Page 94 of Quintessentially

I go on. “I have loved you since we were young. I never knew happiness like I did here with you. Kandace Sheers, I love you and our daughter, but never think this isn’t about you. It is. You are the only person I want to spend the rest of my life with. I’m so proud of your dreams and your strength. I want to share those. I want to lean on you when I feel weak, and have you lean on me when you need a shoulder. I want to be a couple in all things…partners.”

I clear my throat as I reach into the pocket of my jeans and pull out a diamond engagement ring. It’s a two-carat round diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds and sapphires.

“The woman at the store said that April’s birthstone is both diamonds and sapphires. “You and I are the large diamond, and the smaller stones are for Molly’s birth month.”

Tears make their way down her cheeks.

I stand and offer her the ring. “Kandace, will you marry me?”

“Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you.”

It’s then that the rest of the room comes into focus. Molly is now on Bridget’s lap and both Bridget and my mom are dabbing their eyes with napkins. Randy is the one to stand and lift his glass of water. “A toast to Dax and Kandace.”

Everyone raises their glass except Justin.

Finally, Kandace’s brother grins and lifts his glass. “Welcome to the family,” he says.

Everyone cheers.

I go to Molly and lift her from her grandma’s lap. “How about it, Molly? Are you okay with Mom and Dad getting married?”

“What took you so long?”

The room fills with laughter as Bridget brings two homemade pies into the dining room.

Sitting at my side, Kandace looks down at the ring and back to me. “I love the ring. It’s beautiful.”

“I had some help picking it out.”

“Who?”

“Your mom.”

Epilogue

Kandace

Six months later

Quintessential Treasures is an online sensation. I’ve hired three people to help with orders and keeping the merchandise stocked. While the upstairs isn’t Molly’s and my home, it is filled with inventory as well as a room designated as the shipping center. The computer system is updated and with living only walking distance from the store, I can go back and forth whenever I need.

Dax has partnered with Jeffrey Murphy and opened a title company. They’re working on something that has to do with ethanol. He’s swamped with work but is always there to walk Molly and me home when I turn the sign in the window.

I smile at my friend who is looking at herself in the full-length mirror, turning right and left.

“I look like a giant watermelon.”

“You do not.” I scoff. “A small watermelon.” I lift my finger and thumb only an inch apart. “Baby watermelon.”

“I think that’s what I’m growing.”

The seafoam green dress she’s wearing has an empire waist and plenty of material to cover her eight-month baby bump. She and Mick married on New Year’s Eve. It was a bit sooner than originally planned. That didn’t make it any less festive. Sometimes things don’t work out exactly as we expect. The most important thing is that they do work out.

Once in a while it takes a well-meaning grandmother and friend to make one’s eyes open and ready one’s heart to trust and love again.

The door to the dressing room at the back of the church opens. Mom and Molly come in. Our daughter is wearing a dress a shade darker than Chloe. My dress is ivory and long. The hem comes to the top of my shoes, and my veil is secured in my hair with a pearl-encrusted comb that Ginny brought to me. She said Ruth wore the comb in her wedding to John, and she, Ginny, wore it in her wedding to Dax’s father. She asked if I’d continue the tradition.

Of course I said yes.

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