Page 93 of Dead Man's Alibi

“I’m glad you found me, dragged me home.It’s where I was always meant to be.”

“I don’t think I ever believed in meant-to-bes,” she said, her dark eyes searching his face.Her whole expression beaming.Happy.“But I do now.”

*

The Bennet Ranch

Aly bustled aroundthe kitchen.She’d made a cake, which was the only thing Sam and Nate had allowed her to do.No dinner.Nothing fancy.Just a cake.

She might have gone all out on the cake, but who could blame her?

She stepped back and studied it.Four layers for seven people?Overkill.All the decorative touches she’d added and the little couple figurine she’d found at a thrift store thatalmostresembled Sam and Nate?Maybe overkill, but also adorable.

And they were going to take pictures, whether they liked it or not.Someday, they would appreciate her forcing them.

Someday.Nate and Sam married.Her and Landon having a baby.Jill and Cal sniffing around each other, even if nothing had happened in that department yet… it all left Aly feeling overwhelmed.

She blamed her filling eyes on hormones and tried to wipe them away before Landon came to check on her and got concerned.

But it was Sam who appeared first.

She wrinkled her nose at Aly.“Are you crying?”she demanded.

Aly waved a hand in front of her face.Since it was Sam, she had an excuse.“Oh, it’s just hormones.”And maybe the fact that her first best friend, that she’d spent too many years at odds with, was her friend againandher sister-in-law to boot.That they’d all been given the opportunity to heal so many broken things.

“Why don’t you just tell everybody?”Sam said.She tried to cross her arms over her chest, then winced.Still not quite used to not having full use of her injured arm.

Aly found herself wanting to do just that, but… “It’s your day, Sam.”

Sam shook her head.“No, it’s ahappyday.”She grabbed Aly’s hand and tugged on it, dragging her into the living room where everyone was gathered.“Tell everybody.”

Everyone blinked up at her expectantly, and it made Aly want to cry even harder that no one looked wary, like they expected bad news.They were all happily enjoying thegoodfor once.

Aly looked over at Landon, and he crossed the room.Wrapped his arm around her waist.And he smiled at his family.Attheirfamily.Happy.

Because they werehappy.No matter what came.

“Hey, everyone.We have an announcement too.”

*

It was alot of happiness.A lot of joy.A lot of relief.

And Cal found himself enjoying every last bit of it.He didn’t worry when it would end.He didn’t feel any of those weird, conflicted emotions about Landon and Aly having a baby—they both looked too happy, too settled, too ready for it.

It was… right.It was all exactly right.Maybe it had taken some wrong shit to get here, and he didn’t believe in trite platitudes like earning good things through hard things.

Or at least, his therapist was trying to get that through his hard head.

Good and bad happened, and all you could do was figure out how you were going to deal with it.

He was going to enjoy it.

After cake and toasts, Aly clearly starting to fade, and Sam and Nate heading home, Jill and Glenda helped clean up and then started to leave themselves.

Cal could leave it at that.He could leave too.But he figured… now was as good a time as any.

He got up and jogged after Jill and Glenda.Maybe he didn’t know what he was doing, but if there was anything he’d learned in this long, weird, awful year, it was that sitting still wasn’t it.