Tara
I sat back on the chair I had dragged out onto the decking and watched the sunset changing the colours of the mountain. The air cooled and I slid my hands into my hoodie pockets. I lifted my legs and tucked my feet underneath me.
I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. I could smell the heather, the warm peaty smoke trickling out of the chimney and the cool winter air. I felt a tear run down my cheek. This place reminded me of being here with Zeke for the first time.
It had been four months since Sarah had stabbed Zeke and I'd watched him get rushed away to the hospital.
Four months since she had been arrested and remanded in a psychiatric hospital. Four months since they found her bag full of drug paraphernalia and weapons. She hadn't been in her right mind. As it turned out, she had battled her demons before back in Ohio and they had come back for her.
Four months since Zeke's heart had stopped beating due to the blood loss and four months since his Mum brought him back when the paramedics thought that he was gone.
I felt another tear run down my cheek and opened my eyes. I gazed out at the now dark mountains and shivered.
I heard a tap on the ground behind me and saw him leaning at the entrance to the cottage. Zeke had lost a lot of blood and Sarah had stabbed him so deeply that she had damaged the nerves to his right leg. He had healed well, he had his age and good health on his side for that but they couldn't repair the nerves. He could walk but he needed to use a stick or crutch and I could tell he hated it.
Zeke was still pale but continued to joke that he still had a better tan than I ever would. I had never left his bed in the hospital and the physiotherapists had even recruited me into Zeke's rehab. He hadn't been impressed to start but I had managed to convince him and between us all he had come on brilliantly.
Zeke smiled and my heart fluttered, I think it would always do that.
"Penny for them," he said and walked slowly over to me.
"I was thinking, when is my boyfriend going to bring me a beer?"
Zeke scoffed, reached into his back pocket and handed me a beer. I laughed and took a sip. He gently sat on the edge of the chair and stroked my hair.
"Are you ok?" He murmured, looking out to the mountains and the trees.
"Yes, I'm here with you." I reached up and held his hand. He squeezed my hand and lowered his head to kiss it.
"Dinner?" I stood up and kissed him softly on the lips. He nodded and smiled at me. I started to walk to the kitchen when I heard a scrape on the wood behind me and turned to find Zeke on the floor.
"Zeke!"
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Zeke
I had been watching her for longer than she realised. I knew she had been crying, she didn't think I did but I know her so well that I could tell. After every physio session or doctors appointment, her lip would shake slightly, she would go to the bathroom and come back smiling.
It had all been terrifying. I can't really remember much but what I do wakes me up at night. Sarah's furious face, Tar looking at me full of fear, hearing her whisper "don't leave me", my mum taking to men I couldn't place and barking orders to them.
I know that I'll get there, wherever there is. I don't think there is a destination I can aim for, I think it'll always be something I think of but as time goes on, I'll think of it less and one day it'll just be a memory.
Tar and my mum had been nothing short of phenomenal. They are my heroes and I know I would have struggled without them. Hell without my mum, I would have died. I try not to think about that much.
I watched Tar breathe in the air just as she had done the first time we had come here. I remembered the day she'd rushed back into the house whilst I lay stretching on the living room floor, she had an envelope in her hand and had waved it wildly at me.
"I bought it! Poppy's Dad pestered them until they said yes! I bought it!"
I had pulled myself up and watched her bounce around the room. She knelt beside me and helped me sit on the sofa then she sat next to me and handed me the envelope.
"What is this?" I said as I slid the two keys out onto my hand.
She had learnt forward, kissed me on the lips and whispered in my ear, "Our cottage. I bought our cottage."
So this was ours, our cottage and everything in it. Tar had made it her own with her art all over the place and I loved the smell of the charcoal and oil paints she used. We didn't live here permanently yet but every Friday to Monday we drove up and spent the weekend together.
Poppy, Simon and Max joke that we are an old fashioned couple but my mum says that we are old souls. Tar had decided not to do any more art shows at present and was teaching art therapy for people after they had strokes or neurological conditions. She still painted with my dad.
I watched her and moved slightly, my crutch scratching the wood. I cursed silently as she turned to see me.
I had handed her her beer and watched her get up to make dinner. I had no choice, I couldn't wait. I eased off the edge of the chair, unbalanced and landed on the floor.
"Zeke!"
Tar was at my side in seconds, her grey eyes full of concern.
"I'm ok, I meant to do that," I said.
She raised an eyebrow and looked at me quizzically, "You meant to fall on the floor?"
"Well, no," I admitted, "But I meant to get on the floor." I knelt up and held her hands. The wind was blowing her curls over her face and she looked so worried. I just can't get over how much I love this girl.
"Tar," I took a deep breath and pulled the box out my pocket that I had been carrying around with me for a long time.
"Tar, I can't thank you enough for everything you've done and everything you continue to do. Even before what happened, I knew that there couldn't be anyone else for me but you. I know you think that I saved you but what you don't realise is that you saved me. You gave me a relationship with my dad again, you made me laugh when I didn't think I could and you continue to let me love you. I can't think I love you anymore then you do something, anything and I finding myself falling that bit more in love with you."
"I never want to lose that feeling and I always want to keep falling in love with you."
I handed her the box and she took it with shaking hands.
"I wanted to give you this the first tine we were up here, it was a key to my house. I wanted you to live with me."
She opened the box and looked up at me startled.
"Then after we met in London, I knew. I just knew."
Tar reaches in and took out a small platinum band with a dark green emerald set in it. It had been my Mum's engagement ring from my dad and she had given it to me when we had got back from London. I think she had known for a long time how this was going to go.
For someone who can't bake and can set the kettle on fire, she's pretty wise.
"Tara Phillips, will you marry me?"
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Tara
I looked at Zeke, his dark brown chocolate eyes, his dark rumpled hair and that smile as he asked me the most important question I've ever been asked.
All I've ever wanted is to be loved and I found it with him. He knocked my walls down and he thinks I saved him? He will never know how much he saved me.
I slipped the ring onto my finger, I had the rest of my life to show him how much.
I leaned forward and kissed him hard.
"Yes, Zeke. Yes."
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So this is the end of this book! I can't believe it!
Thank you so much for reading it, please let me know what you think of it.
I'm not saying that Tar and Zeke won't return, I'm pretty fond of them!
Thanks again ✨✨