“Actually,” Richard said, “they had two more besides. There are seven of us all told.”
“Sweetheart, did we mention that Kendalls tend to have large families, too?” Morgan asked.
He wore such teasing look, but she knew he wasn’t kidding. “No, I think you were probably saving that bit of news for a special occasion,” she said.
“When Carson told me you were all coming back to Lusty, I was thrilled,” Kate said. “It’ll be so nice having so many of my children and grandchildren close by.”
“You’re not globetrotting so much anymore, Grandma Kate?” Trevor asked.
“No, Grandma’s got a new hobby,” Joshua called out. “Marrying off her unattached grandchildren and associate grandchildren.”
“Oh, go away with you.” Kate laughed. “I’m just a senior citizen intent on enjoying her family.”
Tamara doubted any in attendance actually believed that for one minute.
“Grandma’s already two for two,” Joshua said. “Alex and I have her to thank for our Penelope, and I don’t know how, but I’m certain she arranged for Tamara to come to the flyboys, here.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re going to be here,” Kevin said. “Maybe you can find a couple of husbands for Julia. Our baby sister has way too much time on her hands.”
“Oh, I’m certain Julia is more than capable of finding her own soul mates,” Kate said.
Morgan and Henry’s parents arrived, and Samantha made a beeline straight for them.
“Have I told you how happy I am that I’ve finally got a daughter?” Samantha’s declaration stunned her, and Tamara couldn’t stop her eyes from tearing.
“Have I told you how happy I am to finally have a mother?” A collage of images and times past, times when she’d so desperately needed her mother, flashed through her mind. It had been her way to tough it out, to act as if it didn’t matter, that emotional desertion of her parents.
Now she could admit the truth to herself. It had mattered, and it had hurt in a way that she understood now she’d never really dealt with.
“I’m glad,” Samantha said. “I think you and I are going to be very close.”
Tamara thought so, too.
Ginny Rose arrived with her son, Benny. The little guy seemed to just glow from all the attention the adults in the room lavished on him. He hugged the ladies and high-fived the men, but it was Adam and Jake Kendall whose attention he immediately sought.
Tamara caught the look Adam sent Ginny, and she wondered the restaurant didn’t catch fire as a result. Jake’s expression appeared no less incendiary. Ginny blushed, and immediately set about making herself useful.
“I wonder when the young’uns are going to make a move in that area?” Tamara felt certain Henry’s whispered question didn’t reach anyone but Morgan and her.
“Adam danced with her at the reception a couple weeks ago,” she said.
“Mm, I did notice that, and I thought that was going to be the beginning of something.”
She knew her men well enough to know their interest in the situation wasn’t superficial. Family was vital to them both. Their roots went deep, all the way back to the 1880s and the founding of this town, named by their family’s matriarch, Amanda Jessop-Kendall.
Since they were men, however, emotional situations sometimes confused them. Men and women were vastly different creatures. Tamara had been made privy to some of Ginny’s story, and while she herself had never been in an abusive relationship with a man, it could be argued she’d been emotionally abused by her parents, with their neglect and their lack of love.
“Some women can never come back after they’ve been hurt.” Because it was there, she laid her head on Henry’s shoulder. His arm came around her, and Morgan laced the fingers of his right hand with her left. “I don’t think that’s going to be the case with Ginny. But the man—or men—who want to take her on will have to have a whole lot of patience.”
“Well, one thing Adam has always had in abundance is patience. Jake, not so much so.”
“I think Jake might surprise you, then. Because sometimes a man can transform himself, if he wants to badly enough.”
“You’re a pretty insightful woman, Tamara Jones. So tell me.” Morgan brought her hand up to his lips and kissed it. “What do you see as our future?”
Tamara looked around at this large group of people, most of whom had already accepted her as family, and considered the future.
There would be marriages and babies. Good times, and most likely some hard times. There would be love and laughter and probably the odd round of fisticuffs.
Tamara and her two flyboys would live here, work here, and quite probably grow old here. And in the process they would weave a fabric of family and friends, a fine tapestry that would be strong enough to endure generation after generation.
She saw a future she never would have thought she could ask for but was oh, so very grateful would be hers.
She turned to Morgan, leaned closer and placed a chaste kiss on his lips. Then she turned her head and gave Henry a kiss, too.
“I see years of love, and laughter, and living. I see us, together, forever.”
Who could ask for a better future than that?
THE END
HTTP://WWW.MORGANASHBURY.COM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Morgan Ashbury writing as Cara Covington
Morgan has been a writer since she was first able to pick up a pen. In the beginning it was a hobby, a way to create a world of her own, and who could resist the allure of that? Then as she grew and matured, life got in the way, as life often does. She got married and had three children, and worked in the field of accounting, for that was the practical thing to do and the children did need to be fed. And all the time she was being practical, she would squirrel herself away on quiet Sunday afternoons, and write.
Most children are raised knowing the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule. Morgan’s children also learned the Paper Rule: thou shalt
