Those Sweet Words

by Kait Nolan

  “The law is not about what people want but about what’s right,” Lydia said.

  “Miss Coogan, you will not tell me in my own courtroom about what the law is or is not.”

  Flynn stood up. “Your honor, if I may have permission to speak? I’d like to address the allegations Miss Coogan has leveled against us.”

  “Granted.” The judge leaned back in his seat and waited.

  “I arrived in Eden’s Ridge the last week of June, just a few days before Kennedy’s wedding. That was the first time I met Pru. We were attracted to each other, and after the wedding, I opted to extend my stay to pursue that attraction.”

  Pru appreciated him leaving out the part where she’d propositioned him.

  “When Miss Coogan became aware of the intimate nature of our relationship, I’m the one who lied in an effort to protect Pru. I’m not from here. I didn’t know anything about how your foster system worked. But I wasn’t willing for her involvement with me to in any way endanger her adoption of Ari. It was my lie. And I’m the one who convinced her and Ari and Kennedy, who I have known for years, to go along with it. I changed all my plans, and I stayed to make sure that everything happened as it should. And I fell in love with her. I fell in love with them both. I don’t know at what point the lie became real, but it did.”

  Flynn turned to look at her, and Pru could swear there was apology in his eyes as he said, “I love this woman. It may not have been for as long as we claimed, but that doesn’t make it any less real.”

  Pru smiled at him, so relieved to have him on her side, this whole ordeal seemed just a little less scary.

  He turned back to the judge. “Don’t judge Pru’s fitness as a parent based on her behavior since I came into her life. She is an amazing mother, and Ari shouldn’t be anywhere else. I’m the problem in all of this. I’m the reason we’re standing here. I’m the reason Miss Coogan wants to take Ari away.” He paused, his throat working, before he squared his shoulders and looked at Judge Moseley. “So take me out of the equation. Let Ari stay with her mother, and I’ll go.”

  There was a sound like a dying animal. A short, sharp cry of pain. Pru didn’t realize it had come from her until everybody turned to look at her. But she could only stare at Flynn.

  He was going to leave her. After everything they’d been through, he was going to leave. She’d be alone. Again. The shock of it was a stunning agony that left her breathless.

  “No.” The word came out barely above a whisper.

  But Flynn heard it. He took a step toward her, his face twisted with regret. “Mo chroí—”

  Ari exploded up from her seat. “Why are adults so stupid?”

  Horrified, Pru reached for her, but the girl jerked away.

  “The rules are stupid!” Her shout echoed through the courtroom, all her teenage outrage spilling out in a torrent. “Flynn loves Pru. Period. End of story. Why should it matter when or for how long or why? The three of us are better together, and only a total moron would think otherwise.”

  It was all too much. Pru’s world was positively crumbling around her. Flynn had just stabbed her through the heart, and her child was pitching a hissy fit in front of the man who would be deciding her fate. Somehow, she kept her voice even. “Honey, we don’t call people stupid or morons.”

  She stamped her foot, flinging her arms out to encompass the entire assembly of adults in the room. “But they are, Mom!”

  Robert cleared his throat in a way that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. “Uh, your honor, I beg the court’s indulgence to present some additional evidence as to the verisimilitude of the relationship between Miss Reynolds and Mr. Bohannon.”

  “What evidence?” Lydia Coogan demanded. She might have said more, but a sharp glance from Judge Moseley shut her up.

  “Counselor, approach the bench please.”

  Robert moved to the front of the courtroom and spoke to the judge in a low voice. Pru kept her eyes on him. She didn’t dare look at Flynn again. Not after that whole speech. She’d break, and she didn’t have that luxury.

  “Very well, you may proceed.”

  With what? Pru wondered.

  Robert strode to the back of the courtroom and opened the doors. “Come on in.”

  People poured into the courtroom—Abbey, Logan, Porter, Ford McIntosh, Crystal, Reverend Hodgeson, Denver, Cayla, Clyde Parker, Kacy and her parents. They kept on coming, until it seemed half the population of Eden’s Ridge filled the rows of seats.

