Page 129 of Recipe for Rivals

My man was the best.

EPILOGUE

NOVA

ONE YEAR LATER

The line toride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood Studios was over an hour long, but that didn’t stop Ben or Dusty from wanting to ride it again as soon as we stepped off. Don’t get me wrong, the ride was fun, but these two were a different level of nerd. I kind of loved that about them, though. Now that we were married and Dusty joined all our family movie nights, I was outvoted more frequently. We’d watched all nineStar Warsmovies just to prep for this family vacation.

Clearly, I loved my husband.

I drew the line at the offshoot cartoons. He and Ben could have their own movie nights for those.

“What if you two get in line, and I take Alice on something else?” I offered.

“I want to stay with Dusty,” she said. Peaches was fastened around her neck, its legs around her back so it would hold ontight. She’d insisted on bringing it to Disney World, and I said she only could if it stayed velcroed to her. I didn’t want to face the trauma of it falling off and being lost forever.

“I thought you wanted to find Leia a costume,” Dusty asked.

Alice’s face lit up. “Yes!”

Dusty raised his eyebrows. “You can always join us in line again later.”

“Okay, maybe.” I gave him a noncommittal smile that made him laugh. “I’ll call you once we’re finished cat-costume shopping.”

He leaned over and kissed me. “You know where to find us.”

I took Alice’s hand and watched the boys jog back toward the ride’s entrance, my heart in my throat. Marrying Dusty had been the easiest decision I’d ever made. Waiting long enough so the kids had eased into it had been the hard part. But, like I’d expected, they were thrilled when we told them we were getting married.

They were resilient little sprites. Our wedding was small but full of love. My parents came out to stay for a month during the summer, spending time with us and getting to know Dusty—whom they heartily approved of—and helping plan the wedding. Everyone had traveled to Arcadia Creek in the fall for the wedding, and by the end of the trip even Blair could understand why I’d want to stay in Texas. She helped me move my things over to Dusty’s house and fell in love with the view from the back porch, too.

Life wasn’t without its challenges, but together, Dusty and I had weathered all the storms—both literally and figuratively.

The first shop we stepped in wasStar Warsthemed—thanks to the proximity to the ride—but we couldn’t find cat costumes. I asked an attendant and she told me which shop to check out to find one, but it wasn’t in this park. I followed Alice as she looked through the Mandalorian helmets and lightsabers, when her gaze landed on a Chewbacca figurine.

“Mom,” she said, reaching for it.

I helped her pull it from the shelf. “It looks like Ben’s old one.”

She nodded, staring at it.

“He has Dusty’s old toy now, remember?”

“Yeah.” She still held it, looking at the figurine. “Can I get this for Ben?”

One could never have too many Chewie toys, I supposed. The boys would believe that, at least. “Are you sure?”

“It’s my fault his died,” she said quietly, looking up at me. Her round blue eyes were sorrowful, and it occurred to me this was just as much to heal her as it was to replace what Ben had lost.

“Okay, we can get it for him.”

Her little shoulders relaxed. Then she spotted the baby onesies with Grogu on them, and I steered her toward the register before she tried to buy something for everyone we knew. Things between the kids and Carter had been better recently. We had taken a family trip out to New York after Kristen had the baby so the kids could meet him, which was good for Ben. He liked being a big brother again. Hopefully Dusty and I would give them another little one soon.

“Should we go find the Toy Story rides?” I asked, putting the bagged toy into my backpack once we got outside.

“I want to ride theStar Warsone again,” she said.

“The drop didn’t scare you?”

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