Page 66 of When You Got a Good Thing (Misfit Inn 1)

“I know I ragged on you pretty hard. Like everybody else, I had no idea why you left, and I was really angry with you for a long time. But I just want to say I’m sorry, and props to you for what you pulled off. I couldn’t have done what you did. None of us could. So kudos. And thank you for having the vision for turning the house into an inn. Mom really would’ve loved that.”

That almost set Kennedy off on a fresh bout of tears. The relief at finally being accepted by her family was sweeter than the honeysuckle just beginning to bloom outside. This was home, the family she’d been searching for through all her travels. This was love. “Thanks, y’all. I—well, I guess I’ve been carrying that around for a long time. It means a lot to know that you know and you get it. And that you like my idea.”

“We love your idea,” Pru said.

“I really look forward to working with you to finish fleshing out the details,” Maggie added. “I think this has the potential to really be something great, not only for us, but for the Ridge.”

Kennedy looked at her sisters and really felt connected to them for the first time in years. She took a deep breath as everything inside her began to settle. “I’d like that. But seriously, after some sleep.”

“Oh! Of course. Go to bed,” Pru ordered.

“And maybe when you get up, you could tell us about this book deal,” Maggie put in.

Kennedy froze. “How did you…?”

“The proposal was mixed in with everything else.”

Kennedy held still, feeling her soft underbelly exposed and waiting for more judgment.

“I was wrong. You did have direction and did have a career. It just wasn’t what I expected them to look like. I’m really proud of you. And I’m sorry we made you feel like you couldn’t tell us.”

“It wasn’t just that. In a lot of ways I saw myself the same way y’all did. It wasn’t until I came home and had to start taking stock and justifying how I’ve spent my time that I started recognizing everything I’ve done and learned. So I can’t really fault you for not having seen what I didn’t see myself.”

After another round of hugs and flurry of apologies, Kennedy finally climbed the stairs. Her feet felt leaden, but her heart was lighter than it had been for a decade. The curtains in her room were drawn, leaving the room bathed in shadow. She could just make out Xander sprawled in bed, breath slow and even. She undressed in the dark and slid beneath the covers beside him. His arms snaked out immediately to wrap around her and drag her back against him.

“Took so long?” he murmured.

“Just clearing the air with my sisters.”

“Everything okay?”

She and her sisters probably had a long way to go to figure out this whole adult family thing, but this, Kennedy decided, was a really great start. She snuggled into Xander’s embrace. “Everything’s fine. Everything’s really good. Go to back sleep, baby.”

~*~

“We’d like to thank all of you for coming out today to this Memorial Day celebration of our grand opening.”

Xander watched Kennedy where she stood on the front steps, flanked by all her sisters. A red ribbon stretched across the porch, from one rail to the other, and above them hung a sign, shrouded in fabric. The outside of the house looked much the same, with the azaleas in bloom and sunlight glinting off the freshly washed windows. But the inside had undergone a massive transformation over the past couple of months. He knew, as he’d helped with most of it. He was so proud to see how the sisters had come together in support of Kennedy’s vision to make it a reality.

“This house has a long and fascinating history. For many of you here, it was a home for some length of time.”

And indeed, the front lawn was covered in people, quite a few he remembered seeing at Joan’s funeral. They sat on blankets or stood in clusters amid the scores of other locals who’d turned out for the open house and opening day picnic. Eden’s Ridge had turned out en masse to check out its newest business.

“It’s a house that’s full of memories, a place where our mother still looms large, even though she’s no longer with us. Joan Reynolds believed in making people at home, and we think she’d be proud to see how we intend to honor that going forward. For a variety of entirely practical reasons related to marketing and search engine optimization, we were going to call the place Reynolds House Bed and Breakfast. But in the end, we decided we’d rather defer to Mom because she named this house a long time ago.”

Kennedy nodded and both Athena and Pru tugged on the strings they held. The fabric fell from the carved wooden sign announcing The Misfit Inn. A cheer went up from all the former fosters. Xander knew quite a few of them and their families had booked rooms over the course of the summer. After the pre-launch announcement Kennedy had made on her blog, the inn was already off to a solid start with bookings on into August .

The sisters crowded around an over-sized pair of scissors, lifting it to the ribbon. Cameras clicked. Grinning, one and all, they snipped it and shouted, “Welcome to The Misfit Inn!”

The crowd burst into applause and cheers. All four Reynolds sisters exchanged hugs. They’d made huge strides over the past weeks overcoming their misconceptions and working their way back to being a family. It had been good to see, good to know they were all finally healing.

Beside him, his mother laid a hand over her heart. “Oh, Joan would’ve loved this.”

“Yeah, I think she would have.”

Maggie lifted her voice above the din. “We invite you all to explore the house, see the guest rooms. There’s food in the kitchen. Please, come in and enjoy yourselves!”

Xander was at the head of the pack, snagging Kennedy around the waist and dragging her into one of the side rooms.

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