  Pru leaned back to whisper to Kennedy, “What are they all doing here?”

  “I called them.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I knew he was going to do this, and I wanted you both to have a fighting chance.”

  One after another, Robert called people up and asked them questions about Flynn, about their impressions of him, his involvement with the community since he came to Eden’s Ridge, and about his relationship with Pru. One after another, they supported Pru and Flynn, as a couple and as prospective parents. With each testimony, Lydia Coogan’s face flushed further.

  When everyone was through, Robert faced the judge. “I believe evidence indicates the legitimacy of the relationship and the type of parents Miss Reynolds and Mr. Bohannon actually are.”

  Judge Moseley looked at Flynn. “Mr. Bohannon, you claim to love this woman.”

  “With all my heart, sir.”

  “Do you actually want to leave her?”

  Flynn turned his gaze on Pru and she felt the punch of it down to her marrow. “No. I’d sooner have my fiddle hand broken.”

  “And do you actually want to walk away from this child?”

  “Absolutely not, your honor.”

  The judge looked to the disgruntled social worker. “Your issue with this is?”

  “They lied,” she repeated, as if that outweighed everything else.

  “About the length of their relationship. Were the intimacies of that relationship conducted in front of the child?”

  “No! Of course not,” Pru said.

  “Then the child is endangered by this how, exactly?” Judge Moseley asked. “Because from where I’m sitting, I see a man who has turned his life upside down for love of them both. I hardly think that’s a poor environment to raise a child in.”

  “What kind of a person gets engaged after a matter of days?” Lydia demanded. “How is that proof of a solid relationship?”

  “I met and married my wife in a month, Miss Coogan,” Judge Moseley said. “We just celebrated our fortieth anniversary. Sometimes, you just know.”

  The woman began to sputter. “But…the rules. They exist for a reason.”

  Judge Moseley looked at Ari and winked. “Sometimes the rules are stupid. Injunction denied.”

  The slamming of his gavel was the best sound Pru had ever heard.

  Everybody in the courtroom cheered. Ari leapt up and threw her arms around Kennedy.

  Flynn closed the distance between them and pulled her into a tight embrace. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I made you cry.” He wiped away her tears. “But it’s over. We won.”

  “You were going to leave.” The truth of that, even now, had her wanting to crumble.

  Regret streaked over his face. “It would have killed me. But I didn’t see another choice.” He stroked her cheek. “Forgive me?”

  “Partners,” she reminded him, taking a fistful of his shirt and giving him a shake. “That was the deal we made. That means no more self-sacrificing decisions that don’t include me.”

  “Never again,” he promised.

  As pressed his lips to hers, Pru felt her world shift back to its proper axis.

  “Thankfully some of us were a little less extreme in our planning,” Kennedy said, arm hooked around Ari’s shoulders.

  Head resting against Flynn’s chest, Pru smiled at her sister. “Thank you.”

  Athena and Maggie clustered around them, each adding an arm to the family chain.

  “I’d say a celebration is in o
rder,” Maggie said.

  “What’s an appropriate celebration for aversion of epic disaster combined with an engagement? Athena asked.

  “I’d say Ari gets to pick,” Xander added, coming to stand behind his wife.

  “There is only one right answer to this question,” Ari said, meeting Flynn’s gaze. Grinning at each other, they shouted, “Pizza!”

  Epilogue

  “I’M SO GLAD YOU could make it!” Pru gave Mae a careful hug.

  The older woman squeezed her hard. “I wouldn’t have missed this for the world. I’m sorry my surgery and recovery kept me out of the loop for so long and brought you trouble.”

  They both looked across the room to where Ari and Flynn stood in animated conversation with his sister and brother-in-law beneath a hand-lettered banner that declared Happy Gotcha Day, Ari!

  “It all worked out in the end. As of this afternoon, we’re completely legit. Judge Moseley signed off on the adoption.” She and Flynn were officially parents to a precocious fourteen-year-old girl, and life would never be the same again.

