Heather laughs and shakes her head. “I’m sorry, I have to get to the airport. But I’m so grateful that I got to meet you.”

She turns to me as I stand once more.

“Thank you. For not kicking me out and for helping me.”

“You’re welcome. Just call when you get home, and I’ll get you all of the information you need.”

Heather says goodbye, and once she’s driven away, I sit between my parents on the swing. Ma takes my hand, and Da kisses my cheek.

“She seems very nice,” Ma says at last.

“Yeah. She is. And he hurt her like he did me. Worse, really, because she had a baby, and he didn’t care at all.”

I tell them about Heather’s fiancé, and Da nods.

“They’ll be taken care of, and that’s all that matters.”

“I hate to say this out loud, in case I jinx it,” I say and squeeze Ma’s hand, “but I think that’s the last of it. I can finally move on with my life.”

“And it’s about time,” Ma says. “Because you still have a lot of life to live, my sweet girl.”

Chapter 13

~Cameron~

“I’m dreading this,” Maggie says as I pull into the car lot in Seattle.

“Obviously. You dragged your feet getting ready to come here today, and I think they’re going to close in about three hours.”

“If I can’t buy a car in less than three hours, there’s a huge problem. Huge.”

“It’s not a quick process, you know.”

She looks over at me with disgust, and I can’t help but laugh.

“Come on. It won’t be so bad. You can afford pretty much anything you want here.”

Maggie sighs and gets out of my car as if she’s being dragged to the dentist for a root canal. Before we can even start looking at the rows of available vehicles for sale, a salesman comes walking toward us.

“Hi there, how can I help you today?”

“I need a car,” Maggie says.

“You came to the right place,” he replies and then offers his hand to me. “I’m Roland.”

“Uh, Cam. Maggie is your customer. I’m just here for moral support.”

“Nice to meet you, Maggie,” Roland says. “So, what are you looking for?”

“Literally anything that runs,” she replies. “I don’t care other than that.”

Roland presses his lips together and then looks at me.

I shrug.

Good luck, buddy.

“Do you prefer a sedan or an SUV?”

“Don’t care.”

“Any particular color?”

“Nope.”

Roland laughs and rubs his hand over his neck. “Okay. Let’s start with this. What will you be using it for, on a daily basis?”

“Pretty much just going back and forth to work, but I live on one of the islands, so we do get unpredictable weather.”