Epilogue
EPILOGUE
F aith Family Center wasn’t an especially large building, and today it was filled to capacity in a celebration Holt had never expected to experience. Fact of the business, he’d never wanted to experience a wedding shower, but loving AnnaLeigh had changed his tune about a lot of things.
If a wedding shower hosted by Rachel Tinsley’s Bible study group, and attended by half the town, made his wife happy, he’d dress up and show up.
The presents had been opened, Meg Clifton’s once fancy cake from the Cookie Jar Bakery appeared to have been attacked by piranha, and a passel of kids, including Jacey and her two best buddies, Ava and Ellie Skye, chased errant helium balloons around the room.
The party was breaking up. People stopped to chat with him, offering congratulations and saying their good-byes. Cold air rushed in as the outside door opened and closed over and over again.
All the while, Holt’s mind was on only one person in the room.
A short time ago, his wife had drifted away, deep in conversation with Rachel and Mayor Liz about next month’s Valentine’s Day event. He might be surrounded by talkative friends, but he missed AnnaLeigh.
He searched the dwindling crowd for the slender blonde, and when he spotted her talking to the Brazos sisters, his chest swelled with love and pride. Why had he ever thought she was anything but beautiful?
AnnaLeigh must have felt his stare because she looked up and smiled. His belly dipped. One smile, and he was a goner.
His wife said something to the two dark-haired sisters and then began weaving toward him. She stopped to speak to various attendees, smiling and gracious, but her eyes kept returning to him.
She made a man feel like the toughest rider in the chute.
A hand clapped against his shoulder. He turned to find a uniformed Evan grinning at him. “Good party, huh?”
“Yes, sir. For sure.” He rubbed a grateful hand over his neatly pressed shirt, ironed with love by his wife. “Thanks to you I can still have good days like this one. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t listened to me when I called for help.”
“Just doing my job.”
It was more than that, and they both knew it. Evan was a humble hero who took no credit for the good things he did, but Holt knew and was grateful.
“The newspaper says Watts is being charged with a lot more than kidnapping and assault.”
“Truth.” Evan rotated a tiny glass punch cup in his long fingers. “His house of cards finally tumbled. Once his enemies knew Watts was behind bars, they lined up to testify against him. We should be able to put him away for a very long time.”
“Best news of the day. I don’t want AnnaLeigh worrying about him, especially now that she’s pregnant.”
He and AnnaLeigh had prayed long and hard about the dilemma of the baby’s biology. What was the right thing to do? What did God require in such a bizarre situation? Should they keep the baby’s parentage a secret from everyone, especially Alan? Was that wrong?
In the end, after hours of conversation and prayer, they’d come to a decision. Protect their innocent child in every way possible. Holt was to be the little one’s daddy. End of subject.
AnnaLeigh arrived, and Holt slid his arm around her still tiny waist, though he could feel the slightest rise in her soft tummy. It made him happy in a way only God could have orchestrated.
She smiled up at him. His heart turned over.
God, in his infinite wisdom, had seen two needy people and brought them together in the most unusual way. Maybe the original plans had been Holt’s—and he’d done a messy job of them—but God had worked all things for his good.
He would ever be grateful for the blessing AnnaLeigh had brought into his and Jacey’s lives. Funny that she said the same thing. That he and Jacey were the blessings she’d prayed for and never expected to have.
“Saw you talking with the flying Brazos sisters.” He grinned down into her face. “You taking up trick riding?”
AnnaLeigh bumped him with her hip. “Jacey wants to, remember?”
Holt groaned. “That’s right. She’s determined to be as crazy as her old man.”
“Arizona said she and her sisters will teach her, if and when you approve.” She looked at Evan. “What about Ava, Evan? Would you let her trick ride?”
Evan’s face darkened. “Not a chance. I don’t let her near a horse. Trick riding is insane. Way too dangerous.”
“You didn’t always think that way,” Holt added. “Weren’t you and Mesa and her wild, daredevil ways a thing back in the day?”
“Friends.” Evan scowled at him. “That was a long time ago.”
“I remember more than friends.”
“Because you’re in love, and you think everyone else needs to be.”
“Not a bad thing.”
“According to Lark and Arizona, Mesa is moving back to Refuge soon,” AnnaLeigh said.
Something shifted in Evan’s expression. Was that interest in his eyes? “That a fact?”
Holt gave his friend a nudge. “There you go. Rekindle old flames.”
“I told you?—“
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Just friends.”
Evan’s radio crackled. He grunted and set his empty cup on a white-clothed table. “Duty calls. Good party.”
Holt decided not to press the issue about the trick rider. Not today, anyway. “Thanks for coming.”
The undersheriff headed toward the door, stopping briefly to speak to Ava and then to his parents, before making his exit.
Holt pondered his pal’s reaction to the news about Mesa Brazos before deciding Evan was right. The lawman and the trick rider were a very long time ago.
AnnaLeigh’s face hurt from smiling. She was that happy. She rubbed her cheeks and settled on the couch in front of the fire Holt had built as soon as they’d arrived home.
Home. Her wonderful, eclectic home.
She was still pinching herself.
Jacey plopped down beside her with a dramatic sigh of contentment. “When I get married and have babies, I want a big party like that one.”
Holt ambled in from the kitchen, holding out a cup tea for AnnaLeigh. “In about fifty years.”
“Uh-huh. After I’m too old for trick riding. And being president.”
AnnaLeigh kissed the top of her daughter’s hair. The carefully curled locks were now an endearing tangle, as usual. “You’d make a great president.”
“That’s what Ava said, ‘cause I’m bossy.”
The two adults exchanged smiles.
Holt lowered his frame on AnnaLeigh’s opposite side and tilted his head against hers.
Every nerve ending in her body danced with happiness.
In a stage whisper, he asked, “Should we tell her?”
“I don’t know. She’s had a big day. Do you think she can bear the excitement?”
“Tell me what, Daddy?” Jacey clasped her hands prayerfully. “Am I getting trick riding lessons from the Flying Sisters?”
“Something better than that.”
“I can’t think of anything better.” Green eyes grew serious. “I already have the best daddy and mommy ever.”
Tenderness welled in AnnaLeigh for the sweet, perky little girl. “I think you’ll like this surprise.”
“Remember how you’ve wished for a brother or sister?” Holt asked.
Jacey bolted upright, almost spilling AnnaLeigh’s tea. Excited green eyes went from Holt to AnnaLeigh and back again. “You mean, we’re having a baby?”
“Yep.”
“Jesus did it again!” In full blown drama mode, Jacey fell back against the sofa cushions, hands crossed over her chest. “He’s so nice to me.”
“What do you mean?” Holt asked.
“I prayed for a mommy, remember? And he sent me one. So, then, I prayed for Mommy to have a baby. And she is. Jesus really can do anything, exactly like you said.” Jacey whooped and hopped off the couch. “I gotta call Ava and Ellie. Okay?”
Before either parent could muster a reply, she shot from the room, giggling all the way.
Holt turned a stunned gaze to AnnaLeigh. “I hope she doesn’t pray for twins.”
While they laughed together in astonished joy at the grace of God, AnnaLeigh snuggled against her husband, safe in his love and free at last. Free from her lonely, damaged past, her mistakes and her shame. Free to love a good man and their children, how ever many God chose to send.
In his mercy and grace, the Heavenly Father had taken her, a broken vessel, and made her life into something beautiful.
The fire flared and crackled. Outside, the January wind howled. And here in her honorable cowboy’s arms, a thankful AnnaLeigh had finally come home.
THE END