Epilogue
Celeste
“Turns out you were right, Mama,”I said. “Life really does come full circle.” Leaning forward, I brushed a stray leaf from her gravestone. It was the first time I’d been back to River’s Run in five years and while I felt like everything about my life was different, my hometown stood the test of time. The pain was gone and I was able to traipse through all my old haunts without any of the dark clouds following me. My therapist would be really proud of that when I told her.
Visiting Mama and Daddy’s graves was the first thing on my to do list the moment we hit the county line. Wesley wanted to come with me, but I made him promise to give me some time alone with them first. We had a lot to catch up on.
Daddy was finally buried right beside Mama, where he should have been all this time. It probably sounded crazy to everyone, but I swear I felt one of their family bear hugs when the final shovel full of dirt landed. Like some part of my soul could finally be at peace knowing they were reunited and happy together once more. By now, the grass had long since grown over and both graves looked like they naturally belonged…just like how they had looked in life.
“Marla’s doing great things with our recipes,” I added. “Finally getting all the recognition she’s always deserved.”
As clear as if he were standing next to me, I felt my Daddy’s approving smile. He always wanted Marla to succeed on her own rather than be stuck in our restaurant. And so she had.
Marla’s Sweets and The Comfy Cushion had joined forces in the rebuild after the fire. It was now one giant restaurant and bakery, filled to the brim with home-cooked meals that stuck to your ribs and fresh desserts that went straight to your heart rather than your stomach. It had been featured on The Today Show, The View, and in dozens of magazines. Wesley and Phillip connected Marla with a great attorney who brokered a deal to get her pies into grocery stores around the country. She was working on a highly sought after cookbook, and well on track to become a household name.
Although Marla took a while to come around to it, I had wholeheartedly agreed with the decision to rename the place. Marla finally relented after a lot of deep conversations with Nana, Maggie, Wes, and me, and so Hometown Heaven was born. A little bit of Mama, a little bit of Marla, and a whole lot of Daddy’s business savvy. The perfect combination.
Business was booming and had been since the day Marla reopened. I cried in bed all day over the fact that I wasn’t strong enough to be there for the event, but everyone assured me that I deserved the time away to heal. At that point, healing was all I could really do. My friends and family were in my corner, just as they had been from the beginning.
Desiree and Jeremy’s trials lasted more than a year. When the guilty verdict came down after only three hours of deliberation, I blacked out on the bench in the courtroom. Both faced 25 years in prison, though Jeremy’s was without parole. He was also required to register as a sex offender. The district attorney assured me she would continue to fight against Desiree getting parole, which was enough of a promise that I pushed the worry from my mind. It would only drive me to madness anyway.
Mr. Madden’s trial, on the other hand, took a lot longer. He paid several flashy attorneys to defend him, but in the end, all of the proof Elle Fielding accumulated through the years was too much for the judge to ignore. He was found guilty of more than 26 counts of fraud, embezzlement, tax evasion, conspiracy, and more. Ultimately, Wesley’s father was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison and ordered to pay close to $1 billion in restitution and fees. Wesley turned off the tv in disgust and spent two hours alone in our home gym after the reporter announced the verdict.
To this day, nobody had seen or heard from Hillary. I speculated once that she probably still had enough friends out in Vegas to start over out in the desert again, but I also hadn’t lost a minute of sleep worrying about it. She wasn’t worth it.
“Mama! Mama!” Joshua’s animated trill came from behind me. I turned just in time for my son’s sticky toddler arms to wrap around my neck as he buried himself in my arms.
Iris was close behind, rolling her eyes. “He’s such a mama’s boy. Acting like I’m not over here being the best big sister ever.”
Wesley came up beside her, resting an elbow on her shoulder. “That’s why it’s us against them, Rainbow.” He turned his megawatt smile in my direction, the same bright smile that made him look every inch the angel I knew him to be, and it was hard not to melt into a puddle. “Can’t wait to see whose side the new recruit will be on.”
I laughed and rubbed my protruding belly. “We’ll know soon enough.” Ever mimicking me, Joshua leaned down to rub my baby bump before slapping a slobbery kiss on top.
All three of us cooed.
“Just wait, Joshy! I’ve gotta show you the ropes of this big sibling thing!” Iris bent down to scoop him up, twirling him in a circle so that he giggled and screamed in delight.
Wesley held out a hand to pull me up. “You okay?” He still had small pockets of anxiety whenever there was something he couldn’t fix for me, but we were working on it.
