All She Ever Wanted - Barbara Freethy [132]
"What's going on?" she asked suspiciously. "You said you were going to show me something. What is it?"
"You'll see."
"Will I see it anytime soon?"
"I certainly hope so."
"Am I going to like it?"
"I certainly hope so," he repeated with a grin.
* * *
Madison swung her leg off Dylan's motorcycle as he parked on the same rugged bluff he'd brought her to before. There were no city lights this time, but the San Francisco panorama of tall buildings, rolling hills, and colorful sailboats dotting the bay was as pretty as any postcard.
Dylan pulled a white plastic trash bag out of a compartment and walked toward the edge of the bluff. Madison followed him, wondering what the heck was going on.
"What's in the bag?" she asked.
He hesitated for a long moment. "Memories."
"Okay, this is starting to freak me out," she said, not sure what was in that bag, but she wouldn't put anything past Dylan.
"You're the one who told me to let go, aren't you? Didn't you stand here on this very bluff a few weeks ago and tell me it was time to move on?"
"Yes," she said guardedly. "But I'm surprised you'd listen to me. You never did before."
"You never made sense before."
"I don't think that's true. But—what exactly have you done?"
"I cleaned out the closet."
She nodded, trying not to show how shocked she was. "Go on."
"I burned everything, the photos, the stories, everything."
"Why?"
"Emily is gone."
"It was still a little drastic. You could have kept some mementos. You didn't have to burn everything. You're really an all or nothing kind of guy, aren't you?"
"That's the only way I know how to be. I don't need those things to remember Emily by. You might not believe this, but the truth is I hadn't looked in that closet in a long time—not until the book came out and you showed up. Then it all came back."
She was relieved to hear that he hadn't been visiting the Emily shrine every night for the past ten years.
"When I saw the closet through your eyes, I realized it looked kind of sick."
"Yeah," she said emphatically. "It did."
"So it's gone now." He held up the bag. "It's all in here."
"You could have just thrown that in the garbage. Why do you still have it? Because unless you have a good reason, I have to warn you that your behavior has not left the sick category yet."
"I like ceremonies—rites of passage. They're important. They help us move on." He paused. "It occurred to me that you didn't get to come to Emily's funeral so you never had a chance to say goodbye in any formal way."
"So this is like a funeral?"
His gaze met hers. "Yeah. What do you think?"
She thought for a long moment. "It really wasn't my choice to leave before Emily's funeral. My parents made me go. They didn't want me involved in any scandal. I did miss saying good-bye. Sometimes it was hard to believe she was really gone. It felt like a dream. I couldn't go back to the house and see that it wasn't a dream. It was weird, surreal. Maybe a funeral would have helped."
"Well, it's your choice now. Do you want to help me toss these ashes into the wind?"
"We'll probably get arrested for littering."
"Since when did you worry about breaking the law?"
"Since—never. All right. I'll do it."
Together, they walked to the edge of the bluff and turned the bag upside down. The breeze caught the charred ashes of the photos and papers and blew them down the hillside. "Good-bye," she whispered. "Rest in peace, Em."
They stared out at the view for several long minutes. Madison felt as if a heavy burden had slipped off her shoulders. The past was truly gone.
"No second thoughts?" she asked Dylan a moment later.
He shook his head. "Not one."
"What are you going to do now?"
"Get on with my life." He shot her a quick glance, then gazed back at the view. "I've been thinking about something else. Maybe you and I should go out sometime."
"You mean on a date?"
"If you want to call it that."
"Wow, that's the kind of invitation a girl finds hard to resist."
"Is that a yes?"
"I should have my head examined," she muttered.