“Kate?”
“Umm,” she murmured, content to be held.
“I heard what you said on the phone.”
She glanced up and met his gaze. “That I love you?”
He nodded. “Did you mean it?”
There was no point in hiding the truth any longer. For better or worse, she loved him. It was time to take a risk. “Have you ever known me to say anything I didn’t mean?”
“Enough to marry me?”
A joy unlike anything she had ever experienced before spread through her, sneaking up on her and bringing with it an undeniable sense of fulfillment, but still she was cautious.
“Marriage?”
He tilted her face up. “I love you, Kate,” he said with slow emphasis. “Just you.”
She wanted so badly to believe. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely sure. You’ve made me feel alive again. You’ve given me back my son. Married or not, we’re a family, Kate, in every sense of the word.”
She knew that was true. She’d felt it herself for weeks now. She searched his eyes and for the first time there were no shadows, only hope and joy. “Yes,” she said then. “Yes, I will marry you.”
He swung her off her feet with a cry of such absolute delight that people all along the road turned to stare and smile. Davey came charging across the street.
“Did you ask her, Dad? Did you ask her to marry you?”
David winked at Kate. “I did.”
“And did she say yes?” he asked, bouncing up and down with excitement. “She did, didn’t she?”
“I did,” Kate confirmed.
“All right!” Davey shouted, hugging Kate around the middle.
“We’re getting married,” he announced to all the observers.
In a morning bleak with destruction and marred by fear, the news was greeted with applause.
“If total strangers are this pleased, just imagine how my family will feel,” she said wryly. “Which reminds me, we’ve been invited to a family breakfast. Are you up to it?”
David brushed a strand of hair from her face and grinned, his hand lingering to cup her chin. “I thought you’d never ask.”
* * *
When Kate and David pulled up in front of the house she’d grown up in, she looked at the spill of fuchsia bougainvillae, the Spanish tiled roof, the neat lawn, and thought of all the years she’d thought of this house as home. She glanced up at David, caught his smile and felt his hand envelop hers.
“Second thoughts?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Not a one. I was just thinking about what it takes to make a home.”
“Two people who love each other,” he said. “A family.”
“It’s taken me a long time to understand that.”
“Maybe what’s taken a long time was finding the right man to make that happen,” he suggested with a devilish twinkle in his eyes.
If he’d expected her to argue, even mildly, she couldn’t. There was only one right man for her, and he had taken an impossibly long time to turn up. Or perhaps he’d simply waited until he knew the time was right. Any sooner and she might not have been ready for him.
“I think everyone is going to love you,” she told him, grinning. “You’re so self-confident.”
“Can’t see my knees shaking, huh?”
“What are you guys talking about?” Davey demanded. “I’m starved.”
“Well, go inside and tell the first person you see to feed you,” Kate suggested with a laugh.
Davey’s eyes widened. “I can’t do that.” He glanced at his father. “Can I?”
David chuckled. “No, I suppose not. Come on, Kate, there’s no sense putting this off.”
“You realize that you have forestalled a lot of problems by making an honest woman of me before our arrival. Otherwise, you could have forgotten having a nice leisurely breakfast with my clan. They’d have been plaguing you with questions.”
The possibility didn’t seem to concern him. “Kate, you’re dallying.”
She grinned. “Yes, I guess I am.” She took a deep breath. “Let’s do it.”
By then her mother already had the door open and her arms held wide. “Darling, it’s so good to see you. I’m so glad to see for myself that you’re okay.” She turned her worried expression on David and Davey. “Now, what about you two? Are you okay? Kate told me about the fires.”
“We’re a little the worse for wear, but nothing serious,” David told her. “I’m David Winthrop.”
“Well, of course. I’ve been hearing all about you.”
Kate could practically hear alarm bells clanging. She looked up just in time to see Brandon Halloran making his way to the door, his smile warm, his eyes filled with concern as he looked them over.
“David,” he said, shaking his hand. “Good to see you again.”
“Again?” Kate murmured, looking from one to the other for an explanation. David just smiled. Brandon avoided her gaze altogether. She tugged on David’s sleeve. “What does that mean? Again?”
“I’ll explain later,” he said, just as Ellen swooped in for an introduction, followed by Penny.
“I wish my husband could be here to meet you, too,” she said. “He got called in to work.” She gave Kate a smug, sisterly look, linked her arm through David’s and led him away.
Kate glanced down at Davey. “Let’s sneak into the kitchen and see what’s cooking.”
“Yeah!” he agreed.
Kate found her mother at the stove taking up the last of an entire package of crisp bacon. She sniffed the air appreciatively.
“Should Brandon be eating this?” Kate teased as she saw the bowl of eggs waiting to be scrambled.
“I indulge him once a week,” her mother said. “And today is definitely a special occasion.”
“Should I be taking notes on how to maintain marital bliss?” Kate inquired idly after she’d sent Davey off with a covered plate of warm biscuits.
Her mother’s sharp gaze took in Kate’s expression. Suddenly she was laughing and her arms were around Kate. “Oh, darling, I’m so happy for you. He seems like a fine young man.”