Therapy had become my best friend in the past five years. After heading to Boston, Wesley and I both went to intensive individual sessions three times a week. We took Iris for family sessions, too, so that we could work through her overwhelming feelings of reconnecting with a father she had never known. It was hard—so much harder than any of us anticipated—but in the end, it was the best thing for all three of us. After a year’s worth of therapy, self-care, bucket list trips, and watching our daughter live out her dreams on stage with the Boston Ballet, when Wesley proposed, I said yes.
Neither of us wanted a big wedding. We booked a cruise down to Turks and Caicos with Nana, Marla, Maggie, and Zeke, who had become a close friend of Wesley’s by that time, and got married on the boat with our favorite people surrounding us. Nana loved every second of it and spent the entire vacation talking about the hot pool boys that she wished were actors on one of her soap operas so she could watch them shirtless each day.
Iris gave me away in Mama’s wedding dress.
With Wesley’s encouragement and the suggestion of my therapist, I finally enrolled in college. Earning my BSN to become a registered nurse was probably one of the hardest things I had ever done, especially when Joshua surprised us with his arrival halfway through, but I didn’t regret it for a second. I was fortunate enough to work in the oncology department at the Boston University Medical Center, caring for patients like my daddy. Every one of them reminded me of him, and it brought me that much more closure over his loss. I loved my job. So much so that I applied for a master’s program to become a nurse practitioner. The letter burned a hole in my pocket at that very moment because I wanted to open it with Mama, Daddy, and Wes.
Wesley was a changed man. Though his temper rose every so often, he had finally learned how to manage it so that walls weren’t broken and objects weren’t thrown. It made him a formidable lawyer now that he had made the switch over to criminal prosecution. Wes said inspiration hit after everything we went through with Desiree and Jeremy, and he loved nothing more than giving bad people what they deserved. Evidently, he was good at it because after only a few years, the city placed him in charge of the district attorney’s office. Rumors swirled that he would become the Attorney General of Massachusetts, but every time I asked him, he groaned and said that he would rather dry hump a cactus on national tv.
I took that as a “maybe.”
Most importantly, Wes and Iris had grown so close they were practically inseparable. He attended every dance recital, every exhibition, every school event, and routinely took her on Daddy-Daughter Days. Usually they were just expensive day trips, but Iris came back beaming every time.
He had been so worried the day the doctor confirmed that I was nine weeks along with Joshua. What if Iris felt like we were replacing her? “I missed out on all of this stuff with her,” he whispered to me in bed at night. “What if she thinks my excitement means I love the baby more than her?”
Thankfully, that hadn’t happened because Iris was more excited over the prospect of a sibling than we could have reckoned for. She wanted to go to every doctor’s appointment with me and immediately framed every ultrasound photo. Maggie helped her plan a huge gender reveal party for us, and the memory of Iris crying while jumping up and down screaming, “I KNEW IT!” over the blue ballons that escaped the box could go down in the record books as one of the happiest of my life.
Joshua ended up being the world’s most cheerful child, and we were all smitten and wrapped around his little fingers from the moment he opened his eyes. Wesley was exactly the kind of hands on daddy I dreamt he would be, only sharing Joshua with Iris. “You got to carry him for nine months already,” Wes griped. “It’s my turn now.”
Life had turned out better than I had ever hoped for. The future finally became something I welcomed with open arms and a blissful heart, filled with promise and excitement. I loved my family, my job, and our home, so even if it was a rejection letter in my pocket, everything was going to be okay. It just meant I was already exactly where I needed to be.
“So?” Wes prompted me. “Can we open the letter now?”
I smiled. He grabbed a squirming Joshua from Iris and both of them grinned at me like they were in on a secret.
Hastily, I pulled out the envelope and withdrew the letter. “UMass Boston is pleased to welcome you to the Fall semester of the Nursing Master of Science program,” I read aloud.
Iris and Wesley both whooped and hollered. Joshua set off in another round of giggles as Wesley tossed him up in the air and caught him. “Say, ‘good job, Mama!’” Wesley crowed. He handed Joshua off to Iris, who continued to dance and spin with him so that my husband could plant a firm kiss on my mouth. “I’m so proud of you,” he whispered in my ear.
Longing flooded me and I deepened the kiss. Having someone around to tell me that they were proud of me was one of the things Wesley and I had identified in therapy as a way to provide reassurance. It built up my confidence and reinforced the belief that I was worthy of love...basically a way to reprogram my brain after everything Desiree put me through. Wesley never forgot. Even if it was something as simple as trying a new recipe, he made it a point to tell me how impressed he was.
