Epilogue
Jeremiah
Jeremiah parked the truck as close as he could get to the town square. "Should I drop you off closer and come and meet you after I park the truck?"
She laughed. "No, the walking will do me good."
"But..."
"Stop. It's all good. Let's go see if we can find the boys and Molly."
He jumped from the truck and hurried around to open the door for Joci.
He held her hand as she stepped out of the truck and continued to hold it as they walked to the town square.
Many people greeted them as they walked.
He'd been in business for a long time and knew a lot of people in town.
As they neared the square, the music filtered out to them.
Christmas carols were playing, and a woman's beautiful voice reached his ears.
Joci squeezed his hand, "Wow, her voice is beautiful."
"I was just thinking the same thing."
There were two Christmas tree vendors on opposite sides of the square. Jeremiah stared at both in turn. "How will we decide which one to buy from?"
Joci chuckled, her nose turning an adorable pink in the cool weather. "We'll buy one from each. One for home and one for Rolling Thunder."
He nodded. "Right. I forgot about Rolling Thunder."
She laughed, her smile infectious. "That's likely a first in your life."
He swallowed. He loved Rolling Thunder, and he'd spent the past fifteen years building it. She was right, and he didn't know how he felt about that.
"It is."
She squeezed his hand. He bent his head to look into her eyes.
Her shiny lips turned up into a soft smile.
"It's okay if priorities change from time to time.
It doesn't mean you're walking away from it; it means you've done such a fantastic job that you can focus more on other things. Family. Life."
He filled his lungs with air and nodded. "Right."
"Oh, there's Ryder and Molly." She pointed to the hot chocolate stand to the right of them.
They made their way among the crowd to Ryder and Molly. Hugs were exchanged, then the volunteer at the stand said, "Here's your order."
Ryder picked up the two hot chocolates and handed one to Molly. "Mom, would you and Dad like a hot chocolate?"
Joci smiled. "I'd love one." She looked up at him.
"I'd like one too."
Ryder nodded to the volunteer. "Two more, please."
He handed Joci his steaming cup and paid for two more. Jeremiah was proud of him. He'd done well despite the ups and downs in life. His phone buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket to see Detective Jones' name. Stepping back as Joci and Molly chatted, he tapped the icon to answer. "Hello, Teddy."
"Hi, Jeremiah. I wanted to let you know we have a restraining order in place with Mercer.
And his parole officer is now investigating whether he finds this egregious enough to send him back to jail or whether some of his privileges will be revoked.
I suspect he won't go to jail, but he'll see revocation of his privileges, which, when added to the Temporary Restraining Order, will suppress him from coming near you. "
"Good. I don't know that sending him back to jail will make a bit of difference anyway."
"I did suggest counseling and anger management."
Jeremiah nodded. "That's good. He definitely needs to learn how to control himself. That's been his problem all along."
"I agree. If it helps, he doesn't want to go back to jail, so hopefully this is a good wake-up call. I'll keep you updated."
"Thanks, Teddy."
He pocketed his phone as Ryder turned with his hot chocolate. "Thanks, bud."
Ryder nodded.
"Are JT and Gunnar joining us tonight?"
Ryder shrugged. "Maybe later. They were both noncommittal."
Jeremiah chuckled. Sounded like them. Young men preferred to be out with their friends looking for young women.
The music changed to a country ballad, and Joci turned to watch the young woman sing. He stood with her, listening to the soft notes and haunting words of love lost and sadness. Joci tilted her head back and stared up at him. "Who was on the phone?"
"Teddy."
She nodded but stared ahead. "All good?"
"Yes. He'll likely lose privileges for violating parole. Maybe go to counseling. There's a restraining order in place for now. He doesn't want to go back to jail, so it should be enough to scare him straight."
"I hope so."
The song ended, and Joci turned to Ryder and Molly. "We need to pick out two trees. One for home and one for Rolling Thunder. Want to join us?"
Ryder glanced at Molly, who shook her head vigorously.
