'But you don't have to give up your career--'
'I really don't care.'
'You don't have to give it up!'
'Don't tell me what to do!'
'I'm not! I'm trying--' He broke off suddenly, staring up at the picture of Pierre. He shook his head. 'Maybe there is only one way to do it.'
'To do what--' Alexi began.
She never finished. He had decided to kiss her again.
Epilogue
June 2, Two Years Later Fernandina Beach, Florida
'Here he is, Alexi. Down on the beach.'
Alexi stared out through the long trail of pines to the beach, where Gene's call directed her. She rose, a smile curving her lips, her heart, as always, taking flight.
Rex was alighting from one of their new acquisitions, a silver raft. The waves of the beach pounded against his bare, muscled calves as he splashed through the water. From a distance, he was beautiful and perfect.
'Rex!'
Upon the porch of the old house, Alexi called his name. He couldn't hear her, of course. He was too far away. She was certain, though, that his eyes had met her own, and that the love they shared between them sang and soared likewise in his soul.
He had seen her. He waved. He started to run. To run down the sand path carpeted in pine and shadowed by those same branches. Sun and shadow, shadow and sun; she could see his face clearly no longer.
'Gene? Take the baby for a minute?'
'With the greatest pleasure.'
Carefully--he was a very old man--Gene slipped his hands beneath the squirming body of his very first great- great-grandson. Alexi smiled at him briefly, then leaped down the steps, waving to Rex.
'I'll take him inside!' Gene called to Alexi. 'It's getting a little bit hot out here. And don't you two worry--I can rock the boy to sleep just as well as the next person.'
Alexi turned in time to give Gene an appreciative thumbs-up sign. Then she started to run, running to meet her husband, running to meet her man.
Run...run, run, run. Sunlight continued to glitter through the trees, golden as it fell upon her love. She felt the padding of her feet against the carpet of sand and pine, and the great rush of her breath. Closer. Closer. She could see the love he bore her, the need to touch.
Her breath, ragged, in and out, in and out. Down that long, long trail of sand and pine.
'Rex!'
'Alexi!'
Laughing, she flew the last few steps; those steps that brought her into his arms. He lifted her high; he swirled her beneath the sun. He stared into her eyes, his smile soft as he cherished her and the life they had created between them.
'The baby?'
'He's with Gene.'
'They're okay?'
'They're perfect.'
Rex smiled and laced his fingers through his wife's. They started to walk toward the beach again. At the shore, where the warm, gentle water just rushed over their bare feet, Rex slipped his arms around Alexi's waist. Time had been good to them; life had been good to them. For one, John Vinto had lived. Rex had been worried when Alexi had insisted on visiting him in the hospital, but in the end he had been glad. John had wanted to see her just to apologize; he had thought there might be some way to hang on to his marriage. He'd met a new girl, but somehow he'd needed Alexi's forgiveness before he could start out in a new life. Alexi had promised her forgiveness with all her heart--if he would promise to get some counseling. It hadn't been easy for Rex, standing there. Vinto was a handsome man, beach tan and white blond, successful-- and earnest. But trust had been the ingredient he needed to instill in his heart, and when he had seen Alexi's eyes fall on him again, he had known that she loved him. She didn't need to make any comparisons between men--she loved Rex, and that was that. He had sworn to himself in a silent vow that he would give her that same unqualified love all his life.
Gene had used the gold to open a small Confederate museum. It gave him a new passion in life--the hunt for artifacts. Alexi and Rex had grown fascinated with the search themselves, and the three of them frequently traveled throughout the States to various shows to see what else they could acquire.
They'd had a wonderful wedding. A big, wonderful wedding in the Brandy wine house, with Alexi's folks and his folks and cousins and aunts and uncles--and Mark Eliot and the carpenters and Joe's boy and anyone else in the world they could think of to invite. Rex had insisted on Alexi tying up some loose ends with her Helen of Troy work, and then Alexi had insisted on staying home for a while. She had a new line of work in mind. That new line of work--Jarod Eugene Morrow--was just five weeks old, and the center of their existence.
'What are you thinking?' Alexi murmured to him.
He squeezed her more tightly. 'That it's been so very good here. That I love you so much. That we're so very lucky. Pierre Brandywine picked a beautiful place. I wonder if he can see that--even though he lost his own life and his own dreams--his family is still here. Jarod is his great-greatgreat-grandson.''
'Great, great, great, great--but who's counting,' Alexi murmured. 'I'm sure Pierre knows,' she added softly.
'Yes, I like to think so.'
'Yes,' Alexi whispered. She smoothed her fingers gently over his hands. 'It's been good.'
He nuzzled his chin against her cheek. “What were you thinking?'
'Hmmmm...well, I was thinking that Gene really is so very good with the baby.'
'Yes?'
'He took him inside, you know.'
'Yes?'
'It's just like we're alone in our very own Eden again.'
'Yes?'
She hesitated, a charming, slightly crooked smile curving into her features in such a way that he instantly felt the heat aroused tensely in his body. His pulse skipped a beat and then thundered, and he inhaled deeply. 'Yes, Alexi?'
'Want to go skinny-dipping?'
'Yes!' He twisted her around and kissed her lips and smiled down into the beauty of her eyes. 'I was hoping that you might ask.'
Alexi laughed as he fumbled eagerly with the zipper of her halter dress. 'This is skinny-dipping. We both disrobe by mutual consent.'
'I'll dip you and you can dip me,' Rex retorted. The dress came over her head and landed in the sand. A moment later they were both down to their birthday suits and racing out to the water.
Rex caught Alexi beneath the benign warmth of a radiant sun. Their smiles recalled the first time--and reminded them that there would always be forever.
His arms swept around her. 'I love you, Alexi.'
'And I love you,' she returned. Heat and salt and sea and the endless breeze swirled around them as they kissed, becoming one.
The pines dipped and rustled.
Back at the house, Gene stood beneath the beautiful old paintings of his grandparents and frowned curiously.
He wasn't superstitious, and he sure as hell didn't believe in haunted houses. He could remember Eugenia as clear as day, even though she had been dead for years and years and years.
No, he was too old for ghost stories. But holding Jarod Eugene Morrow beneath the portraits, he could have almost sworn that a little twist of a smile came to Pierre's lips.
'More than a century later, Pierre. And the boy here-- he'll grow up right here, Pierre. More than we might