Iris came over and wrapped her arms around me. “I love you so much, Mama! This is so exciting!”
My heart soared. “Yeah? It’s going to be a lot of work. Between school and the new baby, I don’t want to take away from you.”
Her smile was identical to mine, the only time she ever resembled me instead of her daddy. “You always put me first, Mama,” Iris assured me. “I know that will never change.”
Tears of joy sprung at my eyes, but I wiped them away before they could fall. “I love you, baby girl.” She ran back to Wesley and Joshua, the three of them still carrying on like we won the lottery.
Tearful laughter was the best kind, I discovered. “We did it, y’all,” I whispered to Mama and Daddy’s gravestones. “Thank you.”
“C’mon, let’s head back over to the restaurant and share the great news with Marla!” Wesley called over his shoulder, steering the kids towards the Land Rover idling on the lane.
There was already a waiting area full of people when we arrived at Hometown Heaven. Cassidy, the hostess, proudly informed us that there was a 90 minute wait.
With the big remodel, this updated version of the restaurant was larger than before. White marble counters replaced the old Formica, including the new bakery area on the left side of the dining room. Two large, glass bake cases fenced in a large marble bar top with twirling metal barstools. One bake case displayed breakfast pastries that were baked fresh daily and the other displayed dessert items like Marla’s famous pies, cookies, brownies, and more. The flavors and variety changed each morning. Marla modeled Daddy’s old practices and sourced locally as much as possible, getting fresh fruits, flour, and the like so that everyone along the Florida-Georgia line wanted to come taste their produce for themselves.
The bakery side of the kitchen opened behind the counter so that people waiting in the lobby and sitting at the bar top could watch as bakers, expertly overseen by Marla’s watchful eye, worked to replenish the cases, fill orders, and provide items for diners. They were able to create the most beautiful designs with dough. It was like watching an artist create an edible masterpiece.
New metal tables with marble tops congregated in the center of the dining room. Since the wooden tables were burned in the fire, Marla hired Old Man McInworthe to build large booths around the outer perimeter. Fluffy cushions lined all the chairs and booths, this time in a matching gingham print. There were no longer any barstools as the countertop was long gone, but several servers’ stations led back into the kitchen.
Jesse was now the back of the house manager, supervising all of the cooks Marla could afford to hire. Mama’s recipe book was kept under lock and key in what was now Marla’s office. She was the only one permitted to look through it when the menu changed seasonally.
The best part of all was how many jobs she was able to offer to the community. Hometown Heaven was able to employ ten people full time and six people part time. Wesley helped set up a tuition program as well so that the employees could further their education at an online college or any number of the colleges in Savannah. All of them so far had done so, which I knew would have meant the world to Mama and Daddy.
“My baby girl is finally here!” Marla cried as she looked up from the butcher’s block table in the bakery area where she was kneading pie dough. She wiped her hands on the apron around her waist as she scrambled around the counter to us.
Iris immediately enveloped her in a hug, Joshua all but diving out of Wesley’s arms in his haste to get to Grandma Marla. Her smile brightened the room. She moved on to Welsey, then me. As the closest thing I had to a living parent, Marla’s hug felt like coming home. While she visited us in Boston and traveled with us on some of our family vacations, this was the first time I came home to River’s Run to see her. It was a pivotal moment for both of us. I blamed my tears on my pregnancy hormones. She didn’t have that excuse.
“Looking good, Celeste,” she said warmly, cupping her hands around my belly. I was only 21 weeks along, but I already popped enough for there to be a noticeable bump. “Are we still good for tonight?”
I grinned. “I can hardly wait!” We were going to have a family gender reveal dinner after she closed down the restaurant early. Iris already had the envelope. Marla was also going to take the kids to her house for the night. It was really Ms. Shirley’s old house, which Wes gave to her as soon as we signed the deed for the Hendricks family home. He agreed that we didn’t need two houses in a place like River’s Run and Marla had more than earned the right to have a place of her own. I couldn’t have agreed more.
Like Mama always said, when you have more than you need, you build a bigger table, not a taller fence.
* * *
Wesley
Celeste looked radiant in a floral sundress, her bump just noticeable in the flow of the skirt. Every day she made me fall in love with her all over again. Whether it was watching her be a fantastic mother to our children, hearing about her compassion for her patients, or tasting the homecooked meals she insisted on making us every night for a family dinner, there was always another reminder of what a lucky son of a bitch I was to call her mine.
I meant it when I vowed to love her for my whole life. Celeste Hendricks, now Celeste Madden, was my whole life. She brought me everything I ever needed and more.
