Epilogue
EPILOGUE
ONE YEAR LATER
The evening sunshine cast golden light across the lawn as songbirds filled the air with a sweet evening chorus.
Courtney sat on a garden bench beneath the shade of a cherry tree, watching Hope squirm and giggle on the picnic mat spread out on the grass while Travis gently bopped her on the nose with her teddy bear. It was one of their favourite games, and she wasn’t sure who was enjoying the fun more, her sweet daughter or her besotted boyfriend. A smile curved her lips at the sight of them both, amusing each other in the dappled sunlight in the shade of the tree, and she wondered if it was possible to be any happier than she was right now.
As if sensing her thoughts, Travis looked up and smiled, making her heartbeat race, just like it always did whenever he smiled at her. After a year together, she was still falling in love with him more each day.
Travis pressed a kiss to Hope’s little nose, making her giggle, and then got up from the picnic mat and joined Courtney on the bench.
“Everything okay?” he asked her, kissing her nose too. “You look a little wistful.”
“Not wistful. Just happy. I was thinking back to last year when I was pregnant and we first met.”
“We’ve come a long way,” he said. “Any regrets?”
The idea of it made her laugh. “None.”
“And you’re sure about the house?”
Courtney glanced across the garden at the house and smiled. “Completely sure.”
“Me too.”
In a few short weeks, they’d become the proud owners of the Foxglove Street house where Travis had lived since his return to Hamblehurst. The owners of the house had never lost their wanderlust, and the six-month trip they’d set off on last year turned into far longer. After travelling all over Europe, they’d returned for an extended tour around the British isles where, a few months earlier, they’d fallen in love with a beautiful village on the Yorkshire coast and decided to call it home. As Travis had been renting their Foxglove Street house for so long, they’d given him the chance to buy the property before they put it on the open market.
It hadn’t taken Courtney and Travis more than a few minutes to decide that they wanted to buy the place for themselves. They’d been house-hunting for several months by that point, and hadn’t found anything that was exactly what they were looking for in the area while still being close enough to Hamblehurst so that Courtney could enjoy seeing the Austin family regularly. After living with her aunt and uncle for several months before taking the big step to move in with Travis in his rented house, she hated the idea of moving too far away from Hamblehurst and cutting off connections that had come to mean so much to her and to Hope, too.
Courtney knew what family meant, only too well, and wasn’t prepared to let go of the new family who’d quite literally saved her.
And so when the chance came to buy the Foxglove Street house where she was already living with Travis, it made perfect sense. Travis loved the house, Courtney loved the house, and there was more than enough space for a family.
A growing family.
“We can renovate anything you want once it’s ours,” Travis said. “Kitchen, bathroom, whatever. Your wish is my command.”
“I like everything just as it is.”
“Me too, actually. You’re sure you don’t mind if I keep the front living room as my office?”
“That’s where you love writing. The other room at the back is better for a living room, anyway. It gets more sunshine and will be perfect for keeping an eye on Hope once she starts walking and running around in the garden.”
Travis smiled and reached across the bench to take Courtney’s hand and kiss it. The gesture always reminded her of when he’d turned up out of the blue a year ago and stunned her with his declaration of love. It was a memory that she’d cherish forever.
“There’s something I want to ask you,” Travis said, his tone suddenly serious.
“What is it?”
But before he could answer, Hope began fussing on the picnic mat as she tried to get to her feet. She still needed something to hold on to in order to move around by herself, and with everything out of reach, she was venting her frustration.
Travis leaned down and scooped her up into his arms, then settled her on his lap. Instantly happy, Hope beamed a smile at Courtney and clapped her hands.
“Actually, maybe Hope can help me here,” Travis said.
Steadying Hope with one hand, he reached into his pocket with the other. When Courtney saw the small black velvet box he was holding and glimpsed the excited look in his eyes, she let out a gasp.
Travis handed the box to Hope, who clutched it into her chubby little fists and turned it over in her hands, inspecting it with a serious look on her face and making them both laugh.
“Hope?” Travis said, smiling at the baby. “Give the box to your mum.”
Hope blinked back excited tears and looked at the box. When Travis repeated the instruction and pointed to Courtney, Hope grinned and thrust the box towards her.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” Courtney said, a little breathlessly, taking the box and earning another beaming smile from her child.
For a long moment, she stared at the box, her heart thundering inside her chest.
“Open it,” Travis said softly.