  “That’s wonderful! Your mother would be so pleased.”

  Pru felt an ache amid all the happy of having the adoption complete and the house full to the rafters with family. “I wish she could be here to see this. To know Flynn and how happy he makes me. And to see our family expand again. You know how much she loved that.”

  “I do. As much as I enjoyed helping her do it. I know she’s looking down and smiling right now. She’d love seeing you and Kennedy settled.”

  “And be plotting some form of match-making to see that Maggie and Athena follow suit.” Ari hadn’t been the only hopeless romantic in the family.

  “Any likely prospects on that front?” Mae asked with interest.

  Pru glanced at Athena, who stood by the big Christmas tree with a glass of champagne, talking to Porter. “Not sure. Athena’s been dating a guy from work back in Chicago for the past couple of months.” Apparently whatever had passed between her and Logan at the wedding had been a one-time thing. If Logan was bothered by that, he hadn’t let on. “And Maggie is…Maggie. A workaholic to the core.”

  “Their time will come,” Mae said, with a knowing smile. “Love comes when you least expect it.”

  “Ain’t it the truth,” Pru agreed. “You know, it helps, having you here. It makes me miss Mom a little bit less.”

  “She’d be so proud of what you’ve done here with the inn. And what is it going on next door?”

  “Our day spa is finally finished. We did a soft launch and an open house last week so we can start selling gift certificates in time for the holidays, but we don’t have the grand opening until after the new year.” Pru looped an arm through Mae’s. “You should schedule an appointment. We’ll give you the family discount.”

  Mae beamed. “I will absolutely do that! Now, why don’t you introduce me to your Flynn?”

  “Gladly.” Pru escorted her through the crowd of people who’d shown up for the adoption party. “Flynn, I want you to meet Mae Bradley, a dear family friend. Mae, my fiancé, Flynn Bohannon.”

  Flynn grinned and took Mae’s hand. “Miss Bradley, I’ve heard many good things. You’re recovering well from surgery?”

  “Slowly but surely, thank you. Congratulations on your new family.”

  He hooked an arm around Ari’s shoulders. “I have the best daughter in the world, and that’s the truth of it.”

  Ari snuggled in, a matching grin on her face. “We’ll pretend he isn’t biased.”

  “I’m not biased. My entire family agrees, don’t you?”

  The Bohannons—all six of them, who’d come over from Ireland for the adoption—shouted agreement.

  “There, you see?”

  His mother Moira laughed. “He’s a proud da.”

  “And a good one,” Ari declared.

  “The best,” Pru murmured, her eyes going misty.

  “Here now, there’ll be no tears today, mo mhuirnín.” Flynn tipped her face up for a kiss.

  “Happy tears,” Pru promised. “I’ve been a little watery all day.”

  “A woman’s entitled to cry a few happy tears on the day she gains a daughter.” Moira punctuated the pronouncement with a lift of her glass.

  “Oh, I don’t have anything to toast with.”

  She tucked an arm through Pru’s. “Then let’s rectify that, shall we?” Before Pru could object, she was being steered toward the kitchen.

  Once they were away from the others, Moira plucked some tissues from a box and handed them over. “There now. I thought you could use a minute.”

  Pru sniffed and dabbed at her eyes. “Thanks. I’m so happy today. It’s just, I’m missing my mother.”

  “Sure, and it’s no wonder. I know you wish she were here.”

  “So much. I wish she could’ve known Flynn. He’s such a very good man, and I’m so lucky he came into my life.”

  Moira skimmed a hand over Pru’s hair in a gesture so redolent of Joan, it made her throat ache. “I didn’t know your mother, but I’ve gotten to know you these past months. It takes a fine woman to raise someone as wonderful as you. We’re delighted you’ll be part of our family.”

  “Oh, Moira.” Pru felt the waterworks starting up again. “Thank you. I can only hope that I do half as good a job with Ari.”

  “You and Flynn have taken to parenthood beautifully, you have. Ari’s a darlin’ girl.”