We weren’t religious people, so I had no idea if there was a heaven, but I’d like to believe that wherever Mr. Hendricks was, he rested easier knowing I kept my promise. If I could be half the man and father he taught me to be, then I would call myself a success.
“Let’s get going,” Nana bemoaned. “I hate these old lady dresses y’all force me to wear at these shindigs.”
Celeste’s eyes sparkled as she glanced my way, clearly repressing a laugh. Nana was never satisfied unless she got to wear sweatpants and oversized t-shirts. That would never change. She even made us promise to bury her in them. Since it was technically a party, we asked her to dress up in something a little nicer and she had been loudly grousing about it since we walked through the door. Now that the party was winding down, it seemed Nana reached her limit.
“Me, too,” Iris whined. “I’m ready to go back to Aunt Marla’s.” Joshua was already snuggled into her lap, fast asleep.
It was hard to believe that in a few months’ time I would have a second little girl to love. I might need to build a bunker if she was as tenacious and outspoken as our firstborn. As soon as Marla read the doctor’s note aloud with the ultrasound photos to match, Celeste and I both swooned. Iris was elated and loudly declared that her baby sister was going to be a dancer just like her. I certainly hope so. Watching Iris dance was my favorite pastime.
“Alright, let’s head on back,” Marla agreed with Iris and Nana. The two servers who volunteered to stay and help immediately stepped forward to start clearing the table as one by one our friends and family left. Everyone stopped to give us one last hug and congratulations on their way out the door, including the recently retired Chief Hillsborough and his wife.
Maggie and Zeke flew in for the occasion and shuffled out after Marla and the kids to help her get them settled at her place for the night. Celeste and I hadn’t had a moment alone in quite some time, so tonight was a real treat.
“So another girl,” my wife gushed as we walked hand in hand out to the car. A soft breeze blew, the temperature quickly dropping now that the sun was going down. Days were starting to get longer. Summer would be here before we knew it and we could go on our annual summer vacation. This year we were going to Greece so that we could enjoy the beaches of the Mediterranean and Celeste could stay off her feet. I didn’t want to force her to walk all day when she would be that far along in her pregnancy, but I still wanted to spoil her with a trip to a new place. I promised Mr. Hendricks I would give her the world and ever since I got her back, I kept that promise.
“What should we name her?” I asked after we pulled out onto the county highway leading back towards our house. Distracting her was my main intention because I knew she was apprehensive about returning and facing the horrible memories of what Desiree had inflicted on her. Hopefully, my surprise worked in my favor.
Her long hair had returned to its natural brown, as wild and untamed as my girl. It danced now across her face with the wind from the open window. Therapy had done wonders with helping Celeste reconnect with the person I always knew her as: a sweetheart with more kindness in her pinky toe than most people had in their entire being. She smiled constantly now, for which I was grateful, and her work at the hospital gave her a sense of purpose that I knew she couldn’t have achieved if we stayed in River’s Run. Everything worked out exactly the way it was supposed to, even when it meant we had to start over in Boston.
“What name would you pick?” asked Celeste, my favorite shy smile tugging at her lips. Her skin glowed in the setting sun, and I had to catch my breath once more at how beautiful she looked.
“Annie Marla Madden,” I answered immediately.
She chuckled in surprise. “That was fast!”
I shrugged, flipping on the blinker to turn onto the dirt road back to the Hendricks family home. “It’s the name I picked out when I first realized I loved you.”
Celeste sat up straighter, peering at me quizzically as if she didn’t believe me.
“Well, okay, ‘Marla’ is something I’d choose now, not back then,” I admitted. “I just always saw you reading classic novels where the women had names like ‘Anne’ and ‘Elizabeth,’ so my thirteen year old brain thought that was what we should name our daughter.”
I could tell she was fighting a smile.
“Annie,” she mused. “I like it.”
I parked the car and went around to Celeste’s door to open it. Phillip had been in charge of the contractors here for the past several months who worked around the clock to restore everything to the original design from when Celeste and I were kids. The exterior had a fresh coat of paint, new shutters, and a new porch railing. Gardeners had returned the yard to its floral glory, the colors muted in the dim twilight. String lights hung from the large tree back to the corner of the porch. A soft glow illuminated the old tire swing Phillip’s team managed to salvage.
Celeste stopped short at the sight of the house, her jaw hanging open. “Is it just me or does this look…” Her voice trailed off and I let the uncertainty hang in the air.
