
“No honestly, we have to hurry back,” I laugh, “we’re being rude.”
“Don’t give a fuck,” Dom groans, pulling me in for another kiss under the waterfall, “I love having you all to myself.”
Giggling, I stab my fingers into his hair, moaning into his mouth before I twist out of his grasp. My husband is impossible sometimes and living out here in the wild has only made him more, well...wild.
Spurring Dom on, because we can’t be late, I jump up on his back, placing a kiss on his neck and we walk back all the way to cabin. The sun is slowly setting, making this place look more beautiful than the first time I saw it and every day that I wake up, it takes my breath away.
Our cabin peeks through the trees and a couple of years ago, Dom added to it and its now bigger in size than it was and we painted it in a bright, burgundy color. We never did go back to the city. We stayed here, even though Dom still works as a bodyguard (not to my father) but he’s only away for a couple of months of the year.
Mostly he’s just a mountain man now and I’m his mountain woman. Proud of it too.