It was my home.
And I was damned proud to bring my fiancée here to experience it in all its glory.
We’d driven just outside of the city proper to the more rural area where my family’s land was located. It’s where I’d started my first foray into farming the hops that had made my beer a household staple in homes across the globe.
I couldn’t wait to show Savannah everything. Experiencing the world through her eyes, or while standing by her side, made everything more special. More unique. She carried an inner lightness and untainted view of things that was becoming commonplace for me. Before, coming home was an exercise in pleasing my mother and father, but now I looked forward to introducing them to the woman I’d chosen as my own. Sharing them and their love with her and seeing her flourish under their attention would make me happy.
I chanced a glance over at her as we rolled down the long, winding driveway to my familial home.
“You live here?” she gasped and sat up straight, her eyes wide and her nose almost touching the window.
“My parents own the home and this land in particular. Since I’m an only child, I try to come and stay with them as time permits. I have other homes in and around Norway and Europe that I will be happy to show you in the coming weeks.”
She nodded avidly.
“I’d love that. I’ve never traveled, but I’ve always wanted to. I can’t believe I’m in Norway, half a world away from Montana. It’s truly hard to believe how much has changed in a few short days.”
I reached out and took her hand as I followed the road until we reached our home. I clicked the button that opened one of the garage doors and pulled inside. “Do you regret what you’ve committed to?” I stopped the car, removed my seat belt, and turned to face her.
She shook her head and removed her belt. “No. When I make a decision, I do so without fretting over what could have happened if I’d made a different one. Life is filled with a series of endless paths. Every choice we make will lead us down a specific route. Hopefully it’s the one we’re meant to go down. We don’t know if it’s going to be the best decision of our lives or the worst. All we can do is work toward making those choices positive ones. I do not regret you.” She lifted her hand and cupped my cheek. “Every moment you’re sharing something of yourself makes me like you even more. Are we a love match? I don’t know. That will take time…”
She looked down and away, twisting her fingers together in her lap. A nervous habit I’d seen her do several times already.
“Hey, hey, it’s okay. I don’t expect you to look into my eyes and fall in love with me. All of this happened so suddenly… I, too, wasn’t prepared for the shock of it.”
That admission had her smiling softly and looking back at me with those bright blue eyes. Her fiery red hair was a halo of curls around her pale face and rosy cheeks. She was an angel come alive.
My angel.
Looking at her made my heart double in size. There was so much pumping through my veins, scratching at the surface of my skin to get out. It had been over two years since I’d felt anything. Joy, happiness, contentment, feeling alive—all of that left me the day the accident happened. A piece of me disappeared that day, and I’d been searching for it ever since.
When Savannah and I made eye contact across that dark auction room, the switch had flicked back on. Out of nowhere I was “feeling” things again. Deep, gut-wrenching feelings I’d shoved down and away for over two years. I’d tried to get that feeling of being alive back again, doing crazy shit that frightened my parents and made my best friend, Jack, who was also the head of my company, worry endlessly.
Still, I hadn’t been able to shake the fear. The torture of that experience. To this day, I woke at night with sweat running down my temples and chest as flashes of the accident flooded back from wherever I’d locked them away so I was able to trudge through the waking hours. I hadn’t felt a sense of peace since. Until her. Savannah’s presence calmed that ugly place inside me that I’d been hiding from for years.
“Being near you, spending time together, it feels…right. And I hope over the next few weeks, you’ll start to feel the same. ”
She reached out and took my hand once more. “In case I forget, or don’t tell you enough, thank you for everything. For choosing me. For bringing me across the world to experience new things. For being kind and patient as we figure all of this out together.”