Chapter Twelve : The Question Between Them

September came like a whisper. The summer heat had softened into golden evenings, and the trees around Dalton were beginning to rust along the edges. Ellie spent her mornings with a notebook now, instead of her camera, writing down the stories that seemed to pour from the town itself. Jack, without asking, had cleared a space for her on his workbench—right next to the bolts and oil rags.

Their life had slipped into something real. Grocery trips. Sunday drives. An old radio playing blues in the background as they cooked dinner together.

But something unspoken hovered between them.

One Saturday afternoon, as they were cleaning out the attic above Jack's garage, Ellie found a small, dusty box labeled "Letters."

"These yours?" she asked, brushing off the lid.

Jack looked over and nodded slowly. "From my brother. Before he died."

Ellie opened the box gently. Inside were neatly folded envelopes, faded with time.

"I didn't know you had a brother."

Jack sat beside her. "Not many do. He left when I was young. Drifted. Fought a few wars inside and out. We wrote until he couldn't anymore. I guess I stopped talking about him to stop hurting."

Ellie read one aloud, her voice quiet. In the letter, Jack's brother had written about a woman he once loved—and how he ran from it.

"Sounds familiar," Ellie said with a small smile.

Jack took her hand. "Yeah. I think the Lawson men have a way of messing things up. But maybe I still have time to change that."

That night, under the moonlight on the porch, Jack was unusually still. Ellie felt it in the way his hand held hers—tight but unsure.

"You ever think about staying?" he asked suddenly.

She looked at him. "I am staying."

"I mean permanently. Not in the guest room. Not for a season. For good."

Ellie's breath caught, not in fear but in the enormity of it.

"Are you asking me to move in, Jack Lawson?"

He nodded. "I am. And maybe... one day... more than that."

Ellie didn't answer at first. She reached for his face and pulled him into a kiss. Slow, lingering, a yes wrapped in silence.

The night around them filled with the sounds of crickets and wind in the trees. Above them, the stars stretched quiet and infinite. And inside the small town of Dalton, two souls who had run too far for too long began to settle—not just into a home, but into the promise of something lasting.

Because when love finally stops running, all that's left to do... is stay.