“Oh, come on, that’s not fair!” Hazel laughed. “I was just—well, I’ve been enjoying the comradery amongst all the children.”
“Yeah?” Julia crossed her arms, smiling slyly. “And why may that be?”
Hazel shook her head with a little laugh. “You guys won’t quit, will you?” She inhaled, excited to share her news even though she would have picked another time for the announcement if it had been up to her. “Jacob and I have been talking, and we’ve decided to try to expand our family. We want to have another baby.”
Immediately, Julia and Alexis both squealed, and Faith clapped her hands together in delight.
“Hazel!” Julia threw her arms around her sister.
“Hush!” Hazel laughed, trying to keep her voice low. “I don’t want to draw all this attention to myself. It’s Noelle’s big day today, we can talk about me another time.”
Noelle, however, had noticed that something was going on with her soon-to-be sisters, and was looking in their direction eagerly.
“What’s going on?” she asked, looking excited. “Hazel has news?”
“Oh, I don’t—” Hazel protested, but Noelle immediately shook her head.
“Come on, Hazel, we all want to hear,” she pleaded. “It’s good news—I can see it in your eyes.”
Hazel smiled and nodded. “You’re right.” She looked around the whole room for a moment and saw that everyone had their eyes on her. “Jacob and I have decided that we want to try to have another baby.”
The room erupted into cheers of joy. Vivian hurried forward and threw her arms around Hazel, rocking her back and forth. Noelle was next in line, and she squeezed Hazel tightly, clearly not worried at all about messing up her hair or makeup.
“I can’t wait,” she whispered. “Thanks for sharing with us. I’m so excited for you.”
Hazel squeezed her hands. “I’m so excited for you,” she whispered back. “Today is finally here!”
Noelle nodded, her eyes sparkling with tears.
“You ready?” Hazel asked, half-teasing, half serious. She understood that marriage felt like a mountain to climb sometimes no matter how much you loved someone. Although she knew that Noelle loved Dean with her whole heart, that didn’t mean that she wasn’t feeling a little nervous about getting married.
“Yes.” Noelle took a deep breath, looking certain. “I don’t think I’ve ever been more ready for anything in my life.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Vivian clasped her hands together tightly, taking a deep breath that filled up her lungs. She watched Dean as he stood just beside the beautiful wooden archway that he had picked out with Noelle for their wedding. The spaces in the artfully carved archway had been filled with flowers of all kinds, mainly daisies and white roses. The effect was charming and magnificent at once, and the archway was a breathtaking sight, especially set against the backdrop of the verdant fields and woods at the edge of the Turners’ property.
Dean looked as though someone could have knocked him over with a feather. He was a little pale, but his face was shining with a joy that Vivian had never seen in him before.
He looks so handsome in his tux,she thought, thinking inevitably of when he was a little boy, and she’d first put him in a little suit to be the ring bearer at her cousin’s wedding. Tears rushed into her eyes as she thought of all the happy years she’d spent watching over him. Her heart filled with peace, knowing that now Noelle would look after him as well as any woman possibly could.
She knew, since she had asked him just a few hours earlier, that he had no pain at all that day. Her whole body felt as if it wasfilled with a prayer of thanks, and she felt incredibly grateful that her son was about to experience the wonderful wedding that he had waited for for so long without any physical discomfort.
Around her, the other guests sat on white wooden chairs, chatting and laughing. Everyone was clearly in high spirits. It felt as though they’d all come out of the aftermath of the storm, and they were waiting together for a new time to begin. A time that would be even sweeter than before.
Violin music began to play, and the voices hushed immediately to excited whispers. The bridesmaids and groomsmen began to walk down the aisle, all of them looking wonderful. Faith and Ryan came first, arm in arm, and Vivian thought Faith looked gorgeous in her moss green dress. As they passed her, she heard Ryan whisper to Faith, “I can’t wait until it’s our turn.”
Next came Alexis and Grayson, and Vivian couldn’t help thinking of how proud she was of Alexis, who had turned away from her career as a model and become perfectly content to live out of the spotlight. She was creating such a warm, wonderful home for herself and her husband and son, and Vivian couldn’t wait to see what new joys the future held for the three of them.
Then up the aisle came Julia and Cooper. Their arms were linked like the other couples, but they were pressed up against each other as if they were embracing as they walked. Vivian knew that having two children right at the start of her marriage had been challenging for Julia, but that with Cooper’s help, she’d learned to juggle with confidence. Vivian’s heart swelled with pride in her daughter, who looked as happy as a woman could be.
Finally, Hazel and Jacob came up the aisle, both of them seeming to shine with a kind of secret joy. Vivian knew that the two of them would be able to do anything together if they set their minds to it. They had turned a big old house into theirdream home through hours and hours of hard work, and now they were going to have another baby, bringing more life and joy into their lives. Vivian thought to herself with a chuckle that if she could go back in time and tell high school Hazel, who had been absolutely, crushingly smitten with Jacob, that this would be her life when she grew up, she probably would have fainted.
Finally Macey toddled down the aisle, splashing white rose petals from side to side as if she were a tiny benevolent fairy. She looked absolutely darling in her pink dress, which was sprinkled with glitter which sparkled in the sunlight. The smile of glee on her face made several people murmur, “Aww!” under their breath. Vivian loved seeing the little girl look so happy, knowing that she felt safe and secure under the care of two parents who adored her.
I remember when Julia thought that she would spend the rest of her life hustling after her career in New York,she thought.And then a handsome widower and his darling little girl swept her off her feet and she never looked back.
She smiled, knowing that it hadn’t just been Cooper and Macey who had caused Julia to decide to stay in Rosewood Beach. It had been the entire town itself, and the warmth and peace it brought to people. It had been their close-knit family too, which Vivian knew was an irreplaceable treasure in all their lives.