“Is that the judgment you formed in the last five minutes or has Brandon been indulging in a little more background checking?”
“I believe they had lunch one day last week,” her mother admitted.
“They what!”
“Now, dear, we just wanted to be sure that this was the right young man for you.”
Davey, back again and clearly bored with the grown-up talk, finally chimed in. “Are we ever going to eat?”
Kate and her mother laughed at his impatience. “In five minutes,” Elizabeth Halloran promised her new grandson-to-be. “Why don’t you go and tell everyone?”
When everyone was gathered around the dining room table, Brandon glanced down the length of it until his gaze caught with his new wife’s. “I think this calls for a blessing, don’t you?”
Eyes shining with love, Elizabeth Halloran nodded. The pure happiness on her face brought tears to Kate’s eyes.
“Heavenly Father,” Brandon began, “thank you for sparing us from today’s earthquake and for bringing us all together here this morning. I thank you, too, for my new daughters, my granddaughter and for the fine young man and his son who have brought so much happiness into Kate’s life. We ask your blessing on this food we are about to eat and on this family. May we always remember the importance of the love we share. Amen.”
Kate lifted her head and looked around the table. At last her glance settled, first on Davey, seated across from her, and then on David at her side. “Amen,” she echoed softly.
Beneath the table she felt David’s hand reach for hers and close around it. She looked up into eyes that were filled with the radiance of love. Surely they shone no more brightly than her own.
A smile stole across her face. “Now,” she said sweetly, “tell me all about this lunch you had with Brandon.”
Epilogue
<
br /> The glass walls and ceiling of the Wayfarer’s Chapel high above the Pacific allowed sunlight to spill in on the small group gathered for the wedding of Kate Newton to David Allen Winthrop II. Her heart in her throat, Kate stood on the stone steps at the back of the church and waited for David to take his place before the altar.
Then she turned and smiled at Ellen. “I guess this is it.”
“I guess so, little sister.” Ellen kissed her cheek. “I love you and I know you’re going to be very, very happy.”
“Yes,” Kate agreed with certainty. “Yes, I am.”
“Ladies,” Brandon Halloran said, gazing at them both with eyes filled with tenderness and unmistakably genuine caring. “I believe we’re on.”
Kate looked up at this white-haired man who had twice blessed her mother’s life with happiness. No longer a stranger, once Kate had opened her heart to him, she recognized at last that he was someone she could trust to be there for her, just as her own father once had been.
“Brandon?”
“Yes, my dear.”
“Thank you for agreeing to give me away.”
“Nothing could have pleased me more than your asking,” he said, patting her hand and then linking her arm through his. Kind eyes studied her intently. “All set?”
“Just one more thing. For a time I couldn’t imagine how you could care for me the same way you care for Ellen. Then I met Davey, and I couldn’t possibly love him any more if he were my own, just because he’s David’s.”
His smile was gentle. “That’s the power of love. It has no limitations, my dear. Now, are you ready to begin this new life of yours?”
She took a look down the aisle and let her gaze rest on David and Davey. “Absolutely,” she said firmly.
Like her mother just a few months earlier, she couldn’t keep the spring out of her step as she closed the gap between herself and the man who’d brought joy into her life and the boy responsible for bringing them together. She glanced up and caught the look that passed between her new stepfather and her mother, saw the tears shimmering on her mother’s cheeks.
And then her hand was in David’s and the ceremony was underway.
“I, David, take thee, Kate, a woman who has brought new joy into my life, to be my lawfully wedded wife. I give thanks for the day I met you. I love you for your spirit, your generosity and the power of your love, which encompasses not only me, but my son. Together I know we can defeat any obstacle, meet any challenge. I want to grow old with you by my side, and I vow that nothing will ever be more important to me than our family.”
Her eyes stinging with unshed tears, Kate met his gaze. For her there was no one else in this wonderful chapel but the man who stood beside her and the God above who would bless their union.
“I, Kate, take thee, David, to be my lawfully wedded husband. Through you I have learned what matters in life. Through you I have discovered the importance of listening to my heart. I know that nothing matters more to me than your happiness and that of our family. When I look into the future, I see you by my side, sharing your strength, your commitment and your love. I vow that whatever obstacles we face, whatever challenges we must meet, we will do so together. You have my respect, and above all, you have my love.”
At Kate’s insistence there had been no mention of death in the ceremony. She wanted no sad reminders that love didn’t always last forever. No one knew that better than David. They would concentrate on the days they had. They would make each one precious, as if it might be their last together. If they succeeded at that, if they cherished each day, when the end of their time on this earth came, they would have no regrets.
Their individual vows spoken and their hands clasped, they looked deep into each other’s eyes and echoed the vows spoken at Elizabeth Newton’s wedding to Brandon Halloran and at marriage ceremonies throughout time.
They began in a halting cadence, but by the end their voices soared, filling the tiny chapel with their joy. “I promise to love, honor and cherish you all the days of my life.”
Outside the chapel on the slope of lawn facing the sea, Kate and David shared a toast with their guests. Because they had planned the wedding in just days, taking the first available date at the chapel, they had kept the guest list small. In a month, when they returned from their honeymoon—the first holiday either had taken in too many years, they would hold a huge reception.
