Page 128 of 15 Summers Later

He brushed his mouth against hers with aching gentleness and she wrapped her arms around his neck, wanting to be nowhere else on earth than here, surrounded by the animals she loved and in the arms of the man she had been waiting for since she was fourteen years old.

“Tell me Sierra was right. That you wanted me to kiss you yesterday. That you want me to kiss you today.”

“T-today and tom-morrow and next week and next month. And every single day after that.”

Forever.

He smiled against her mouth. “Fine by me.”

He had said the words and she felt she needed to say them in return, not out of any sense of obligation but because she wanted to.

“I love you, Luke. I’ve loved you for a long time. Maybe since the day you saved my life on the mountain. I didn’t realize it until this summer.”

What would his father think about them being together? She wondered as Luke kissed her again. Something told her Dan Gentry would be happy for them, thrilled that they eventually had found each other after all the pain and loss and sadness.

The thought of loss reminded her again of Ava and she felt momentary guilt for the joy bubbling through her with the healing, life-giving force of a mountain spring.

How could she be so happy in this moment when she should be grief-stricken for her sister’s loss?

She was. She ached for Ava.

At the same time, since that summer fifteen years ago, she had learned that life was a jumbled, chaotic, beautiful mess of good and bad, sadness and light.

When these moments of sheer joy came along, those who had fought their way through the darkness only appreciated them more for the gift they were.

Luke kissed her, his mouth warm and tender on hers. Madi leaned into him, her heart overflowing. One of the goats bleated, Sabra brayed in response and a couple of dogs barked in the distance.

Madi surrendered to his kiss, grateful beyond words for her chaotic, exquisite life and the rare and precious joy she had miraculously found after weathering the storm.

Epilogue

Madison

On a beautiful August afternoon, sixteen years after the summer that changed her life, Madi married her best friend in the small stone chapel in Emerald Creek.

The groom cried. So did the groom’s mother, his daughter, his sister and the bride’s grandmother.

Oh, and so did the matron of honor—the bride’s sister—as well as the bride’s six-week-old niece, Ava’s newborn baby girl...until her father finally took her out.

Madi didn’t cry. She was too filled with an incandescent joy that seemed to blaze through her as she said her vows to the most amazing man she had ever known.

Later, at the reception that followed in her grandmother’s lush garden, she sat on a bench, holding Ava’s tiny daughter, Sophia Beth Brooks.

“I don’t want her to spit up on you in that beautiful dress,” Ava fretted.

“I wouldn’t care,” Madi assured her sister, cradling the precious miracle more closely to her chest. “It’s only a dress. Anyway, I think I’ve already got dog hair all over it from the pictures we took earlier with Sierra and all the fur babies.”

Her fourteen-year-old stepdaughter, who had loved planning every detail of the wedding, for which she felt personally responsible, had insisted they needed a picture together with the three of them as well as Madi’s two dogs and the two that Luke and Sierra were bringing into the marriage.

“They’re all part of our blended family now, right?” Sierra had said with a grin. “Anyway, it will be adorable, since the animals brought you and Dad together and you both love them. We’ll definitely post it on the socials for both the vet clinic and the animal rescue, but I also think we should have a print framed and hang it over the mantel at the new house.”

Wanting a fresh start, Luke had sold the house he had purchased with Johanna, and together, he and Madi had purchased land next to the animal sanctuary. They were building their own house, a beautiful log home with windows that overlooked the mountains and acreage they eventually could use to expand the animal rescue.

“I don’t need to ask if you’re happy,” Ava said now. “You’re lustrous, Madi. I’ve never seen a more radiant bride.”

“I didn’t know I could ever be this happy. Why didn’t anyone tell me?”

Ava smiled and Madi didn’t miss the look she sent through the crowd, unerringly finding her own husband. “Believe it or not, when you pick the right person, it only gets better.”

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