Jeremiah took Joci's hand and led her to the end farthest from where he'd parked.
The trees were standing in temporary stands, all of them full and fresh.
The scent of pine filled the air, and the crisp air felt good.
It was officially the Christmas season, and he was excited for this year.
Joci and Molly looked at each tree while he and Ryder followed them, not offering much help. They could pick out the trees they wanted. He didn't care; he knew whichever one Joci picked, she'd make it look spectacular. She did that with everything.
Joci stood next to a tree about a foot taller than he was. "Is this too big for the house?"
He chuckled. "I think it'll fit. It's going to take up a lot of space, though."
She shrugged, "Next year we'll have a little one with grabby fingers, so we may have to downsize."
"Fair point."
He paid for the tree. They all watched as the vendor ran the tree through a machine that wrapped it in a net, and he bent to pick it up. Ryder stepped forward. "I've got this one. You can carry the Rolling Thunder tree."
"That one will be much larger."
Ryder chuckled. "I'm not stupid!"
As they strolled through the crowd toward the other tree stand, Gunnar and JT sauntered toward them. After greetings were exchanged, Joci said, "We're going to pick out the Rolling Thunder tree. Want to join us?"
Gunnar shrugged. "Sure."
As they neared the tree vendor, you could see that the trees were lined up by height. The tallest trees were to the left. Joci immediately turned to the largest trees, and he groaned. Ryder laughed.
Joci and Molly once again took their stroll, and at the farthest end of the trees, she pointed to the biggest tree in the display. "This will be perfect."
He chuckled because she looked so happy. He paid for the tree, then handed his keys to JT. "Go get my truck, son. I can't carry this one."
JT laughed. "We've got this." He and Gunnar each took an end of the tree, and they walked as a group to the truck. Joci chatted excitedly about the decorations. Molly offered to help. His heart was full.
Joci
There were moments in life that left an impression.
Some of them were major moments, some of them snippets in time you couldn't forget.
This was one of those. Her first tree with her new family.
Making plans for a decorating party at Rolling Thunder.
Making Christmas plans with Jeremiah and the boys felt like something they did each year.
From this year forward, they would. Maybe that's why this one seemed so special.
As she stepped into the house, the warmth enveloped her. They'd all dropped the tree at Rolling Thunder. They simply put it in the garage, and the men would pull it out in the morning and set it up. Some things needed to be moved to do that.
At home, she'd planned ahead: Jeremiah helped her move furniture and bring Christmas totes up from the basement in anticipation of bringing a tree home.
He set the tree in the stand, and she brought her watering can in from the garage to give it water.
Afterwards, they sat together on the sofa, snuggled in as they'd been doing in the evening.
He sat up, "Hang on, I have something I want to show you."
She watched his amazing butt as he moved down the hallway, then grinned when he came back.
His handsome face seemed like it was glowing.
He looked happy. He was almost boyish about this Christmas, as he had been during Thanksgiving.
He eagerly helped her with whatever she needed, excited that his family was now complete.
He handed her a small white box. It wasn't wrapped, but it did have a gold bow on top.
She scooted to a sitting position. "What's this?"
"A little present. Open it."
She untied the bow and lifted the lid to the box. Inside sat a shiny ornament with the sonogram photo of their baby on it.
"Aww." She lifted it from the box. A small gold ribbon was attached to it to hang on the tree.
He kissed her briefly. "That way she's with us this year."
Joci chuckled and put a hand on her baby bump. "She's with us."
He nodded. "I know. I saw this in a store and thought it would be nice to have one on our tree this year too."
"I think it's a great idea, Jeremiah."
He removed the ornament from her hand and hung it on the tree. It was at his eye level, and she knew he'd look at it as much in here as he did on the refrigerator.
He came back to the sofa to nestle in beside her, his arm around her shoulders, their legs stretched out.
She stared at the ornament for a long time, then her eyes moved to the fireplace and the little black chalkboard where her word for the year was written.
Blessed. And she knew without a doubt that she was indeed.