“At first I thought Drapers, but it just didn’t fit. Then I remembered you’d said you’d seen a guy like Brody talked about, that he’d waved at you from the lake. That he gave you the creeps.”

“Just that?”

“That and everything Brody told us. Not being able to find anybody by the name he was using at a college in New York. My gut said go there, so I did.”

“I’m going to drink to your gut.”

“I’m so sorry about your mother, Darby. I know it must be like losing her again.”

Tears swirled and spilled again. “At first it just emptied me out, just drained me. He bragged about it, gloated. Then it gave me what I needed to try to hurt him. I couldn’t have done it without you and Zod, but I was ready to go down fighting.”

After swiping at tears, she sipped a little wine.

“Something snapped in him, Zane. I think it was always there, pulled tight if you know what I mean.”

“Yes, I do.”

“He covered it, kept it below the surface. Those undercurrents, right? He lost control with me before, but not like this. This was, well, calculated crazy, I want to say. He planned everything after he saw the articles about me fighting off Graham. He planned it out, like he planned killing my mother.”

She let out a breath. “I don’t think it would’ve worked. I think he’d have been caught. But he didn’t. He thought he’d get away with it because he’d gotten away with it before. And he liked it. He killed two people because he liked it.”

“I’m going to say more.”

“More…” Shock slapped her again. “More people?”

“A long time between your mother and Clint. When they’re finished with him, I’m going to say more. At least one or two more.”

“He was always going to snap,” she continued. “He was good at hiding it. I was young and not as experienced as I thought I was. He was so charming, said everything I wanted to hear. Oh my God, he was so sweet with my mother.”

“He knew she mattered most to you.”

“Yes, he knew. But once he had me, he started to slip. I wasn’t stupid. I figured out it wasn’t going to work, but I had to try. You don’t just get married one day, and throw it away the next. It wasn’t stupid to try.”

“Of course not.”

“Inside, I’ve told myself I was stupid. Bad judgment, letting myself get carried away by a good-looking man who seemed so right for me. I was stupid for convincing myself I was stupid.”

“I’m glad you worked that out.” He kissed her hand, then her bandaged wrist.

“Convinced I was stupid, I told myself you and me—we’d just cruise along for a while, see what happened. I mean, after all, what I wanted was some good sex with a man I liked, a hot man who understands the life-giving properties of baseball, appreciates the appeal of an ugly dog, finds it in him to embrace my creative visions, and so forth.”

“I am all that.”

“You are all that, and a box of cream-filled donuts. And I love you—that’s not stupid. I want to build a life with you, also not stupid. I want to make a family with you, not at all stupid.”

“Are you going to marry me, Darby?”

“Yes, I am.”

He got up, picked her up, sat down with her in his lap. “When?”

“That’s tricky. I want simple, right out here, with a party in the back. But I’ve got Roy getting married next spring. Busy season, and he wants a honeymoon. I can’t have both of us off.”

He kissed her cheek, her eye, her lips. Lingered on the lips. “Labor Day weekend.”

“Labor Day?”

“Even you have to take Labor Day off. Especially to marry me.”

“But—you mean this September. Walker, that’s practically tomorrow.”

“Why wait? Especially when you’re not stupid. And I happen to know some women who can plan one big-ass party in about five minutes.”

“But I’d have fall maintenance, tree planting. I’d have—”

“We’d wait, take a honeymoon in the winter. Slow season. We can go to Aruba.”

She had to laugh. “That’s pretty damn clever of you.”

“I’m not stupid either. Life stopped, Darby,” he told her, and traced a finger over the tattoo on the back of her neck. “Let’s not waste a minute of it now that it started again.”

“You saved my life with a baseball. I want that ball. I want to put it in a display box, keep it in the office I’m going to make out of one of the spare rooms. Once I decide which one suits me best.”

She framed his face. “Look at us. Black eyes and bruises. We’re a freaking set. Labor Day weekend.” She touched her lips lightly to his. “Deal.”

“You can seal a deal better than that.”

“I’m not finished yet,” she said, pressing a hand to his chest to hold him off. “If we’re serious about making a family, about having kids, one of us has to learn to cook.”

He eyed her. “We can flip for it. Say, heads I learn, tails you learn.”

“Rock, paper, scissors.”

“Two out of three.”

“You’re on.”

After, when she laid her head on his shoulder, he told himself learning to cook couldn’t be that hard.

“One night a week is pizza night,” he decided. “Frozen or delivery.”

“That goes without saying.” She pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Together, the dog snoring at their feet, they sat in the quiet, watched the sun set over the western hills and light its fire over the water.