Epilogue
We sat at a table overlooking the turquoise sea, the sun glittering in the sunlight.
Demetri reached out for my hand and smiled as I put mine in his.
I heard him expel a loud contented sigh.
The sun was beating down and the waves gently lapped against the small stone wall which surrounded the restaurant area in which we were sat.
A waitress came over with a tray of drinks and placed them all on the table in front of us, next to a small vase filled with vibrant sprigs of summer flowers, a contrast against the cool white tiles of the tabletop.
I echoed Demetri’s sigh, taking in a deep breath of the fresh, salty air. Voices from the occupants of a small wooden fishing boat in the harbour turned our heads as they laughed and joked with each other.
‘I think this one is yours, Katrina.’ I moved her cup over to where she was sitting opposite me.
The handsome, tall man who approached Katrina bent down and she reached up to kiss him, love radiating from the whole of her body.
I was glad she’d found someone else. It was time that she had someone in her life who loved her in the way she deserved.
Demetri had been right when he’d told me she was a wonderful person.
She really was. Her daughter came first in everything she did, even in her love life, and she had laid down the law with Andreas, telling him how the land lay.
Luckily, he was so in love with them both that it wasn’t an issue at all for him and he had taken Athena on as if she were his own.
I had been studying him as he had played with Athena on the sand, twirling her around, and her squeals of delight were a joy to experience.
It was good for her to have a permanent male influence in her life and she clearly adored him, just as much as he her.
Katrina’s gaze connected with mine and we shared a knowing smile.
I picked up the large pink drink and looked around us.
‘And this strawberry milkshake must be for… Now, let me think.’ I chewed the inside of my lip, pretending to work it out.
‘Me!’ yelled Athena.
‘Of course it is. Here you go, sweetie.’
‘Thank you, Aunty Chelle.’ Such a polite little girl, whose English was coming on a treat, and I thought about what a great job her mother had done of bringing her up.
I wasn’t sure what she was really thinking but Demetri and Katrina had sat her down and explained the situation to her.
She was only six but took in everything that went on around her and seemed to take the news in her stride.
She was a little sweetheart whom I’d come to enjoy having in my life.
I may not have been a mother myself, but the feelings I had towards this little one had made me realise that it wasn’t always blood that made you feel maternal and also not always blood that made you family.
That families came in all shapes and sizes.
Being an aunty to Athena, as well as to Ava and Mia, was pretty cool.
It was probably one of my favourite jobs in the world.
A wet, cold nose touched my leg and made me jump.
‘Theo, you daft dog. Where did you come from?’
‘Morning, you guys.’ Jo and Seamus had stopped on their walk along the seafront. ‘Sorry about Theo, little bugger slipped his lead.’
Theo nestled his backside down next to Athena who was gently fondling his left ear, and he was tilting his head, eyes closed and clearly in ecstasy.
‘Such a tart.’ Seamus laughed.
‘Mama. What’s a tart?’ Athena asked her mum, and was clearly confused when everyone started laughing.
Seamus shook his head and whispered sorry across the top of her head.
‘You joining us for a coffee?’ I asked, making room for Jo beside me.
‘If we’re not disturbing you, we’d love to.’
I caught the waitress’s eye and asked her to come and take another order as I could see that Emma and Tom were walking towards us from the opposite direction.
I automatically presumed they would also be joining us, and Demetri pulled some more chairs around the table.
I grinned at them as they sat and greeted them with a good morning.
I looked around me at all the people who were sat around the table. How lovely to have all of my friends around me on a beautiful sunny Cornish morning.
All of them had become so important in my life. I hadn’t known any of them until a couple of years ago when I visited for work and subsequently moved to Cornwall to start my new adventure in a leap of faith.
Serendipity had brought us all together.
For years, I’d felt like I didn’t belong anywhere.
As if I was on the periphery of everyone else’s life, but now I knew without a shadow of a doubt that Sandpiper Shore was exactly where I was meant to me.
I had never had more of a sense of belonging.
I was safer and happier than ever before.
Bizarrely, two perfect white feathers slowly drifted from nowhere and gracefully landed onto the table in front of me. A little message from heaven maybe to say that everything was going to be OK. That’s what I chose to believe anyway. That’s what made my heart happy.
My phone rang and my brother’s face flashed up. I pressed the green button to connect.
‘Hey, you guys! How are you doing? It’s good to see your faces.
