Epilogue #2
I was sure of it, so I stood, watching the squirrel disappear at the edge of the cemetery, under the rusted iron fence.
I dusted the cut grass off my jeans and looked at the grave once more, noticing the pretty curve in the script on their headstone that spelled out their titles beneath their names.
Candy’s read, “Beautiful Mother, Wife, Daughter, and Friend.” And under Duo’s name, a sleeping lamb had been carved into the stone, and the phrase “Gone mudding with the angels,” made me smile.
“Thank you,” I said to the wind. “For givin’ me the thing I’ve been searchin’ for since my mama and daddy died. I love you for what you made and for what you gave up. They’ll never forget you, not so long as I’m around.
“Rest well, Candy Adela Lee. Rest well, Duo. I’ll spend the rest of my life lookin’ after your hearts. They’re my heart now too. And say hi to my mama and daddy if you see them.”
As I walked back to my truck, I knew this was my last visit.
At least for me. I’d bring Athena back when she wanted a little time with her mama and brother, and Bax had finally come to pay his respects and spend some time with his loss.
I hoped he’d come more often. He’d breathed a little easier after the first visit.
But I didn’t need Candy’s reassurance anymore. Knowing that Bax loved me with his whole heart, too, told me everything I needed to know. He couldn’t have given himself to me if Candy’s memory was still holding onto him.
And love me he did. Now that his leg had fully healed, he’d proven it down on one knee in the dirt by the barn when he proposed with a bouquet of road reflectors and a golden ring. But it didn’t have one diamond. It had four. One for every member of our patched-together family.
One for every chamber of my heart and the love held within.
Under an autumn sky…
BAX
“No turnin’ back now,” I whispered to Athena, who was my “best person,” as she’d called it.
My little girl smiled, standing next to me while we waited for our future to meet us at the end of an aisle, and it hit me right in the face that she wasn’t a little girl anymore.
Athena had grown into a beautiful young woman, who looked like her mama and worked hard like me.
The roundness of childhood had gone from her cheeks, and in its place were the smooth, contoured cheekbones of a teenager. She was already taller than Bea.
Rye was still a little butt hurt that I hadn’t chosen him to be my best man, but he’d already had that honor when I married Candy years ago. We were boys then, or it seemed so now that I had grown up and weathered so much life.
But that life was unfinished, and I was more than ready to get on with it.
This time around, Athena was the only person I could picture standing up for Bea and me both, and she was so proud to do it.
Happy tears filled my daughter’s eyes as we watched Stu toddle down the short aisle in his first pair of Wranglers, cutting through the middle of three rows of metal folding chairs at the edge of Lee Lake.
He held a little ring pillow in one hand and Fig’s leash in his other.
The dog practically dragged Stu down the aisle, both of them trying to get to Athena.
There was no ring attached to the pillow though.
No way would I let the kid anywhere near it. He’d probably eat it.
Fig lay at Athena’s feet when they reached us, and she lifted her cousin who’d quickly become her little brother into her arms, and he wrapped his legs around her waist, giggling and waving to our guests.
As soon as Bea and me were hitched, we were adopting Stuey officially. Dixon was long gone. Maybe he’d come back someday. I hoped he would, but Stu was our kid now too.
Athena handed Stu to Merv as Presley began to play a soft song on his fiddle off to the side of the festivities and our family and friends stood from their chairs.
Among the attendees were many of the guys working for my brother and Bea on the construction of another barn and the new bunkhouse. And we had plans for more to come.
Clay Marveaux, now a permanent fixture on Brand’s team and Bea’s right hand, sat in the row behind my mama, and the man couldn’t seem to take his eyes off the back of her head.
He had this weird, dizzy look on his face, and I thought, Uh-oh , wondering if Merv would have any clue what was happening if Clay decided to flirt with her.
The thought made me smile though. Everyone deserved to be loved the way Bea and I loved each other, with everything we had inside us.
It certainly would be a new experience for Merv since my old man hadn’t loved much of anything at the end of his life.
Warm afternoon sun reflected off the lake beside our small gathering, and the preacher behind me cleared his throat.
I’d booked him when he married Abey and Devo in the spring, in the shade of their house next to their newly planted community garden.
I’d booked him before I’d even asked Bea to marry me.
But even before then, I’d known she’d say yes. She and I were meant for each other. Written in the stars, as Athena liked to say. Three weeks had stretched ahead of us into forever.
Finally, Bea appeared from behind a tall white spruce at the end of the aisle with white and yellow daisies clutched between her hands, and she took my breath away.
She’d convinced me we didn’t need all the pretense of a white dress and tuxedo or suit, so I was dressed in new pair of Wranglers, too, and a “dusty lavender” button-down that matched her skirt. Her silk tank top was white and her feet were bare.
Rye had relented from his firm position that he should stand up with Athena and agreed to walk Bea down the aisle, but as soon as her eyes locked on mine, she pulled her arm away from Rye’s.
She hiked up her skirt with one hand, ran to me, and jumped into my waiting arms beneath the altar we’d built together over the summer, wrapped in more daisies and sprays of lavender climbing roses.
“I love you,” she breathed against my lips as I twirled us in a circle. She kissed me and said, “Marry me already.”
As I chuckled and set her on her feet, she tossed her bouquet behind her.
Everybody sitting in the first row of chairs ducked, and the bouquet hit my sister’s deputy, Roxi, in the head, but she didn’t seem too mad about it.
Roxi grabbed it and held it close to her chest, blushing.
A few available men smiled in her direction, but Brand sat still as stone next to Abey, refusing to look behind him at Deputy Fitts, even though every other person in attendance watched her.
Hm. Is there somethin’ goin’ on there? I can’t wait to tell Bea!
A lock of hair slipped from the braid Athena had twisted Bea’s hair into. It fluttered in the light breeze coming off the lake, and I tucked it behind her ear.
“I think you have the order of this whole thing backwards,” I said, unable to hide my smile, and I stared into Bea’s green eyes, trying to memorize the emeralds twinkling back at me and the happiness etched onto her face like they could disappear at any moment, ’cause I knew they could.
“You’re s’posed to wait to toss the bouquet till after we’re married. ”
Bea shrugged, grinning. “You knew I was weird before you asked me to marry you. Deal with it.”
“Gladly,” I promised, and I took hold of my future wife’s hands and squeezed them tight. “I’ll take your weird and raise you one. You’re bizarre and beautiful, and you’re mine.”
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