Page 109 of Noble Neighbor
A ray of sunshine, Dad called her.
Clement remembered the first day he’d seen her and the girls. He thought they were dead. He was so glad they weren’t, and he and Dad were so lucky that the Jones girls would become the Armstrong girls.
He got to his feet and pulled Kenzie with him.
“We’re getting married, Clemmie,” Molly called out with a laugh. Sunny laughed with her, and Kenziegiggled.
He heard his mom’s laugh mixed in with the girls’, and his heart laughed too. Mom was happy for him and Dad. “Yes, we are, Molly,” he agreed, and added his laugh to theirs.
“Ready, Clement?” Sunny asked.
He nodded, grinned, and took her hand, tucking it into the bend of his elbow like Grandpa had shown him. Head held high, Clement walked Sunny and Kenzie and Molly down to the water where Dad was waiting for them.
*
Dressed in the Grecian-styled, champagne-gold, chiffon-and-lace dress her mother had brought, Sunny walked beside Clement. Molly clutched his free hand, and Kenzie held Sunny’s left one.
Her heart was overflowing with happiness. Five years ago, she had made the hardest decision of her life and walked away from her family to forge a new life with her daughters.
She’d imagined it always being just the three of them. Even when she’d bought the farm and finally settled, a lasting relationship with a man had never enteredher mind.
Yet today they were forming a new family with a wonderful man and his son. Both victims of incredible evil, both generous and forgiving, they had found a way past the hurt inflicted on them and opened their hearts to her and her girls. And, Sunny thought, scanning the small group of people sitting at the edge of the lake, Oliver had found a way to blend their past and present.
That her immediate family could be a part of their lives going forward, even in a limited capacity, was a miracle. Her girls would one day get their courting quilts lovingly sewn by Granny. And even if they were now called by name, they would experience Mr. Pete’s hugs and eat Mrs. Eileen’s apple pies.
Her gaze landed on Bert and Vera. Their daughter had been killed, but they considered Kenzie and Molly grandchildren, were happy for Oliver and Clement.
And dear Frank, with Rena by his side. They would never marry, yet their love for each other was real. Then again, the woman was spending more time with Frank now that Oliver and Clement had moved.
With love, Sunny reckoned, anything was possible.
Bella and Ruth, friends who’d embraced her and her girls, were women she trusted, and maybe one day she’d share her story with them. Her eyes moved to Beau, and he gave her a chin lift as their gazes met. She sent a fleeting prayer heavenward for the stoic sheriff — he needed a woman to knock his feet from under him.
And then she was beside a beaming Oliver, and she locked eyes with him. “Thank you,” she said, her voice a bit wobbly as she took his hands between hers.
He frowned, his smile dimming. “For?”
“Everything. Loving me. Loving Kenzie and Molly. Making this” — she blinked rapidly — “happen. It’s perfect.”
Dropping his forehead to hers, he whispered, “I love you, Sunny. All I ask is that you love me back.”
“I do. So very much. You’remyforever.”
Epilogue
Two years later …
Oliver glanced at Sunny as their ride pulled up in front of the Brooklyn building. “You okay?” he asked, lightly touching the gentle swell housing their baby. She still looked wan from the earlier bout of vomiting.
“It’s easing.” Sunny flashed him a smile before she looked past his shoulder to the bustling sidewalk. “Come on,” she urged, “let’s go.”
The door of the Escalade opened, and Oliver gave their driver a brief thank you before he slipped from the vehicle and helped his wife out. His wife. Even two years down the line, he still felt the thrill of being married to Sunny. He was a very lucky man.
“Dad?” Hunched over, waiting to unfold from the rear seat, Clement’s enquiring gaze met his.
He stepped back with a mumbled “Sorry,” and watched his son clamber out, all skinny arms and long, ungainly legs. At fourteen, Clement was still figuring what to do with the extra height he’d gained over the last while, and he reminded Oliver of the colt born awhile ago. Velvet — named by Miss Molly “because he’s so soft” — was the first born to Dragonfly Stables.
Clement straightened and turned back to the door and helped his sisters down.
