Then we step outside, and the first thing I hear is, “Cole! Leo! Come try this new drink I made!”
Finn’s standing by a makeshift bar on the patio, which is really just a folding table covered with glasses and liquor bottles and mixers. On the ground beside him is a giant cooler with a stack of plastic cups in a sleeve on top of it.
He raises a glass filled with a bright green liquid, and calls over, “Ignore the color. It tastes great. I’m calling it the Blade and Arrow. I even found little blade cocktail picks online to use with them.”
Nora tosses a beanbag at the cornhole board she’s facing and it drops through the hole without touching the edge. Then she turns and makes a little face. “Be careful if you try one, Cole. They’rereallystrong.”
“Is that your excuse for losing?” Zane asks her with a grin as he takes her place in front of the board. “That Finn’s drink made you lose focus?”
“No,” she shoots back. “I missed that shot—the only one, by the way—because you distracted me.”
Zane shrugs, his face a picture of innocence. “I thought I saw a blimp flying by. It must have just been a shadow.”
From the grill, Rylan laughs. Then he tosses a hot dog roll at Zane, hitting him in the back of his head. “A blimp? Really? Do those even exist anymore?”
Leo whips out his phone and taps the screen. After a second, he reports, “There are about twenty-five of them left in the world. Half used for advertising. So it’s possible Zane could have seen one.”
“Ha!” Zane picks up the bun and whips it at back at Rylan. “So Icouldhave seen one.”
“But you didn’t,” grumbles Nora. “And I can’t believe I fell for it.”
Once I get to the patio, I take a quick look around, noticing all the additions since the last time I was out here. Instead of a bare square of concrete, there’s now a grill, a wooden picnic table, three plastic Adirondack chairs, the corn hole board, the table slash bar, and a tiki torch stuck into the ground at each corner.
“It’s not much,” Rylan says, following my gaze. “But for a place to hang out and grill, it’s not a bad start.”
“Later, I can bring out Cards Against Humanity,” Leo offers. “And I can hook up some outdoor lights.”
“That sounds great,” Nora tells him. “But we definitely need to have some drinks first. It’s more fun that way.”
“Did you say drinks?” Finn bounds over and hands Nora a fresh glass of his speciality drink. “Here you go.”
Nora grimaces as she looks at it. Then she holds it out to me with a grin. “I think Cole should try it. Since he is the founder of Blade and Arrow, and all.”
I take the glass from her and take a tentative sip. It’s not bad, but as Nora said, extremely strong. Throat burning, I say to Finn, “It’s good. But maybe a little less alcohol on the next one?”
“Actually.” Finn grabs a bottle from the table and holds it up for display. “Now that we’re all out here, I thought we shouldhave a toast. This is my dad’s favorite whiskey, and he sent it to us to celebrate the occasion.”
While we wait for Finn to pour the whiskey into six shot glasses, I take a moment to look around at my friends. And a feeling of rightness comes over me, like everything I’ve done in my life was leading up to this.
Maybe being a Green Beret wasn’t the ultimate goal, like I thought it was.
Maybe it was just preparation for something else.
Maybe here, in Sleepy Hollow, I’ve found my future.
Finn hands out the shot glasses, then raises his in the air. His smile slides into some more serious as he says, “I’ll be honest with you guys. I didn’t think I’d get a second chance. I thought my life in Colorado was going to be it. But thanks to Cole’s idea, his hard work, all of us coming together… I’ve never felt more hopeful.”
Nora blinks a few times, but her eyes remain dry. Lifting her glass, she says, “You all know I wasn’t in a good place before. I was… lost. But I’m not anymore. Here, with my best friends, I feel like I’m home.”
Zane tugs her braid, his gaze softening as he looks at her. “I’m damn glad you’re here. I’m glad we all are.”
“I felt like a failure,” Rylan says quietly. “But now I don’t.” He smiles as he adds, “Thank you, Cole. For bringing us together again.”
Leo lifts his chin as he looks at me. “I think Clara would be so happy to see this, Cole. And Dana. To know their memories live on.”
Shit.
I take several deep breaths before I trust myself to speak.