For now, though, Kate was content to be sharing the occasion with family and a handful of people who had seen them both through rough times. She stood amidst the small cluster of well-wishers and felt her heart overflowing with happiness.
Davey came up just then, his expression serious. “Kate?”
“What?” she asked, smiling at him as she thought of what Mrs. Larsen would have to say about his shirttail hanging out and the streak of dirt on the pant leg of his tuxedo. She thought he looked wonderful.
“Should I still call you Kate, now that you and Dad are married?”
Kate’s heartbeat stilled, then picked up. Let me get this right, she prayed. “What would you like to call me?”
“I was thinking,” he began, glancing around until he located his father. “I was thinking that someday, maybe not right away or anything, but someday I’d like to call you Mom.”
Kate blinked hard to keep her tears from spilling down her cheeks. “Oh, Davey, I would like that very much, whenever you’re ready. Until then, Kate’s just fine.”
He grinned. “Thanks. Can I go have another piece of cake?”
“You can have all the cake you want.”
Just then David’s hands settled on her shoulders. “Sure,” he teased. “You can tell him that. You’re not the one who’ll be up with him half the night when his stomach aches.”
“Mrs. Larsen won’t mind,” Kate said with conviction. “She loves him, you know.”
“What I know, Kate Newton Winthrop, is that I love you very much and I am ready to get this honeymoon underway.”
She pivoted and grinned up at him. “Me, too. Where are we going?”
“That’s a secret.”
“Somebody has to know.” She glanced around. “Dorothy?”
His smug smile told her nothing.
“Zelda?”
Nothing.
“Brandon?”
“What makes you think I’ve told anybody? Maybe I want complete and total privacy for the next four weeks.”
“Now that you mention it, that doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.”
“Sure you won’t miss all the meetings and all the phone calls?”
“Are you sure you won’t wish you were in some futuristic kingdom?”
“I guess we’ll just have to stay very busy,” he taunted.
“Very busy,” she agreed. “I have some ideas.”
He grinned. “I’ll just bet you do. Now how about throwing that bouquet of yours, so we can get this show on the road?”
Kate sent Davey to round up the guests for the ceremonial toss. She stood on the bottom step, took one last peek over her shoulder, then tossed the bouquet into the air. Even without looking, she recognized the squeal of absolute delight.
She turned and walked back to Zelda and gave the redhead a hug, then linked Zelda’s arm through hers. “Come on. There’s somebody here I definitely want you to meet.”
Laughing, they crossed the lawn together until they were in front of Brandon Halloran. Kate winked at him, gestured toward the bouquet clutched tightly in Zelda’s hands and said, “Okay, do your thing.”
Then she looked around for her husband and her stepson. Her family. When she found them at last, a sigh shimmered through her. It might have taken a long time for her to come to this moment, but she wouldn’t have traded the adventure that lay ahead for anything.
* * * * *
Turn the page for a special sneak peak at Sherryl Wood’s new Sweet Magnolias novel, Swan Point.
Chapter One
Adelia watched with her heart in her throat as the m
oving van pulled away from the crumbling curb in Swan Point, one of the oldest and, at one time, finest neighborhoods in Serenity, South Carolina. With moss-draped oaks in perfectly maintained yards backing up to a small, man-made lake, which was home to several swans, the houses had been large and stately by early standards.
Now, though, most of the homes, like this one, were showing signs of age. She found something fitting about the prospect of filling this historic old house with laughter and giving it a new lease on life. It would be as if the house and her family were moving into the future together.
Letting go of the old life, however, was proving more difficult than she’d anticipated. Drawing in a deep breath, she turned to deal with the accusing looks of her four children, who weren’t nearly as convinced as she was that they were about to have an exciting fresh start.
Her youngest, Tomas, named for his grandfather on her ex-husband’s side of the family, turned to her with tears streaming down his cheeks. “Mommy, I don’t like it here. I want to go home. This house is old. It smells funny. And there’s no pool.”
She knelt down in front of the eight-year-old and gathered him close, gathered all of them close, even her oldest, Selena.
It was Selena who understood better than any of them why this move had been necessary. While they all knew that Adelia and their father had divorced, Selena had seen Ernesto more than once with one of his mistresses. In a move that defied logic or compassion, he’d even had the audacity to introduce the most recent woman to Selena while he and Adelia were still making a pretense at least of trying to keep their marriage intact. His action had devastated Selena and it had been the final straw for Adelia. She’d seen at last that tolerating such disrespect was the wrong example to set for her three girls and even for her son.
“I know you’d rather be in our old house,” she comforted them with a hitch in her voice. “But it’s just not possible. This is home now. I really think you’re going to love it once we get settled in.”
She ruffled Tomas’s hair. “And don’t worry about the funny smell. It’s just been shut up for a few months. It’ll smell fine once we air it out and put fresh paint on the walls.” She injected a deliberately cheerful note into her voice. “We can all sit down and decide how we want to fix it up. Then you can go with me to the hardware store to pick out the paint colors for your rooms.”
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