Epilogue
Despite being welcomed back by the midwifery team with open arms and her landlord happily retracting the notice she’d served on her flat, Hope never thought she’d want to spend Christmas anywhere other than Tenby, but spending her first Christmas in Port Agnes was turning out to be truly magic.
Her new baby cousin, Hazel, was almost three months old, and Hazel’s older brother, Caleb, was bringing the magic of Christmas alive for everyone.
It turned out Esther had already been two months pregnant at the time of the test in September, which meant she’d fallen pregnant just a month after starting Clomid, not long after the tearful conversation that Hope had overheard in the toilets.
She was five months pregnant now and over the scary danger zone, but it hadn’t all been plain sailing.
She’d had a bleed just before her twelve-week scan and had begged Hope to go along to it with her.
It was just one of the things that had bonded them closer in the weeks and months since that day in the garage workshop in Devon that none of them would ever forget.
Despite all of that, Hope wouldn’t have been able to spend Christmas in Port Agnes without the rest of the Masterson clan and it had been her dad who’d first suggested that they rent an Airbnb nearby, so that her parents and three sisters could spend Christmas in Cornwall and have the opportunity to get to know Joe and Esther better. Not to mention Louie.
‘I need to make sure he’s got honourable intentions,’ her dad had said in his usual jokey tone, but Hope knew there was an element of truth in his words.
He’d always made sure his daughters felt safe and loved, both of her parents had, and nothing that had happened since she’d moved to Port Agnes had changed that.
The meeting between Joe and her parents couldn’t have gone better, the two men instantly forming a bond over Dave’s question about the wick-away quality of the top Joe had been wearing.
‘That looks like exactly the sort of thing I need for when I take the kayak out, so I don’t burn to a crisp, or get so sweaty I look like I’m in a wet T-shirt contest no one wants to see,’ Dave had said. ‘Did you get it around here?’
‘They sell them in Surf’s Up in Port Tremellien and it’s perfect for kayaking,’ Joe had assured him. ‘You can’t beat a merino blend for that.’
Esther had laughed and rolled her eyes. ‘Careful, Joe, or never mind a Mr Wet T-shirt contest, you might win the nerd of the year award.’
‘Oh, believe me, Dave would give him a run for his money.’ Alison had laughed too. ‘They’re such a pair of dads.’
The words had made Hope smile because they really were and the fact that the two of them had got on so well had filled up her heart in a way she couldn’t even have imagined.
So it was no surprise that they’d hatched a plan to go out kayaking together in the spring, when her parents had invited Joe and Esther to stay in Tenby.
It felt like the start of what Hope was certain would be a genuine friendship between all four of them.
She already knew how highly Joe thought of Louie, but when her father had finally met him for the first time, the day after arriving in Cornwall, he’d given the younger man his seal of approval too.
‘I really like him.’ Hope’s father had nodded slowly.
‘I mean, obviously no one will ever be good enough for my little girl, but I can tell he’s a nice lad and more than that, I trust you to make the right decision.
You always do.’ He’d dropped a kiss on her forehead and a wave of pure love for the man who’d chosen to be her dad washed over her.
The blending of her two families had been every bit as seamless.
None of Joe’s side had forced anything and they were all taking things slowly, but she loved spending time with them.
They’d agreed that having Christmas Day en masse would be far too much, too soon, so Hope had spent the day in the Airbnb with her family, and Louie had come over in the evening to play games with them, after spending the day with his parents and some of their other relatives at Gwen and Barry’s house.
Now it was Boxing Day, and both families were meeting on the beach to get some air and let off a bit of steam. It was a crisp day, with frost clustering patches of overturned sand together, a cloudless bright blue sky stretching endlessly above them.
‘Are you missing Tenby?’ Hope hooked an arm through her mum’s as they walked along the sand.
‘How could I miss anything, when I’ve got all the people I love most in the world right here with me?’ Alison jumped to one side, as the family dog came hurtling down the beach towards them, sending up a spray of sand. ‘And I think Teddy heartily approves of his new second home too.’
‘Do you really think you can have two homes?’
‘I know you can.’ As her mum leant in closer towards Hope again, she looked up the beach ahead of her, to where Louie and Charlie were playing a game of tag with Caleb, and Esther was walking next to Danni, who had baby Hazel in a sling.
When Hope glanced over her shoulder, her three sisters were walking in step with their dad and Joe, all of them laughing about something as a gust of wind whipped their hair around their faces.
She was right in the middle of everyone, in the heart of the family who’d chosen her, and the one they’d encouraged her to find.
There wasn’t a single thing in her life she wanted to change right now, and no one could hope for more than that.