Weaving my fingers through hers, I led her inside through the front door. Candles and white roses were on every surface of the foyer, the living room, and the kitchen beyond. Everything had been restored so that no traces of Desiree or her children remained. I also asked Phillip to incorporate some of the elements of our home in Boston, so there were already large portraits of us and the kids on the walls. The effect was cozy and welcoming. Exactly how I wanted it.
Celeste’s face was priceless. Silent tears streamed down her face while her free hand covered her open mouth. Eyes darting everywhere at once, she tried to drink it all in.
“Wes…” she finally gasped.
“I didn’t want anything here to trigger you,” I explained softly. “This has always been your home, and she never had any right to take it from you. We can gut the place and renovate it completely, if you’d like, but I wanted you to start with it being as close to home as you remembered. I only want you to be happy,” I finished.
In response, Celeste threw herself at me. The salt from her tears tasted bittersweet on my tongue and I groaned. She grabbed both of my hands and placed them on her breasts, already engorged from pregnancy, and shimmied the straps of her dress off her shoulders. It fluttered to the floor in a silky puddle, leaving her hard nipples in the palms of my hands. She didn’t have on a bra or panties.
“Goddamn it, woman, you’re gonna keep getting pregnant if you keep doing this to me,” I wailed, my mouth descending on one of her nipples. My tongue circled around the peak while my other hand reached down between us to find her drenched.
Celeste wasted no time. Within seconds, my belt was undone and my jeans were sliding down my legs. We both almost fell as I stumbled out of my boxer briefs, cock ready to cut steel. She yanked my shirt violently over my head in our frenzy. Hands caressed everywhere; I needed to feel every inch of her skin.
It was rare for us to have time alone like this. Between both kids, Nana, and our jobs, sexy time was often reduced to a scheduled ritual once or twice per week that we had timed down to six minutes tops—the longest amount of time we could ever count on before life got in the way. Right now, getting to really explore her gorgeous body, to lavish her with all the attention I always wanted to give, was my idea of perfection.
I scooped her up, bride-style, and carried her over to the couch, placing her on the arm and then pushing her back to lay against the throw pillows at an incline. Looping both knees over my shoulders, I kneeled between her legs and entered the pearly gates of heaven when I tasted the sweetness waiting for me between her thighs. My tongue speared her, causing her thighs to clamp so tightly on my head that I could no longer hear. Unless she gave me a brain aneurysm, I wasn’t stopping.
I moved my attention to her clit, suckling on it like a mint. Three fingers replaced my tongue, working in and out in a heated frenzy to stretch her walls for me, and her thighs squeezed harder. I lapped at her release when a tiny orgasm rippled through her.
Celeste yanked hard on the roots of my hair, drawing my attention away from her sweet pussy. Once she made eye contact with me, she swung her legs over my head to clamber off the couch altogether, pulling at my shoulders so I would sit down. Instantly, she straddled my lap, sinking onto my erection with a cry worthy of a Viking raider. I let her set her own rhythm, too entranced by the sight of her giant titties bouncing in my face. My mouth settled on one to pucker the skin in wet, languid kisses, leaving hickeys in their wake. The caveman in me roared with delight over marking my territory. Like her last name, wedding ring, and my baby growing inside her wasn’t enough. None of it ever would be.
Her moan went straight to my dick. Taking the other nipple in my mouth, I sucked and nipped, snaking my hand under the bump to rub her clit. It was the equivalent to dropping the atom bomb because an orgasm strong enough for me to feel ripped through her. Pussy walls gripped my cock so tightly that I saw stars as I thrust my hips to pound my release inside her.
Dazed and happy, Celeste slumped against me, both of us a sweaty, spent mess. “I love you so much, Wesley,” she murmured against my neck.
“For my whole life, sugar bee,” I whispered back.
This was the life my father tricked me into believing I didn’t deserve and would never have. I was the lucky bastard who got to grow old with the love of my life by my side. Celeste and I would get to retire to this very home, the house that Mr. Hendricks left for us, so that we could rock out on the old porch swing while our grandchildren and great-grandchildren played in the yard around us. We’d line the walls with more photos of our adventures around the world, reminiscing about all the lives we changed as a nurse and prosecutor.
I wish I could go back and tell my thirteen year old self how remarkable things would be. That all the anger and the hatred would one day go away, letting so much love and joy filter in through the cracks. I would thank Mr. Hendricks all over again for guiding me in the right direction for the kind of husband and father I wanted to be.
For now, I sighed contentedly, nuzzling my wife’s hair and gently rubbing her belly where our little Annie was cooking. This was life as it should be.
The End