Elementary, My Dear Watkins
Page 34
Now, here she was, at the altar. Looking into Danny’s eyes, she savored his very strong and absolute “I do.” When she said her “I do” too, there was a ripple of relief through the congregation, followed by laughter. Jo and Danny laughed too, as did the pastor. This time, the wedding was actually going to go through.
The pastor did a beautiful job, talking about the gifts of friendship and faith and their place as the foundation of a solid marriage. At the end of the ceremony, after lighting a candle together and making their vows and exchanging wedding rings, the pastor spoke the final words they had all been waiting to hear.
“And now, Danny Watkins and Josephine Tulip, by the grace of God and the authority vested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”
Danny took his time about it. As the congregation was hushed behind them, Danny tenderly placed a hand on each side of Jo’s face and looked into her eyes. He leaned forward and brought his mouth toward hers. Their lips met, their kiss containing every treasure of their past, every promise of their future.
When they finally pulled apart, the congregation and the attendants all burst into applause.
“How did I manage to end up with the blessing of you as my wife?” Danny asked Jo over the din, wrapping her into a tight embrace.
“Elementary, my dear Watkins,” she told him in return, her eyes glowing with happy tears. “Because from the very moment that we met, it was God’s plan. He knew all along, even if we didn’t.”
Sharing a smile, Jo and Danny joined hands, the sound of trumpets pealed from the organ, and they started down the aisle together. As they went, Jo sent up one final prayer of thanks.
Then she looked over at the man by her side, knowing that he wasn’t just her husband now, or the future father of their children, or the man of her biggest dreams.
He was, and always had been, her very best friend.
EPILOGUE
Four Months Later
Jo stood far back from the yellow line as the train pulled into the station. Once the train came to a complete stop, Danny squeezed her hand, flashed her a smile, and then they both stepped forward and climbed on board.
After doing so much travel throughout Europe, they had gotten the whole train thing down to a science. This was the last leg of their European tour before they would return to Mulberry Glenn and normal life. While Jo was eager to get back home, she would also miss the excitement of life on the road. She couldn’t believe she had ever hated travel, because the past few months had been a dream come true.
They found their compartment, settled in, and then pulled out the map to see the route the train would be taking. They’d be rattling through some gorgeous countryside today, as their final stop was Salzburg, Austria. There, they would be meeting up with Kalunga Bashiri, who was in town for a photo shoot about Mozart’s birthplace. Danny and Mr. Bashiri had had a lot of conversations in the last few weeks and had come up with an exciting new arrangement. Rather than allow various magazines to send liaisons of their own choosing on assignments, Mr. Bashiri had simply hired Danny to fill the permanent position as his Travel Liaison/Photography Assistant. With the older man’s health as it was, he would only be taking on two or three one-week assignments per year, which sounded just about perfect to Jo and Danny. That way, Danny could have the best of both worlds without having to sacrifice much time away from his family. Sometimes Jo would even be coming along too, just for fun.
She looked over at Danny, who was still studying the map, and she couldn’t help but smile to herself. She had two secrets to tell him, one of which she had learned from Mr. Bashiri over the phone last night. It seemed that the decisions had been made by Scene It magazine for the photo spread of the refugees. One of Danny’s pictures, snapped from atop a ladder in the GMM warehouse, was going to be included in the piece. Danny would get his first photo credit in a major magazine. Seeing as how the magazine would be coming out around the same time as the movie poster, Jo knew that his career was finally coming together just as he’d always dreamed.
As for her career, surprisingly, she had managed to tap into a whole new market for household hints. With her agent’s help back home, Jo had created a new “sister” column called “Travel with Tulip.” From tips on packing a suitcase to doing laundry on the road to choosing accommodations wisely, the column was rapidly gaining in popularity and had just been sold as a package deal on alternating days with Tips from Tulip for syndication. Finally, Jo had taken the legacy of her grandmother and built it back up to the market share it deserved.
Not only were things going well in both of their careers, but Jo and Danny had already begun to get involved with the Bosworth Charitable Trust on the side. They had managed to secure one large grant already, to apply toward the study of pharmaceutical solutions for certain orphan diseases. Danny had found a top-notch medical team working to find a cure for Buruli ulcers, and he had convinced Jo that the best way they could help was by providing research dollars. All in all, Jo thought she was really going to enjoy being a philanthropist.
“What are you smiling about?” Danny asked, glancing up to catch her looking at him.
“I have two secrets for you,” she replied, and then she went on to tell him about the photograph in Scene It. He was ecstatic, pulling her in for a lengthy kiss and promising her they would celebrate tonight in the fanciest restaurant in Salzburg.
