Forever

by Karen Kingsbury

  Erin seemed shyer than the others. She pointed at something behind him. “I framed those for you. But everyone helped put them around the house.”

  Dayne and Katy turned and there on the counters were framed photographs of the Baxter family. The crowd of people stayed outside for the most part; only the Baxters were inside now.

  Cole rushed around the counter and began describing each picture. “This one’s Grandma and Papa before Grandma went to heaven.” Then he moved on to the next one. “This is me and little Devin and Mommy and Daddy. Here’s Aunt Erin and Uncle Sam and the girls, and Aunt Brookie and Uncle Peter and . . .” The explanation went on for several minutes. But the last frame in the line was empty. “You forgot one, Aunt Erin,” Cole announced, reaching for the empty frame.

  A pretty young woman stepped forward. She had an Asian baby in one arm and a mischievous-looking little boy by the hand. “It’s okay, Coley.” She smiled at Ashley’s son. “You can leave that one there.” Then she turned her little group toward Dayne and Katy. “That one’s for you and Luke.” She motioned to Luke and he joined her, putting his arm around her and the baby.

  Luke’s eyes were damp. “Dayne, I’d like you to meet my wife, Reagan, and our kids, Malin and Tommy.”

  “Nice to meet you.” Dayne’s heart pounded. If Luke could say what he’d said in the tabloids, Dayne figured his wife felt the same way. But now he could see that he was wrong. As wrong as could be.

  He could live ten thousand years and never forget one detail about this surprise, the house and the yard and the people and most of all the family. He was touched by this moment, changed by it.

  Even in the midst of introductions, Dayne realized what was happening. He and Katy were home—the place where he’d always wanted to be, with the people he’d long dreamed about knowing. They were survivors, all of them, and he could see life clearly now for the first time since his accident.

  This was only the beginning.

  Luke turned to his wife. “Honey, I’d like you to meet Katy Hart, Dayne’s fiancée.”

  The two women shook hands and exchanged hellos. Luke hesitated. He hung his head and gave it a single shake. Briefly he touched his fingertips to his eyes. Then he lifted his head and looked at Dayne. “I’ve wanted to say this for a long time.”

  Dayne blinked twice, clearing the tears so he could make out Luke’s face.

  “Reagan—” Luke looked from his wife back to Dayne—“I’d like you to meet my brother.”

  Around the room, no one said a word. No one could. Dayne took Reagan’s hand, but in the same moment, he turned to Luke and everything about the past faded. Dayne made the first move, and they came together in the kind of intense hug usually reserved for teammates in the moments after winning a championship. They stayed that way a long time, clinging to each other and all they’d almost lost.

  And standing there in the kitchen of a house that would soon be home, there was an overwhelming sense that instead of losing everything they had defied the odds. Because in the end they had both won. And now Dayne and Luke had what neither of them had ever had before.

  A brother.

  The turkey was in the oven, and the Baxter house was alive with the love and laughter and quiet conversations that Ashley looked forward to around the holidays. She was coming back from the garage with another pound of butter, but halfway to the kitchen she ducked into the living room and marveled. All twelve cousins were together, which meant sometime before the day was over Kari would line them up near the fireplace for the annual cousin photo. It was tradition.

  Ashley stayed in her spot, unnoticed by the kids. Their laughter and the football game playing on TV and the smell of turkey wafting into every room were what Thanksgiving was supposed to be. That and their dad’s prayer. Each year it was a specific praise time to their God and Savior and a chance for their father to ask a blessing for each of his kids present.

  This year that would be all his kids.

  The scene before Ashley was so alive it would be almost impossible to paint. But someday she’d like to try. Cole and Maddie were sitting at a card table her dad had put in the room for the older kids. They were trying to start a game of Yahtzee, but they seemed to be involved in a lengthy discussion about who would go first.

  Cole was easily the loudest. “I go first ’cause I won last time.” His tone of voice left no room for discussion.

  “No! That’s not how.” Maddie was quick with her retort. “Girls go first. That’s the rules.”