’ I had missed them all since he, Daisy and the kids had gone back to Canada; my brother most of all.
But Demetri and I were planning to go out there later in the year and were very much looking forward to it.
Seeing their four faces peering at me through the screen was pure delight.
‘You OK, Chelle? What was your answer?’ Seth asked me.
As I looked at the screen, I could see Demetri in the reflection of the café window. He was miming slashing at his throat, thinking I couldn’t see him. I turned round to see what was going on, and everyone was grinning at me, somewhat manically.
‘Yeah, I’m OK, why do you ask? Answer to what?’
Confused, I turned around. Demetri had dropped something on the floor and was ferreting around on his hands and knees.
There was a cough from behind me and when I turned, Demetri was holding a small navy-blue velvet box in his hand. He deftly flipped the box open.
Not only was there a sparkling antique diamond ring twinkling in the sunlight, but I recognised it straight away. It was Mum’s engagement ring. I gasped loudly.
Confused, I looked up at him.
‘Where did you get this? I thought it had gone forever,’ I whispered, and my hands flew to my throat in total disbelief.
After studying the ring again, I searched deeply into Demetri’s big brown eyes.
‘I have no idea how you’ve done this. I can’t believe you found Mum’s ring. Thank you so much. God, I love you!’
‘Err, hello. Stop that talk. It’s gross,’ Athena shouted from across the table. ‘I think Uncle Demi has something important to ask you, Aunty Chelle.’
I turned to him, and our eyes locked again.
He nodded, coughed, and his voice was practically a whisper.
‘Marry me!’
I gasped, suddenly realising that he wasn’t just showing me that Mum’s ring had been discovered. He dropped to one knee and held the ring box out towards me. I threw back my head and laughed, while clutching at my chest. I took a step closer.
‘Say that again?’
He laughed.
‘Will you marry me? Please?’
‘Oh! My! God!’ My hands flew to my mouth and my eyes filled with tears.
‘Is that an oh my God, yes? Or an oh my God, no?’ he asked nervously.
A voice called out from my phone. I’d totally forgotten I was on a video call.
‘Bloody hell, sis, put the poor man out of his misery!’
I laughed through my tears, dragging Demetri from his knees, and when he was balanced upright again, I flung my arms around his neck and pressed my lips firmly to his.
‘It’s definitely an oh my God, yes. Yes! Yes! Ye—’
Before I could finish my final yes, Demetri had swept me up off the ground, pulled me in tight and his hands slid down my back as he lowered his head and his lips met mine.
He kissed me slowly, deeply, long and lingering.
A huge cheer went up from not only our crowd, but from everyone else in the café who had been watching the scene unfold.
‘Get a room!’ hollered my brother on the call, and our audience laughed.
When Demetri released me and lowered me so my feet were back on the floor, he took the ring from the box and slid it on my ring finger. It was a miracle that he managed to get it on; my hands were shaking so much.
‘Perfect!’ I exclaimed.
‘Yes, you are,’ he whispered as he kissed me again, before leading me to my chair. My hands were still shaking with the shock of what had happened. The waitress appeared with a bottle of champagne and as she poured out flutes full, there was still something puzzling me.
‘How on earth did you get my jewellery back?’
‘By pure coincidence. Andreas was on a video call with a friend of his and recognised Makis in the background. When I was over in Amarissa last week, we tracked him down. Katrina was glad of the opportunity to give him a piece of her mind and told him never to darken her doorstep again. I told him that if he wanted his inheritance, then he had to return the jewellery to you first along with the money he owed. Surprisingly to all of us, he coughed up and gave us both. You’ll find that was put back into your account this morning. ’
‘That’s incredible, Demetri.’ I took his face in my hands and pressed my lips gently to his before whispering, ‘Thank you.’
‘You can expand that business after all, my love. You’ll need staff so that we can take time travelling between the two countries. I’ve had an office built within the house for you, which overlooks the countryside. I can’t wait to show it to you. I hope you like it.’
I knew that I would absolutely love it, because it would have been made with love.
I looked around me once more, taking in the scene before me. My life finally felt complete and my heart was overflowing with love.
The beautiful Sandpiper Shore, my fabulous friends, my small but wonderful family, even though some of them were thousands of miles away, and my man. Demetri; the actual love of my life.
They were all what made this my home.
And just like the women in one of my romance novels, I finally got my very own happy ever after, after all.
* * *