It wasn’t a bad thing to be at all.
He led his parents into the bar to join their extendedfamily.
Epilogue
Years later
Dallas, TX
“I’m going to run to the store, love.”
Avery glanced up from her work.Casseroles.She’d alreadymade three.One breakfast and two for lunches or dinners.Her daughter’sfreezer was going to be well stocked for the coming weeks.
Damn, but she loved Liam O’Donnell.He’d aged some, but shestill saw him in the prime of his life.So gorgeous she could barely stand tolook at him.Sometimes she still felt the moment her eyes had locked with hisand she’d known she wanted to be with him forever.
Or maybe it had been more complex and the years had softenedthe actual history.Maybe it had been harder, but there was nothing hard aboutloving Liam O’Donnell now.
“Do you need anything?”he asked.
Anything she’d needed, she’d been given.
“Hey, love, what’s this about?”Liam moved into her space,cupping her cheek, and when he looked down at her she was young again.He usedhis thumbs to gently wipe away the tears clinging to her.“I don’t have to goto the store, but you know Brody and Steph are on their way from the airportright now, and Brody’s been on a plane for twenty-four hours.He’s going to behungry.Besides, our Daisy asked for chicken salad.”
Their Daisy.Their smart, funny girl who’d recently giventhem even more joy.She laughed.“I’m baking a couple of weeks’ worth of foodfor her, but she needs chicken salad.Her postpartum cravings are worse thanher pregnancy ones.”
A brilliant smile crossed her husband’s face.“Well, youhave to admit she deserves it.Our little granddaughter is perfect.”
Their first grandbaby.Wilhelmina Avery Carter.Billie.
Their first but not their last since they’d gotten good newsthe night before.
How new the world felt.She’d loved raising her family, butthere was something so sweet about watching them go out into the world and findtheir places.Nate had moved up to an investigative team at McKay-Taggart, andhe seemed to love solving mysteries with his partner, an intellectual guy whoreminded Avery so much of Brody’s friend Walter.Daisy had graduated with hermaster’s, and she hadn’t even burned down Kai’s clinic yet.She was helpingkids, and now she had one of her own.
“She is indeed.”Avery went on her toes and kissed herhusband.“Are they sleeping?”
Liam nodded.“They were up all night with Billie.Are yousure we should go home tomorrow?”
The birth had been hard, but Daisy had come through it likea champ.Like all new moms she needed help, so Avery and Liam had stayed forthe first week ensuring all Nate and Daisy had to do was take care ofthemselves and the baby.They’d cooked and cleaned, and Liam had tried to hogthe baby as much as possible, rocking her and singing her Irish lullabies.Butit was time to let her other grandparents help.
“It’s Steph and Brody’s turn,” she said firmly.“You knowhow much it killed them that they couldn’t get here until today.”
Steph’s clinic in Sierra Leone had grown.She ran it withFaith Smith, and they’d recently opened a women’s wing.Steph had been caughtin a bureaucratic tangle when Daisy had gone into labor two weeks early.They’donly been able to arrange their travel in the last few days.They lived a blockaway when they were in Dallas, but Steph liked to be hands-on at the clinicseveral months out of the year.
He gave her one last kiss and stepped back.“Well, I supposeI can share.I’ll be back as soon as I can.Billie’s asleep in the bed in thenursery.Nate snores, and I won’t have him waking my sweet granddaughter.”
He winked and walked out.
The man never learned.Billie was already a saint of a girl.Just like her mother.She was fairly certain her granddaughter would end up aswild as Daisy.As troublesome as her grandfather.Trouble in the best way.
She heard him drive away, and then there was a chimingsound.Avery rushed to the front door because her husband was right.Daisy andNate needed sleep.
She threw open the door and Steph stood there.
For a moment she saw another Stephanie.A teenaged StephanieGibson who’d shown up at Avery’s hospital bed, skinny because she hadn’t eaten,wracked with guilt.She’d only met with the girl because Steph’s mother hadbegged her.Stephanie had been driving the other car, the one that had plowedinto hers.The one that had taken her first husband, Brandon, and her littlebaby, Madison, away from her.She’d been planning on telling Stephanie Gibsonto go to hell.
She was transported to the moment when she’d looked at thegirl who’d wronged her and known she had to make a choice.
A choice that brought her here.A life-changing choice.