  Cole stood up and crossed his arms. “The rules don’t say that, Maddie, because I read them. You’re just trying to be the boss of me.”

  “No, I’m not.” Her tone rose to a whine. With exaggerated movements, she put her hands on her hips. “Girls go first in Yahtzee. Otherwise girls don’t play.”

  “That’s not fair! You said you’d play, and now we have the papers out and we put our names on ’em, and that means no one else could use ’em later, so I’ll just go first so we can move on.”

  Ashley stifled a giggle and rolled her eyes at the same time. Cole might have a future as a salesman, but he definitely needed help on his approach. Rudeness wasn’t tolerated. She would talk to him about it later.

  Malin was out of her playpen, darting about the room on her hands and knees and generally causing an uproar wherever she went. Erin’s girls—Clarisse, Chloe, Heidi Jo, and Amy—were playing dolls on the floor with Kari’s daughter, Jessie, and Brooke’s Hayley. Erin’s daughters were making an effort at being polite, but they kept sending the baby bits of instruction. “Stay out of here, Malin.” “Go over there, Malin.” “Don’t touch our dollies, Malin.”

  Hayley’s voice lifted above the others. “Hi, Mali!” She was talking much better, so improved that someone who didn’t know she’d been in a near-drowning accident might think she just spoke a little slower than other children. Her tone was happy and earnest. “Mali . . . play with my dolly. Come on.”

  Malin crawled to Hayley and sat next to her new friend. At the same time, Jessie broke into a song about sunshine and rainbows. A few words into it she stood up and faced the others. The song wasn’t quite in tune, but it was happy and fitting for Thanksgiving.

  Tommy was rolling a ball to RJ, which was what Kari and Ryan had started calling their son, who until then had been Ryan Junior. The little boys were a living example of testosterone in action. With every push of the ball, either Tommy or RJ would make a loud grunting sound, followed by a proclamation. “Catch it” or “Mine!”

  Malin noticed the action and crawled, lightning fast, toward the two boys.

  As she did, Tommy spotted her. He lowered his chin and glared at her. “No, Mali.”

  Reagan had asked if they would all help Tommy break his fascination with guns. “If you see him raise his finger toward someone, remind him that whatever we do, we don’t shoot people.”

  Ashley wondered if this might be one of those moments.

  Sure enough, as Malin came closer, Tommy slowly, methodically, raised his finger at her.

  He was about to pull the imaginary trigger when Ashley stepped into the room and put her hand on his shoulder. “Tommy . . . we don’t shoot people.”

  He jerked his hand so that now the trigger was facing the ceiling. Then he made a shooting sound and cast dancing eyes in her direction. “Tommy shoot bees.” He followed up the announcement with a big grin.

  Ashley was pretty certain he hadn’t been aiming for the bees. But the idea that he knew right from wrong was a step, anyway. She praised him and headed back to her sisters and Reagan and Katy in the kitchen. The potatoes were peeled, cut in pieces, and on the stove. A dozen pies had been made the night before, and the Jell-O salads were in the refrigerator.

  They had a few hours before dinner, time for coffee and catching up. Ashley had something she wanted to share with them. She had invited Elaine Denning for dessert. So far she and Elaine hadn’t spoken much, hadn’t developed a friendship or a connection yet. Ashley h
ad simply decided to make her feel welcome. She was their father’s friend, and friends were welcome to come for dessert. The way her mom had always made them feel welcome.

  So that was tradition too.

  The Flanigans were coming for dessert this year and with them Tim Reed. Elaine would feel comfortable, especially if people made a point of talking to her. Ashley was trying to answer God’s call to love and let go of bitterness the way Katy and Dayne and Luke had let go of it these past few weeks. Her father didn’t need her approval. Besides, he was entitled to a friend. It was that simple.

  When Ashley reached the kitchen, the women were discussing Aunt Teresa, their dad’s younger sister from Battle Creek, Michigan. She was in Indianapolis visiting one of her kids for dinner, so she might stop by for an hour tonight.

