This Is Where We Stop novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Medal

The dress was gold, and I had bought it in forty minutes on a layover.

It was long and plain, with thin straps and a low back, and it fit me better than anything I had ever owned.

I had not worn a color like that in eight years.

Padraig stood beside me outside the ballroom doors in a dark suit and a gold-toned tie that I had picked out for him.

He looked at me for a long moment.

"If you keep staring," I said, "we'll miss it."

"I'm not sorry."

"I know."

He offered me his arm.

I took it, and we went in together.

The Grand Ballroom at the Willamette Hotel held three hundred people at round tables with white cloths.

There was a string quartet. There was a banner behind the stage that said, in gold letters, Honoring Courage: The County Lifesaver Medal.

Colson sat at the head table in his dress uniform, with the mayor on one side of him.

On the other side sat Chantal.

She wore pale pink and pearls. Her curls were pinned up, and she was laughing at something the mayor had said, with one hand on Colson's sleeve.

She saw me first.

For an instant, her face did nothing at all.

Then it lit up, and she was on her feet and across the floor with both arms out.

"Mara! You came!"

She hugged me hard, and I stood there and let her.

"We were so worried," she said into my ear. "Colson told me you'd gone to the mountains. Are you all right? You look gorgeous."

"I'm fine, Chantal."

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