Happily, I wasn't lonely in the least. The house was bursting with family of the old and new variety. Aunt Gina had arrived two days earlier, followed by Luna and her sister, and finally, Cassie, along with my closest friends from high school.
Throughout all of this, Luna's brothers roamed the house freely, in search of – in their words – cake and free beer. Oh sure, they could claim that was their motivation for sticking around the house, but in my heart, I knew it was more than that. A blossoming family relationship? Yes. And Steve's determination to tease me about being pregnant.
Was I pregnant? Maybe. I hoped so with all my heart. The house was huge, and now that I felt more certain of keeping it, I wanted to fill it with everything that I'd lost – the sounds of laughter, the aroma of pie, and the knowledge that no matter what, Joel and I would weather whatever storms came our way.
To everyone's surprise except my own, Joel had asked Jake to be his best man, and although Cassie was my maid of honor, I invited Luna to be a bridesmaid – partly to keep Jake focused on the actual wedding and also because I had a sneaky suspicion that Luna – and maybe her sister, too – would be part of the big family that I'd been longing to have.
Speaking of family, a better person might've invited my Uncle Ernie and Vivian to share in the festivities. But I didn't, and not only because they'd surely be unpleasant. I mean, seriously, who wants to spend their own wedding day keeping a watchful eye on the good china?
Not me. That was for sure.
I had something better to keep my eye on, and his name was Joel, the guy who made my life complete in too many ways to count.
Just after noon, with me in my mom's wedding dress and Joel in a borrowed tux, we said "I do" overlooking the endless waters of Lake Michigan, surrounded by everyone we loved best – even if all of them were a little crazy.
But that was family, right?
Epilogue
One Year Later
I couldn’t be sure of the exact moment it happened, but just over nine months later, all of that so-called work paid off, when Joel and I welcomed into this world Braydon Joel Bishop – the first of what we both hoped would be a whole houseful of kids.
Shortly after our marriage, the lawyer had made all of his happy predictions come true by transferring estate-management, not to another law firm, but directly to me and Joel.
As far as the money itself, except for what was needed for critical home repairs, most of it was still in the trust, where it kept growing under the watchful eye of a new, and extremely good, financial manager.
And even if that weren't the case, Joel and I wouldn't have been hurting for money. At Joel's premiere art show, demand for his paintings was so high, the gallery owners practically had to sell tickets.
His most popular painting? A new mother who looked an awful lot like me. And yes, I did buy that one, even if I did have to bid like crazy to get it.
Between a new marriage, a new baby, and a new outlook on life, I was busy in the best possible way. Already, the house was in a lot better shape, which was a very good thing, because our family – which included our crazy extended family – was filling the house with everything that had been missing.
I never did finish my art history degree. Who knows? Maybe I would someday, but for now, I was happy making art history with the guy I loved.
The End
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© Copyright 2017 by Sabrina Stark
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except for brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
Something True (Joel Bishop Book 2) Page 23
