by Ann, Natalie
“I’m so glad you’re fine, Dad. Well…you will be fine. I don’t know what I would do if something happened to you too.” She was crying again; she couldn’t help it. Joy. She was so happy he was awake and alert, but she was still emotionally charged over the idea that she might have lost him.
“Nothing is going to happen to me. Your mother made me get my ass back to you, to keep you and Drew in line.”
She was so used to him talking about her mother. She wasn’t even surprised by it. “Did she now?”
“She did. She said I had to make sure you and Drew made the right choices in life.”
“I think I’m doing a good job making the right choices, at least now,” she amended and looked over at Alec. He was smiling at her, so nothing could be wrong in her world right now, regardless of the nightmare she just relived about her past.
Alec stood up and walked over to the bed, stopped and looked down at Andy. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep her in line, you have my word. She’ll always be the first, last and the most important thing in my life.”
Andy smiled, looked at Brynn, then back to Alec. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
Epilogue
“Is that your father again?”
Brynn looked up from her phone. “No, it’s Drew. He’s complaining about my father’s complaining.” She chuckled and put her phone back away. “So where are we going?”
Alec looked over at her and grinned. They’d returned from their trip to Aruba a few weeks ago. They waited until they knew Andy was well on his way to recovery and Brynn felt comfortable enough leaving him for a week, and comfortable enough leaving work.
He’d had to pressure her to pick a date. After Andy’s accident, she hadn’t wanted to leave. When Andy was finally released from the hospital, he and Brynn went home for a few days of work, and then Brynn returned for another week to help Drew out. She made the trip on the weekends to relieve Drew, who had moved in with Andy to help care for him until he was moving easily on his crutches.
Though Brynn didn’t make the trip back as often now, she still spoke with her father and brother daily, listening to Andy complaining about Drew’s hovering and Drew complaining about Andy’s grouchiness. Both were itching to be called back to work. Andy thankfully had been cleared to return, his leg and other injuries one hundred percent healed.
“Just out for a drive. It’s a nice day.” He looked around the lake as they drove. The snow was melting, and winter was making its way out. They actually hadn’t had much snowfall this year, which was a blessing with all the work and new homes they would be building this summer. They were just waiting to break ground in a month, fingers crossed.
“There is still so much more snow in Rochester than here. Is it normally like this?”
“No. We’ve had years where the snow isn’t gone until mid-April, sometimes May. But with the temperatures this week, it could be gone in a few days.” A full week before April first.
“Hopefully we won’t get one of those spring-time snowstorms.”
“Bite your tongue.” Alec shuddered just thinking about it. “We’ve got too much work to do.” And another house he was adding to their timeline, only she didn’t know about it.
He pulled his truck to the side of the road. “Here we are.”
“Where’s here?”
“Let’s take a walk around,” he said, ignoring her question.
They got out of the truck and walked to the edge of the property. “It looks a little wet,” she said, glancing at the ground.
“That’s why we’ve got boots on. Besides, the ground is probably still hard enough. It’s not as soggy as you think. Come on.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her forward, past the trees lining the front and skirting the ground of the small piles of snow until they were looking out at the lake.
Suddenly, she seemed to realize where they were. He was impressed because she’d only seen it once before, from the water, no less. “It’s your land.”
“It is. I wanted you to see it from the front of the property this time. What do you think of it?”
She turned full circle, looked around some more, then walked a few feet in each direction while he held his breath. “It’s perfect. Out of all the pieces you had to choose from, this one seems to have it all.”
He walked over to where she stopped halfway between the road and the lake. “It does now.” He reached up and trailed his fingers down her cheek.
Her face softened, she leaned forward and placed her lips over his. “That is so sweet.”
He was about to get sweeter. “We’ve done quite a few flips together in the last eight months, right?”
“Yes, we have.”
“And we work well together as a team. Don’t you agree?”
“I agree,” she said, smiling and humoring him, he could tell. She was so clueless.
“I never thought I’d find the woman I would be willing to go all the way and back for. The one that would center me, or ground me like you do. I’m ready to plant my feet down in one spot now. I’m ready to do it here, on this land, in a house you and I design and build together. A strong foundation. We know each house needs one. We’ve got that together.”
She stared at him, almost in shock, and he realized she was finally starting to catch on. He reached in his pocket and pulled out the closed jewelry box. He placed it in her hand with the lid still down and his hand covering it and covering hers. “Will you marry me and help me strengthen that foundation?”
Her eyes filled, and she let out a little laugh, one that seemed more like a giggle, and yelled, “Yes!”
She pulled her hand out of his, clutching the box, but not opening it. Throwing her arms around him, she hugged him tight, then kissed him quickly on the lips, again and again. “I want windows. Lots and lots of windows facing the lake.”
He laughed. That was the first thing she thought of? “Aren’t you going to look at your ring?” Most women wanted to see that before anything else.
She giggled some more, pulled out of his arms, and flipped the lid. There was no stopping her gasp. “Oh my God. It looks exactly like my mother’s ring.” And there went the tears she had simmering in her eyes. He knew the style of Colleen’s ring since he’d asked Andy weeks ago.
Brynn had mentioned her mother’s ring time and again. Andy had had it custom made, a square stone in the center and two ovals, one on either side. When Andy described it to Alec, he thought he hadn’t heard him right. Why mix a square and ovals?
But Andy explained that Colleen was the square and he was the oval, and putting them on the sides was like his arms always supporting her tight. Alec was touched by the gesture that Andy thought to design his wife’s wedding ring that way.
“It’s close.” He didn’t want to copy it exactly, so he had the ring made bigger and set in platinum, rather than yellow gold like her mother’s.
“It’s perfect.”
He slid the ring on her finger and then watched as she searched her pockets for something, but came up empty.
“Oh hell, who cares?” she said, running her hand under nose.
This woman who was always so neat, so organized and so prepared, didn’t have a tissue on her. Alec grinned, “I care. I care about you and your happiness, and the memories we’ll have here.” Something flew by his head, something small like a butterfly, but not one. It was the wrong season to have butterflies out. He didn’t know what it was, but in his mind, it was a fairy. It was Colleen giving her approval.
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