  “I love Aunt Teresa.” Kari giggled and looked at the others around the room. She stopped at Brooke. “Remember the time she and Dad and Mom were playing some card game and she started laughing?”

  “Laughed so hard she developed chest pains. Everyone thought she was having a heart attack, so Dad took her to the emergency room.” Brooke looked at Katy and Reagan, the only two who hadn’t heard the story—though Ashley and Erin were too young to remember it.

  “Right, so there she is in the ER explaining how she was playing cards and laughing, and the doctor presses on her chest, asks her if it hurts there.”

  Everyone in the circle was giggling now.

  Brooke put her hand over her heart. “Most people don’t know you have a muscle right here. If you laugh hard enough, you can actually pull it.”

  “Really?” Katy laughed harder.

  “It’s true.” Ashley was standing next to Katy. “I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t heard this story so many times.”

  “So the doctor tells Aunt Teresa she’ll probably be the laughingstock of everyone back home, because she isn’t having a heart attack. She just pulled her laughing muscle.”

  “The rest of her visit, if things got a little too silly, she’d go for a walk and tell everyone she needed to rest her laughing muscle.”

  “Yeah, and later on Dad asked her how come her laughing muscle was out of shape in the first place.”

  The six of them standing around the kitchen continued to laugh, and Ashley savored the sound. Whatever the future held, for now it was only important to be there together—all of them, including Dayne.

  Because togetherness was the greatest tradition of all.

  Thanksgiving dinner was about to begin, and Dayne was trying to memorize every moment.

  He and Luke had talked outside on the front porch for an hour, and the outcome was better than anything Dayne could’ve imagined. What Dayne learned from Luke was surprising—nothing like what he had been worried about. Luke wanted a brother in the worst way; he always had. But at first everything had conspired to make him feel jealous instead of joyous. Now that those issues were resolved, Dayne couldn’t wait for the future to unfold before them.

  They had also talked about Dayne’s offer of a law position in Indianapolis. “It’s what I’d like—” Dayne felt more comfortable with every passing bit of conversation—“if you’re interested.”

  “Interested?” Luke shoved his hands into his pockets and shrugged. “It’s a dream come true.”

  All of it was really. Everything about today. He and Katy had sat on the floor with the kids for nearly an hour, getting to know his nieces and nephews. He and the guys had watched some football together. They were a remarkable family, the Baxters.

  As they gathered around the table, Dayne was drawn back to a scene almost two and a half years earlier. He was in Bloomington for the first time, parked in the hospital parking lot trying to get up the nerve to go in and see his birth mother before she died. And out of the hospital came a group of people. One of the guys looked familiar, and Dayne realized he was watching Luke Baxter and his siblings. Dayne’s siblings.

  In that moment he wanted more than anything to jump out of the car and run to them, tell them he’d always wondered about them, and ask them a hundred questions. But the click of the paparazzi cameras kept him from making a move. Even when he felt physically ill watching them climb in their cars and drive away, Dayne knew his decision was for the best.

  And now God had brought them together.

  After some humorous commotion between Tommy and RJ, everyone was seated around two long dining tables.

  Taking the spot next to Dayne, Katy grinned and leaned closer. “Told you so.” She met his eyes, and he saw his future there. And the teasing glow she’d had all week whenever she reminded him that she had been right and he had definitely been wrong about the Baxters.

  John sat at the head of the table, looking around the room. “We are so blessed to be together.” His gaze settled on Dayne. “All of us.”

  Luke and Reagan whispered something, and Luke stood up. “I have an announcement.”

  Dayne leaned back in his chair and took Katy’s hand. Luke had been fairly low-key until now. But the Baxters weren’t formal. Whatever Luke had to say, sharing it now seemed like a good idea. Despite all Dayne’s fears, these people had a way of making him feel everything he’d wanted to feel in a family. Love and belonging and friendship and common ground. And that was in one week together. He could only imagine what it felt like to be a part of them all his life.

