Relief washed over her face. "Rob said?—"
"I'm not Rob," Walker interrupted firmly. "And what he said to you was cruel and wrong. Family comes in many forms. However ours takes shape, it will be perfect because it's ours."
Sabrina rose on tiptoe, pressing her lips to his in a kiss of gratitude and love.
"Now," Walker said, taking her hand again, "let's go share our news. I suspect Reed has already opened the champagne and probably already called James and Terrel and told them the news.”
Sabrina grinned. “Didn’t you say both of them were supposed to come home for the fourth of July?”
He nodded.
“Then let’s do it then.”
He hesitated. “Are you sure?”
“I want your brothers there and if they can be there for the fourth, let’s do it then.”
Walker pulled her into him again, kissing her again.
She giggled and pulled back.
“What?”
“I appreciate you.”
“I appreciate you, too.”
“Now, should we go tell our family.”
He kissed her again. “On second thought, let’s kiss, they already know.”
Epilogue
Walker
The lake shimmered in the summer sun as Walker adjusted his tie, watching from the window as guests gathered on the shore. The decision to hold their wedding here, at the lake house, had been unanimous—the place where both their families' histories intertwined, where they had first fallen in love as teenagers.
"Nervous?" Reed asked, appearing in the doorway of what had once been their father's study.
Walker shook his head. "Not even a little."
His brother grinned. "I believe you. Never seen you more certain of anything."
"That's because I've never been more certain," Walker replied simply.
Reed crossed the room, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "Dad would be proud, you know. Of both of us, but especially of you. What you've overcome. What you've built."
Emotion tightened Walker's chest. "I think about him every day. Him and Frank. How different things might have been if they'd lived."
"They're here," Reed said quietly. "In their own way." His phone buzzed. He pulled it out. "Looks like our brothers are here, too."
Suddenly, James and Terrel walked in. Both of them in tuxes.
James was three years younger than Walker, Terrel was three years younger than James. Both still SEALs.
James embraced Walker first, then Reed.
He and Terrel hugged, then pounded on each other's backs.
