Connor’s eyes shifted for a moment toward Emmalee, and then his eyes returned to hers with a longing that had become very familiar. “Tonight’s the last time that ‘going home’ means going to separate places.”
Tomorrow night, they’d be leaving to go totheirhome. Hers and Connor’s. Heading home had never sounded so wonderful. A smile overtook her face. “I can’t wait. See you tomorrow, my soon-to-be husband.”
Connor’s smile was every bit as big as hers. “Tomorrow, my soon-to-be wife.”
series epilogue
NOELLE, RACHEL, KATIE
Five Years Later
Noelle
Jack put the car into park after pulling into the driveway at Noelle’s parents’ house, and then they all started getting out of the car. Gabriel, her son who was turning six tomorrow, started running up the curved sidewalk toward the door.
“Gabe, honey,” she called out, “will you come back and help your sister so she doesn’t slip on the snow?”
Her four-year-old daughter, Evalena, had just gotten out of the car, put her hands on her hips, and said, “No, I can do it by myself,” just as Gabriel said, “It’s not slippery.”
“Can you help carry in the presents then?” Jack asked, which were apparently the magic words, because Gabe was back in a flash to help, begging his dad to load them up high on his arms.
Noelle opened the back door and helped her one-year-old, Leo, out of his car seat and into her arms. He was the sweetest little boy with the softest curls. She gave him a kiss on the cheek as Jack got their dish of freshly roasted cinnamon butternut squash out of the trunk. He came over to her, wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and placed a kiss on her temple. “Happy birthday, sweetheart.”
She smiled and gave him a kiss right on the lips. Christmas Eve— her birthday— got busier with the birth of each of their three kids, but Jack never ceased to make her feel like she was worth the sun, the moon, and the stars every time.
Actually, he never ceased to make her feel like that every day, not just on her birthday.
As they went around the car and to the sidewalk, Evalena was still standing in the same spot, just gazing at all the decorations that covered the front lawn. She looked up at them with her big eyes and said, “They’re just so beautiful! Don’t they make you want to cry because they’re so pretty?”
Noelle loved that Evalena thought so. All of her kids loved Christmas. She made sure they were all growing up enjoying the same traditions that Noelle had loved doing with her gran-gran. And she made sure they knew all about the woman she’d loved so fiercely so she wouldn’t ever be forgotten.
“They are beautiful,” Jack said, and he leaned down to hold her hand with the hand that wasn’t holding the baking dish and walked with her up to the front door.
Noelle followed behind with Leo, taking in how adorable it was to see her husband holding her little girl’s hand. She would never tire of seeing that. Or of seeing him care for and play with any of their kids. She had known Jack would be a great dad by seeing the way he interacted with his nephew Aiden when they were first dating, but it had grabbed hold of her heart like nothing else to see him with their own kids.
They went inside and greeted and hugged her parents, Becca and her family, and Hope and her family, and then she got Leo settled and playing with some blocks that her parents had placed near the Christmas tree.
When the front door opened, she leaned forward to see around the wall toward to see Nick and Rachel come in with Aiden and Holly. Holly must’ve had a hockey game or practice because she was wearing her team’s jersey, looking pretty proud of herself. Aiden walked beside her, holding a present in his hands.
She couldn’t believe how tall the two of them had grown! They were both thirteen, so she guessed it was to be expected, but they had just shot up in the past little while. Aiden might have passed her height, even.
She got up off the floor to greet Jack’s sister and her husband. Then Jack put an arm around Noelle, gave her a squeeze and a kiss to the temple, and said, “I’m going to help out in the kitchen. Have a seat on the couch and socialize. You’ve had a long day and it’s your birthday— kick your feet up.”
“You’re the best, you know that?”
Jack gave her that smile she loved so much. “I try to be.”
Rachel
In the festive home where Rachel and her family now spent every Christmas Eve, she hugged all her brother’s in-laws who had become her family as well. She loved this place and she loved these people.
Nick went up to their nephew, Gabriel, and, crouched down, said, “How’s my favorite six-year-old?”
“Great!” Gabe said. “Because not only is it my mom’s birthday, but Santa is coming tonight, and I really hope— and I mean crossing-all-my-fingers hoping— that he brings me this Lego set I’m really wanting. And not only that, but tomorrow ismybirthday! This really is the greatest time of the whole entire year.”
“It sure is,” Nick said. Then he turned and chatted with their niece, Evalena, his “favorite four-year-old,” and then he told Leo that he was as cute as ever.
Gosh, she loved this man. She loved seeing how great he was with kids, especially with her brother’s kids, and she loved seeing him with their own kids. Even now, as Aiden and Holly were entering their teenage years, he was still great with them. Even when they really tried to test exactly how much patience he had. So far, Aiden and Holly had learned two things— that they still hadn’t seen the limits of their dad’s patience, and that he loved them unconditionally.
