Epilogue Shawn
Two years later.
Waves crash into the beach, the steady sound something I’m still not used to, even though we moved to Hope Springs just over a year ago when we got back from our honeymoon.
This place is just—it’s perfect.
Or maybe that’s the woman who is sharing it with me.
Dressed in a bright yellow two-piece swimsuit, Beckett lies beside me, her hand resting on her slightly swollen stomach.
The smile on my face is one I’ve been wearing for the last five months. Ever since we got the news from Doc that we were expecting. A baby.
Once I crossed forty, I honestly didn’t think a family was in the cards for me. But I should have remembered: Nothing is impossible with God. And all is in His timing.
Beckett cracks open one eye and turns to look at me. “What are you looking at?”
“The same thing I can’t stop looking at.” I roll over onto my stomach and wrap an arm around her. Leaning down, I press a kiss to her lips.
When I pull away, Beckett’s cheeks are flush with color. “You are trouble, Officer,” she replies.
I grin. “Always.”
After accepting an offer to come here and work as acting sheriff until they voted in a new one, I’d never expected this relocation to become permanent.
But Jaxson Payne and the rest of the guys at Knight Security put in a good word for me on Beckett’s behalf, and before I knew it, the mayor was pinning a badge on me and congratulating me for being elected Sheriff of Hope Springs, Maine.
Seems Sheriff Vick had been wanting to retire for quite some time now and didn’t have anyone willing to take his place. Until he got word I planned to move to town.
Beckett opened a small practice here in town, too, and hired Lauren to work a summer internship. She’s decided that becoming a lawyer is her calling, and I know Beckett was beside herself when she asked to come shadow her.
The two of them have built a bond that I think neither of them thought would be possible.
It warms my heart.
Especially since, last Sunday, Lauren was baptized right here at the church in town. We’ve become a rather interesting family, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I could lie here forever,” Beckett says when I lay my head down beside her.
“Same.”
“But then we’d miss dinner with our moms, and I think they might have a problem with that,” she replies.
I groan even though there’s a smile on my face. Beckett’s mom and mine rented opposite sides of a duplex from the town’s librarian, Carmen, and her husband, Caleb. They’ve become best friends over the past two years and are practically inseparable.
Hence, the weekly dinners they host, each alternating whose house it’s held at.
“I’m sure they’d understand,” I reply.
“Then you can call and tell them. Because I know for a fact your mom’s been baking up a storm.”
Once again, I groan and roll onto my back. “Fine. But ten more minutes. This is the first day off we’ve both had in weeks, and I, for one, want to enjoy it.”
“Ooh.” She grabs her stomach, and worries race through me.
“What is it? Is the baby—”
“Kicking,” she replies with a laugh. “Here. Feel.” Taking my hand, she places it on the side of her belly right as my son kicks again.
Joy consumes me.
A dad.
I’m going to be a dad.
“I love you so much,” I tell her.
“I love you, too,” she replies with a wide smile. Tears shimmer in the corners of her eyes, and I know she’s eating up every moment of this pregnancy, just like I am. There’s no explanation for it, no reason why she couldn’t conceive before and then suddenly could—though we know it was God.
He gifted us this baby.
This beautiful little miracle.
I lie back down on the towel and hold an arm out. Beckett scoots closer and rests her head in the crook of my arm as I wrap it around her and press a kiss to the top of her head.
This life is so much more than I ever dared to want.
Yet, here I am, blessed beyond measure. With a wife I love more than life itself and a baby on the way.
Even when I thought I had everything planned out, God surprised me by completely upending my life. Those hours when I couldn’t find Beckett were the worst of my life, but they led to the best.
Because, if she’d never walked into my precinct, I wouldn’t be lying here with her now.
I close my eyes and smile. God, thank You for being there in every moment.
Thank You for bringing me here, God. You have blessed me far beyond what I ever thought I would find, and so much more than I deserved.
Thank You. Please continue to guide me so that I am the husband I need to be and the father I never had. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.
“Amen,” Beckett whispers.
“How did you know I was praying?” I ask, lifting my head to look at her.
She smiles. “Because I was thanking Him, too.”
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you loved Beckett and Shawn’s story! You can find them both in the Hunt Brothers series (specifically Romeo) as well as find Beckett in the Coastal Hope series (she’s introduced in Tactical Revival).