  Luke grinned at the faces around the table. “Reagan wants me to tell you—” he flashed a smile at her—“that yesterday I received news that I passed the bar exam. Also . . .” He glanced at Dayne and his smile faded. “I received an offer to represent Dayne exclusively from my firm’s office in Indianapolis.” He exchanged a look with Reagan. “We’ll make the move after Christmas.” He found Dayne again. “Thanks to my brother.”

  There was a round of congratulations, and then John began praying. “Dear God, we come before You with humble, grateful hearts. You have led us through many paths and valleys to get to this moment, but we’re here. Together in one place, our hearts in unison as we look to You.”

  He prayed then for Brooke and her family and the continued healing of little Hayley; for Kari and Ryan and their children, that they would be blessed in their involvement in ministry at church; for Erin and Sam and their four girls, that adjustment would continue as their family came together. He prayed for Ashley and Landon and their boys and for Luke and Reagan and Tommy and Malin.

  “Give Luke the strength to stay close to You daily, Lord. Help him be the father and husband . . . and brother he’s always wanted to be.”

  Then he prayed for Dayne. “Father, Elizabeth and I have our lost son back, something that never could’ve happened without You. We have him back from the accident, of course, but we have him back from a place where we never expected to find him again. I pray that You let him know how much we love him and Katy, how much we’re looking forward to a lifetime of days like this.”

  Suddenly the sum of moments overwhelmed Dayne, surrounding him and making him certain, once again, that this was the moment, the single instant that God had spent the last few years calling him toward. All of it—his trip to Bloomington, the chance moment of witnessing Katy Hart onstage, his decision to let go of his anger toward his adoptive parents, and his near involvement in Kabbalah. And not just those times, but his empty days with Kelly Parker and the pain that followed the abortion, even the terrible situations with the paparazzi—God had used all of it to lead him here.

  The words Katy had heard from the Lord during his time in rehab came rushing back: Wait on the Lord. Be still, and know that I am God.

  He gently tightened his hold on Katy’s hand. God was a promise keeper. That much was evident even yesterday, when Randi Wells called and told him she’d bought a Bible. How amazing was that? He smiled, his eyes still closed.

  His fame would always be an issue, an aspect of his life, but he was forgiven, and now that he had found his place in the family he longed for, he couldn’t wait to start working on forever. B
ecause now that his questions had been answered, now that the lake house was completed, it was time to start on the next project.

  Planning a wedding.

  Author’s Note

  A Word from Karen Kingsbury

  Dear Reader Friends,

  I have a confession to make.

  I’m the author Dayne Matthews was talking about, the one he met on the set of one of his movies. I figured I could give myself a cameo appearance after so many books with these characters. My husband thinks I’m a little too close to the whole situation, and we both laugh about how the Baxter family and Dayne and Katy and the Flanigans feel like friends.

  But it’s also the truth—writer’s block comes for me only when I procrastinate at the very end of a book I love. It was that way for the Firstborn series. I remember writing Fame and thinking how fun it would be following Dayne Matthews and the struggles he faced as a major celebrity. And now, his story is in many ways resolved. That made the final chapters of this book especially sad and difficult for me.

  From the beginning, from the first time Dayne Matthews was introduced as the Baxters’ oldest son, I’ve dreamed about this day—when the entire Baxter family could be together, knowing that they were committed to accepting Dayne as one of their own. And I can only say that God certainly met me at every turn in the road. Always, with each installment of the Firstborn series, there was a message that applied to all of us. For a season, I wasn’t sure what God wanted us to take away from the story in Forever.

  But I see it now.

  The lesson is one God gives us throughout the Bible. Love one another. Love through forgiveness and love through service. Keep short accounts and don’t let a bitter root grow. If we’re going to love the way Jesus wants us to love, then we need to let go of the hurts from our past and let God bring about healing. In many ways, Forever was about healing. Dayne was healed from his horrific accident, and Katy was healed of her fear of leaving Bloomington. Luke was healed of his jealousy and bitterness toward Dayne, and Ashley was healed of her distrust toward her father’s friend Elaine. Healing took place between many people, in many ways.