“What’s the other secret?” he asked, entwining his fingers with hers, his blue eyes sparkling.
She looked at him for a long moment, thinking how very right they had both been when they thought that friendship would make a good foundation for a marriage. Truly, having Danny as a husband had exceeded her every expectation. He was fun and funny and smart and passionate and loving and tender and in every way so much more than she’d ever dreamed. She spent a lot of time these days feeling grateful to God for His wisdom and blessings.
“Well?” Danny prodded. “Was it something from your conversation last night with Alexa?”
The girl was doing very well, living with the Stebbins and going to the newly renamed Bosworth School for the Gifted. Alexa had said that she might not know as much as her peers, but she was catching up by leaps and bounds. Her favorite class was science, and she’d been thinking about becoming a doctor when she grew up. She wanted to impact lives much as her foster father had.
According to Eleanor, who had fully recovered from her thyroid scare, the announcement at the symposium about Fibrin-X had gone over better than anyone had expected, and the drug was already in what they called “Phase 3B” trials. The financial impact on the pharmaceutical company had yet to be seen, but if Jo knew her father, she knew he’d find a way to make it work out. According to all reports, Ian had received the Fibrin-X himself and was doing wonderfully. He was working with a behavioral therapist to change a lifetime of compensating habits now that his ADHD had been cured.
“Well?” Danny prodded.
“Nope. It has nothing to do with Alexa.”
“Is it about Chewie?”
Oh, how she missed Chewie! He was living with Harv and doing fine, but Jo would be so glad when they were finally reunited. The whole arrangement had worked out perfectly, because at the end of the year Harv would be moving into a retirement village that didn’t allow pets, and he said that this gave him one last chance to have a dog before then.
“Okay, then what’s your secret about?” Danny asked. “From the look on your face, it’s a big one.”
Jo was unable to keep from grinning.
“Yes, it’s a big one,” she said. “It’s about the new construction on the house.”
“Did you make a decision on a contractor?” he asked, as he knew that Jo wanted to get the work for their home expansion planned out and started as soon as they got back.
“Yes,” she said, “but I think we’ll have to change the timetable a little bit.”
Jo thought of the errand she had run yesterday evening while Danny was busy o
n the phone with Mr. Bashiri. Fortunately, the pharmacies in Europe carried pregnancy testing kits, complete with instructions in English.
“Oh?” he asked. “How’s that?”
“We need to make that extra bedroom a priority.”
“Why?”
“Because by my calculations,” Jo said tenderly, reaching out to touch his face, “we’re going to need it in about eight months for a nursery. The only question is whether we should paint it pink or blue.”
About the Author
Discover the First Smart Chick Mystery
THE TROUBLE WITH TULIP
“I have a solution for every situation…
Except my own love life and, oh yeah,
the dead body next door.”
Helpful Hints and Homicides
Meet Josephine Tulip—definitely a smart chick. She’s a twenty-first century female MacGyver who writes a helpful hints column and stumbles on dead bodies in her spare time.
Meet Danny Watkins, Jo’s best friend. He’s a talented photographer who longs to have his work appear on a cover of National Geographic but finds himself taking prom photos and pet portraits instead.
Together, this mismatched duo works to solve a local murder—much to the dismay of the police, who are hoping for an open-and-shut case. But there’s something not quite right about the evidence. Jo knows it and Danny believes her.
Turns out, sleuthing brings out the best…and the worst…in their relationship. As Jo tries to solve the mystery in her neighborhood, she realizes she’s facing an even bigger mystery—what’s going on in her heart?
Discover the Second Smart Chick Mystery
BLIND DATES CAN BE MURDER
“Simple solutions are my specialty…
So why is my love life so complicated?”
Blind Dates Give Everyone the Shivers
Poor Jo Tulip. She’s a sassy single woman full of household hints and handy advice for every situation…except matters of her heart. Her first romantic outing in months is a blind date—okay, the Hall of Fame of Awful Blind Dates—but things go from bad to worse when the date drops dead and Jo finds herself smack in the middle of a murder investigation.
Poor Danny Watkins. He loves Jo but doesn’t know how to tell her. They have been best friends since childhood, and Jo considers him only a pal. As Danny helps Jo with the investigation, he waits for the perfect moment to tell her how he feels about her. When that moment arrives, however, Danny is surprised to find that the outcome isn’t at all what he expected.
With Danny’s help, Jo attempts to solve one complicated mystery while trying to figure out another—what on earth is going on with her love life?