Sucking in a breath, Courtney opened the box and let out another gasp when she saw the ring inside it. An exquisite diamond shone from a platinum band of channel-set dazzling diamonds. The precious stones caught the evening sunlight and shone against the black velvet box.
“It’s… it’s so beautiful,” Courtney murmured, bewitched by the beautiful ring.
When she looked up, Travis was gazing at her, while Hope watched them both, her sweet little face flicking between them. And then, in one fluid motion, Travis lowered himself from the garden bench and got down on one knee, on which he perched Hope, much to her squealing delight.
“Courtney Flynn, will you marry me?” Travis said, his heart in his eyes. “I’ll love you forever. I’ll love Hope forever. And I’ll spend every day making you the happiest woman alive.”
In the evening shade of the cherry tree, as the summer sunshine dipped to the horizon, Courtney smiled as tears ran down her face.
“Yes, I’ll marry you Travis. Of course I’ll marry you!”
Pure joy swept his expression as he shifted closer, still on one knee, and pulled Courtney and Hope into an embrace. Sobbing as Travis removed the ring from the box and slipped it onto her finger, she gazed at the sparkling diamonds and then into the eyes of the man who’d claimed her heart.
“I love you,” Travis murmured into her ear, emotion catching in his voice.
“I love you, too. So much.”
When Hope let out a screech and clapped her hands together, they both laughed.
“And I love you too, little troublemaker,” Travis said as Courtney handed the velvet ring box to her child, instantly making her happy.
Travis kissed the fingers on her hand where the engagement ring now sat, his eyes on her and filled with love. Courtney knew she’d never, ever forget this moment. Everything about it was perfect, just the three of them huddled together in the sunny back garden of the house they’d soon call their own.
But Courtney knew the moment could be even more perfect. She thought of the secret she’d been keeping all day, the one she’d chosen to hold close to her heart for just a few hours before she shared it.
She knew the perfect moment had come to do just that.
“There’s something I have to tell you,” she said as Travis shifted back onto the garden bench and adjusted Hope on his knee while her investigation of the ring box continued.
“What?” Travis asked.
Looking deep into his eyes, she smiled. “I’m pregnant.”
For a long beat, Travis just stared. And then his eyes widened as a look of pure joy flooded across his face.
“You’re pregnant? We’re having a baby? ”
“We’re having a baby!”
“Oh my God!”
He kissed her and pulled her into another hug and kissed her again, then kissed Hope too, who was squealing with excitement and clapping her hands together.
“You’re going to have a brother or sister, Hope!” Travis said, hugging her and pulling Courtney back into his arms. “This is… this is… I don’t even know what to say. I’m beyond happiness.”
She clung to him, soaking up his embrace and the love and safety she always found inside his arms, while Hope, squashed between them both, patted Courtney’s face with her chubby little hands and rattled the ring box off her nose. Laughter coursed through her, and as Travis grinned at Hope’s antics, the three of them wrapped up together felt like the best thing in the entire world.
“We’re going to be so happy,” Travis said. “We’re going to get married and have another baby and I’m going to love you for the rest of my life.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
On a soft sigh, Courtney pulled him into another kiss and then the three of them, plus the tiny baby slumbering inside her, sat on the garden bench in the evening sunshine, dreaming together about what lay ahead.
Courtney thought quietly about all the darkness she’d endured before she found her way into the light. She thought of what she’d lost and the life she’d once had. Never far from her mind, she imagined what her mother would make of how far she’d come and the world she’d built.
A thump inside her heart reminded her that her mother would always be with her, no matter what, and that knowledge brought peace.
Courtney thought of the Austin family who she couldn’t imagine life without and how excited they’d be when they found out there was a wedding and a new baby on the horizon. She thought of the job she loved at the marketing company, at which she’d learned to excel over the past year. She thought of the bright future Travis had with his author career and how much she loved seeing the joy it brought him to write books that only seemed to get better and better. She thought of the sweet house on Foxglove Street they’d soon call their own.
All the pain and heartbreak she’d endured felt so very far away now, and yet Courtney knew the scars she carried from those dark times would remain forever, not to hurt her, but to remind her to be grateful for every happiness with which she was blessed.
Now, with the evening sunshine on her face, her fiancé by her side, her child babbling between them, and new life fluttering inside her, Courtney opened her heart to joy and let happiness embrace her.
And turned her mind to the future that waited to greet her family and all the bright days that were to come.