“Y–yes. Happily so.”
Her eyes lit with her grin, and she squeezed his shoulders. “Well, I'm your sister-in-law, Laurel Taylor, and I'm pleased as punch to meet you, Noah Lewis.”
Taylor? Noah's attention flipped from Jonathan back to Mrs. McAdams, who'd moved closer to him, her watery indigo eyes searching his face. So Jonathan was married to Kizzie's older sister.
Then, as if Mrs. McAdams finally believed him, her smile bloomed, and she dipped her head. “I reckon you're tired and hungry from your travelin’, Noah. Why don't you come on into Jeb's house and we'll have you rest up a little.”
“And you can tell us about our Kizzie,” Mr. McAdams added, patting Noah on the back. “And to family, I'm Sam.”
“It's a pleasure to meet you all.” Noah's face stretched with his grin, and he nodded toward the man, continuing to fight his own emotions for control. “A real pleasure, Sam. A real pleasure.”
Kizzie finished cleaning up the front of the store as Charlie taught Julia how to place cans on a little shelf she'd assigned to him. And then, with Julia's help, he removed the cans and replaced them, over and over again, each time giving Julia different directions.
He called it his “work,” and Kizzie chuckled at his delight in finding all sorts of things to put on the shelf along with the cans. A ball. One of his wooden animals. Julia's shoe. A dust bunny.
Her life bloomed with joys of the measureless sort, and the fact that Noah was returning home today just made the day a little brighter. She shouldn't feel so attached to her darling husband, she supposed, but it was the first time they'd been apart since marrying, and she loved him something fierce.
Crazy fierce.
Real love flowed from him every day. Toward her and the children. To others around them as they ran the little store together. Even to the ladies in the boardinghouse, who they were training to employ in the hotel they were building on Noah's inherited property right outside of town.
Noah offered an example to them of how a good man treated women, because most of them were a lot like Kizzie used to be.
Not knowing what real love looked like.
And that knowledge changed everything.
She'd just sent Molly to the back of the shop to restock the fabric section when the doorbell jingled. Kizzie turned to welcome the shopper and halted.
Every bit of heat drained from her body right out the bottom of her boots.
Standing in the doorway in their Sunday best stood her mama … and Daddy. She shook her head, trying to clear her vision, but each time she blinked, there they stood, staring at her like she was at them.
“Mama?” The word scratched from her and broke the frozen moment.
Mama rushed forward, arms wide, and wrapped Kizzie and baby Julia in her arms. The peppermint scent of her mama smelled real. Her arms felt real. But … how?
Kizzie pulled back and looked at her mama's face, waiting for it to disappear. “How?”
Mama laughed, her familiar eyes swimming with unshed tears. “Your man, Noah, he came to find us.”
“Noah?” Kizzie glanced toward the door where her daddy still stood, his big shoulders bent a little and his eyes red-rimmed, but not from alcohol.
No.
From tears.
She laughed out a sob. “Daddy?”
His smile wobbled wide, and in three steps he held her in his arms along with her mama. The scent of pipe and honeysuckle and woodstove mingled together with a rush of home and memories, and she pressed into her daddy's massive shoulder, her body shaking with her sobs.
How could this be?
The doorbell jingled again, and she wanted to yell to the patron to come back in an hour, but when she raised her gaze to the door, a whole new set of familiar, teary-eyed, smiling faces greeted her.
Jeb stood beside a curly-haired woman, and he was holding a baby girl in his arms. Laurel pushed forward, holding the hand of a blond-haired stranger dressed so nice he even boasted a bow tie. Maggie waited beside Laurel, her shoulders shaking from crying, and Isom stared wide-eyed around the store. Even little Suzie, who wasn't a baby anymore, stood holding the curly-haired woman's hand on one side and a little twin, James or Jon, on the other.
Her family.
