Page 74 of That Summer Feeling

The heart construction crew stopped their work with one last triumphant thwack. The Stevie tribute had been secured within me. I had a girlfriend. I loved her. After five days. Because I was a romantic. And I always would be. Ethan could never take that from me.

I extended my hand. “Shake on it?”

Stevie smiled. She pulled our rock from her pocket. Then she put her hand in mine and we shook.

“Hell of an alliance we made,” I said.

She looked into my eyes, seeing me as only she could. “I had a feeling I needed you in my life.”

“It’s you and me against everyone else,” I said, repeating what she’d told me that very first day. How right she’d been. She’d shown up for me from the very first moment I met her. This beautiful woman had fallen into my life unannounced and taken up a whole corner of my heart I never thought I’d give out, and she had it forever. I didn’t need to know what tomorrow would bring to know that she’d be a part of it. And every tomorrow after that.

Once we got our food, we went to our usual dinner spot. Stevie’s brothers filled in the seats around us. Mason landed directly across from me, with Andrew to his left and Frank on the right. Michelle, Tim, and Tommy sat farther down on the left. Dara was with her cabinmates at the end of the table.

“Do you mind if I say something before we eat?” Tommy asked. “It’s not a prayer. Not traditionally, at least.”

Everyone nodded.

“As we prepare to eat our last dinner, I ask that all my friends and found family here find the nourishment they need, not just physically but mentally and emotionally. I ask that their time at camp conclude in a fulfilling way that helps everyone see how loved and protected they are. No matter where life takes them, they are always safe here in the mountains with us. The memory of this place is a shield from harm and a balm to the soul. Cheers.”

“Cheers,” we whispered.

The conversation quickly turned to reliving moments from the past week. We were already nostalgic for what wasn’t yet over.

“Don’t forget that Garland tipped a rowboat,” Mason boldly offered.

I shot him a surprised glance. He raised his eyebrows to me in an appropriate level of challenge. A deep understanding permeated between us again. That respect I’d felt earlier had strengthened. He was accepting me into the Magnusson family in the best way he could—by ribbing me.

“I heard it was because she was trying to set me up with her sister,” he continued, escalating the shock. “Whole time she was in love withmysister!”

His risky setup had uproarious payoff. Stevie was so amused she was nearly gasping for air. Her hand caught my forearm as we both laughed so hard I could have wept.

And I saw it.

My vision.

Unfolding before me.

It had all been true.

Every single frame of it.

I lived it exactly as I’d remembered it, but I hadn’t understood it before. I’d put my attention in the wrong place. I’d looked straight ahead, when I needed to see that the woman with her hand wrapped around my forearm was the one I loved. Not her brother.

Never her brother.

“Stevie,” I whispered, as the rest of our group’s attentiongot pulled in other directions. The walls closed in until it was just her and me at the dinner table. “Everything I thought I saw was wrong.”

“What are you talking about?” She still had the lingering laughter on her lips. She hadn’t switched gears with me yet, but she would. She always would.

“My vision,” I told her. “It came true.”

Her expression slid from joy into something closer to wonder as understanding broke through. “Just now?”

“Yes,” I said, breathless from the shock of it. The final puzzle piece had slotted perfectly into place when I thought for sure it wouldn’t fit. “It was always you. It should have been obvious from the moment you crashed into me.”

She pressed her forehead to mine, right there with me, just as I knew she would be. “You had to live your life exactly as you did to get to this moment. What if you’d chased Mason down that day in the airport? We never would have ended up here. And here is exactly where we need to be.”

“I can’t even imagine that,” I said, first idly, then with a whole layer of meaning that almost shattered me.