“Surprise,” he whispered.
He’d had the decorators add sunflowers to all the rooms and touches of purple before he’d left Cleveland, since it reminded him of Bethany. The mantel on the stone fireplace had been refinished, the wood floors polished,and the walls painted a subtle gray. A plush green couch occupied one corner and a leather recliner the other. Elizabeth had given him the photo she’d snapped of the two of them—Bethany looking alarmed and him looking determined—framed. He’d placed it on the built-in shelves next to the fireplace along with a framed kiss-cam photo from the baseball game.
She twisted in his arms, looking everywhere at once. “My God, Hank, it’s so beautiful, what you’ve done with the place.”
“You like it?”
“How could I not? It’s lovely.”
“Lovely enough to live in with me. . .after we’re married?”
Her misty green eyes looked wide and mysterious and more dazzling than the stars in the night sky outside.
“Yes, yes, it is. I think I’d follow you to the moon right now, if you asked.” She laughed, the sound soft and dreamy. “This house is much more convenient.”
A thick bubble wedged in his throat. “Thank you for agreeing to be my wife. Thank you for making my dreams come true. I want you to know you were right and I was wrong.”
She cocked her head to the side. “About what?”
“So many things. About wishing on stars. About forgiveness.”
“You believe in wishes now?”
“How can I not when I have you? All I did last night was wish on stars, terrified you’d reject today’s proposal.”
“Meanwhile, I was wishing you’d propose and figuring it was an impossible dream. Who did you forgive?”
“Elizabeth...my father. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to invite them to our wedding. My stepmom and sisters too.”
She nodded. “Of course, Hank. They’re family. I’d love to meet them.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not so keen on Elizabeth, but I think not even she could spoil our happiness.”
He laughed and tightened his hold. “Now we have that out of the way, kiss me, Beth. Please. Then all my wisheswillcome true.”
She tilted her face toward him, and he bent his head, and their lips met somewhere in the middle, while overhead Louis Armstrong crooned, echoing the desires of his heart.
EPILOGUE
One year later
“Hurry up now or we’ll be late. We don’t want to miss the grand reopening of Grandma Lou’s. Do I look okay?” Bethany eyed her pink dress in the hallway mirror. She wanted to look professional but also embody their new line of healthy bakery products. But it was hard to find a maternity dress that covered the ready-to-pop mountain that was her stomach and still looked pretty.
Hank smiled from the recliner, stretching his hands behind his head. “Like a dream come true.”
“You always say that.” She fastened the pink pearl earrings he’d given her as a gift on their wedding night nine months ago. They’d gotten married in a quiet ceremony in Hawaii with just their families and close friends present, but had a larger reception for everyone else when they’d arrived home.
He stood and came toward her, and as usual, she felt alittle thrill to think he was her husband. His hands came down on her shoulders, and he pulled her against his hard frame so they both looked in the mirror together. “I say it because it’s real. You are my dream come true, Mrs. Haverill, and don’t you ever forget it.”
He splayed his hand across her stomach, and they both felt as the baby kicked.
“Did you feel that?” She placed her hands over his.
“I did,” he breathed against her neck. “Our child will be a fighter like her mother.”
She turned in his arms. “He’ll be a Greek god. After all, this is your child.”
He smiled, revealing a dimple. “How do you know it’s a boy?”
“I don’t. I just picture a little boy who looks like you.”