  “She makes it easy. She’s a great kid.”

  “She absolutely is. We’re all besotted with her.” She plucked a glass off a tray on the counter and handed it to Pru. “Now that the adoption is finalized, the two of you should be looking toward picking a wedding date. That should be sooner rather than later, I’m thinkin’.” Moira's eyes, so like Flynn’s, twinkled.

  Pru blinked at her, then looked down at the glass of sparkling cider she’d picked up instead of champagne. “I…oh my God.”

  “Leaked like a sieve with both of mine,” she said cheerfully.

  Pru felt faint. “I need to talk to Flynn.”

  Her future mother-in-law grinned and wrapped her in a hug. “Topping off a day of joy with more joy is always a good idea.”

  In something of a daze, Pru wandered back into the party. She must have looked as shell-shocked as she felt, because he immediately broke away and crossed to her.

  “What is it?”

  “I need some air.” She laced her fingers with his. Kennedy caught her eye from across the room and started forward, but Pru just shook her head. With their family, this wasn’t a secret that would stay secret long. But Flynn needed to be the first to know.

  They stepped out into the early winter dark. The chill made her skin pebble, but she relished the good, clean air. It didn’t seem like her lungs were working quite right. She pulled Flynn around the corner, then just turned and burrowed into his arms. They came around her in an instant.

  “What’s wrong, agra?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. I’m happy. I’m so damned happy, Flynn.” She lifted her face and knew she was starting to cry again.

  He brushed at the tears and offered a sympathetic smile. “Sure, and there’s plenty of reason for it. We gained a daughter today.”

  Pru sucked in a breath and stepped back, laying a hand on her belly. “We gained more than that.”

  Flynn just stared at her. “I don’t understand.”

  “You’re a father twice over.”

  “I’m—” His mouth dropped open and he covered her hand with his. “Truly?”

  “I haven’t taken a test yet, but I think so.”

  Flynn scooped her off her feet with a whoop. “This is wonderful!”

  “Really? You’re not upset?”

  “Upset? Why would I be upset?”

  “Well, we weren’t exactly planning on this.”

  “Mo stór, we haven’t exactly planned on anything, and life with you has been the best possible surprise. I love you.”

  The kiss he laid o
n her left no doubt of that.

  “We have to tell Ari,” he said.

  “Not yet. Let’s wait. I don’t want her to feel like her day is overshadowed.”

  “Are you kidding? This is awesome!”

  With a laugh, Pru dropped her head to Flynn’s chest as Ari bounced out from around the corner of the house. “You’re never going to stop eavesdropping, are you?”

  “Probably not. Then I’d miss all the good stuff. I’m really gonna have a sister or brother?”

  “Looks that way. It seems the Reynolds-Bohannon family is going to be expanding faster than we’d expected.” Pru rocked back on her heels as Ari threw her arms around them both.

  “Best. Day. Ever.”

  As she stood in a tangle of arms with the man she loved and the child of her heart, Pru couldn’t help but agree.

  A Note From Kait

  I hope you’ve enjoyed this visit to Eden’s Ridge. I’ve had a lot of fun branching out to explore a new setting and enjoyed the challenge of making something entirely different from my Wishful series. The saga will continue this spring with Athena’s story, and you can probably look for one of my Meet Cute Romances about Abbey in the meantime.

  Be sure you’re signed up for my newsletter so you don’t miss the release! http://kaitnolan.com/free-copy-be-careful-its-my-heart/ You’ll get a free copy of Be Careful, It’s My Heart, Book 2 in my Wishful series.

  You can also like my page on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/kaitnolanwriter

  Anyway, thanks for reading! And if you loved the book, please consider leaving a review or telling a friend. These days, it's harder than ever to get a new book noticed. Many of the promotional opportunities out there require a minimum number of reviews—10 at the low end, 50+ at the high. If you enjoyed this book, taking just a minute of your time to click the star rating and write a few words would help me tremendously, and allow me to continue to bring you the stories you enjoy.

  Other Books By Kait Nolan

  Contemporary Romance