"Doesn't the birth control take a while to go out of your system?" I ask.
She shrugs, nodding. "Well, yeah. If I stop taking it now, my cycle will come back in about a month and I'll be fertile again after three months or so." She grinds her butt against me. "But I figure we should practice, you know?"
I carry her to the truck, calling for Panzer. "We should definitely practice. Alot."
I race home and spend a good portion of the night practicing.
Late that night, drowsing half awake, moonlight streams silver and glitters off the ring, her hand resting on my chest as she sleeps in my arms.
And I find myself thankful.
Not just for her, but for each and every event that led me here, to her, to this moment. To this life. I wouldn't change one thing—none of it. Because all of it brought me to her.
Out of the shadows and darkness…
Into the light.
Epilogue
FELIX
Today was a rough one.
With Bear officially my new crew foreman, I now have a bit more free time. What do I decide to do with it? Buy a handful of acres a few miles north of town and build myself a house.
It's something I've been meaning to do for a long time, and I've had the acreage picked out for at least two years. I just haven't had the time to do anything. There hasn't been anyone I trust enough to run the crew in my absence, so I’ve had to be on-site for every build as well as splitting my time checking on the other builds in progress—I spend the bulk of my time at the newest build, leaving the finishing crews to wrap things up without me—cabinet pulls, outlets plates, appliance installs, paint, easy shit like that.
Now that Bear has a full year on the job as my apprentice plus a good three months performing probationary foreman duties without any mishap, I'm feeling comfortable finally taking a day off here and there.
I splashed out for the acres a week ago, signed all the closing paperwork, and I'm now the proud owner of ten point four acres of land—it's mostly dense pine forest, with a nice little naturalclearing near the middle, and a slice of the Michigami River running through the back. The clearing is around three or four acres of rolling meadow, with a perfect spot for a walk-out build. I've had the basic design finalized for over a year, and now I'm almost ready to start breaking ground.
Aside from the peaceful beauty of the property, buildable location, and proximity to town, the other major factor in purchasing this particular parcel is the fact that it already has utilities run to the very spot I plan to build on—someone in years past must've planned to build, got started, and then had to abandon the project and try to sell. It's been for sale for over five years, so I got a sweet deal on it, leaving the bulk of my saved cash for the build itself.
Today, I staked out the build site and got started clearing the driveway; it'd go faster if I hired a tree removal service, obviously, but that would cost a small fortune, and I'm in no hurry, so I borrow the Bobcat from the yard, load up chains, a chainsaw, and some other equipment, and get to work.
Tree clearing, without the fancy machinery, is a hell of a lot of work. I mark the path with stakes and flags, and then start at the edge of the clearing and work my way toward the road.
Fell the tree, de-limb, and buck into fourteen- to eighteen-inch lengths, which I then stack; later, I’ll gather up all the stacked logs and move them to the site for firewood.
Each tree I down takes a long-ass time, which means it's gonna be a month of days off here and there spent just clearing the trees out of the driveway path. Then I’ll have to break the ground, clear the grass and dirt, grade and level, and spread the gravel. Only then will I be able to get the heavy machinery back in there so I can break ground and start on the foundation.
I expect this project to take a couple of years at least, but I'm excited about it. It's been my dream since I was a teenager just starting to work for my dad on the framing crew—buy acreageand build my own house from the ground up with my own two hands.
I've spent every waking minute of my life learning the skills, building the company, and saving every dollar I can, all for this dream.
And now it's finally starting to come true.
So by the time the sun is starting to set, I've made a decent dent in the trees, and I'm sweaty, dirty, exhausted, ravenous, and ready to kick back in my condo and watch ESPN until I fall the fuck asleep on the couch.
I'm only partially paying attention to the road as I head back toward town—I'm on a narrow dirt road a good mile or two from the highway in an area that sees little to no traffic. I mean, there’s nothing out here. The dirt road heads east away from the lake for a good fifteen or twenty miles before simply dead-ending randomly in the middle of nowhere. Most of the land around the road is either state-owned parkland or giant swaths of acreage privately owned as hunting grounds for down-staters. So, I don't expect to see anyone.
I'm zoned out, my bro country playlist blasting, windows open, driving on autopilot. A little too fast, maybe. I dunno, like I said, I’m not really paying attention. There's no one out here.
I round a long, sharp, blind curve; a blur of bright orange in the middle of the road has me shouting a surprised curse as I stand on the brakes, my truck fishtailing wildly in the dirt before coming to a halt in the swirling dust.
My bullbar rocks less than six inches away from the vehicle stopped in the center of the road…and the woman bent over with her head in the engine compartment.
I shove the shifter into Park, muttering curses under my breath. A gust of wind rifles through the trees and clears the dust, giving me a better view of what, and who, I almost just hit.
