Whispers on the Mountain: The Hart Family of Moonshine Ridge

Epilogue 1

5 months later

Zephyr

”Could you please remind your grandmother that I have ten-week-old twins?”

I can hear Terra”s terse voice through her texts.

”I would like my husband to be home when he”s off duty, not down at the general store waiting for a locksmith from the valley because ”someone” changed all Alice”s locks without mentioning it.”

Whatever truce our grandmother”s agreed to ended when Raine and April got married a couple of years ago.

This morning, Alice found she couldn”t open the store because the locks had been changed and now my bestie”s husband, our local sheriff”s deputy, is sitting in a snowed-in parking lot waiting on a locksmith instead of being home with his wife and new babies.

”I”ll remind her.”I type out.

”Are you all moved?”

I look around at the company house that I officially share with August now. We decided to make this our full-time place; it has four bedrooms that August is eager to fill with cradles and cribs and it”s much closer to his job which makes me feel better in winters like we”re having this year when we already have a few feet of snow up here.

We”ll keep the cottage as our love nest, or rather, my business headquarters. Since I still have the gardens and the bee hives in the Gulch, I”ll use the spare room for my office while I build my floral empire.

”Yep. All moved now.”

”Any news?”

August put a ring on my finger officially a month ago so that”s when I sent Hayle the email asking if he”s still going to give me away at my wedding.

”Yeah, actually...”

I wasn”t sure if I should expect any kind of reply at all. God knows, my oldest brother hasn”t bothered to stay in touch with any of us since he disappeared five years ago.

”Well? What happened?”

”Did he finally answer?”

”Is he coming back?”

Three more of Terra”s texts bombard me while I”m trying to answer her.

Sifting through the messages, I find the one in question and copy/paste it into my conversation with Tee.

””OMW””is all it says.

”So, WTF does that mean?”Terra asks.

I shoot off a shrug emoji.

”I guess that means he”s on his way.”

She responds with an eyeroll and goes silent. Twins must have woken up.

”Ready to go?” August”s hand splays between my shoulder blades as he bends to kiss the top of my head, ”I”d like to be back before late.”

”We can stay at the cottage,” I remind him.

”Good point. Why don”t we just plan on that? That way no one has to drive.”

His intonation isn”t lost on me. Augustus says I”m a kinky drunk but it”s so much more fun when he can drink with me.

We”re going down to Mom”s for dinner, so we”ll be able to walk back to the cottage afterward.

We went so many years all of us living in our own little bubbles, I”m not about to miss out on the family bonding that we”re just beginning to work on.

This family dinner routine is new for us since Gran and Mom mended old fences and, since June and Donner showed up, Cane”s even mellowed out some.

Looking down at the message on my phone before I close the app, I wonder how that”s going to change if Hayle is really coming home.