“Are you okay?” Josh asked.
“How could she leave without telling me?” Mike cried. “How could she leave without even saying goodbye?” He took up pacing in Josh’s place. “Do you suppose she was ever going to tell me? She called you, for Pete’s sake. What about me?”
A sheepish expression claimed Josh’s face, but Mike was so busy ranting and pacing that it took him a moment to recognize that his brother knew more than he was saying. “What?” he said insistently. “Did you know? Did you threaten her to leave or something?”
Josh looked offended. “I wouldn’t do that. But…” He stretched his neck, acting as though he wasn’t sure whether or not to proceed.
“Tell me everything,” Mike said darkly. “Now.”
Josh grabbed the picture of the baby and gazed down at it. “Okay. Remember the day we couldn’t find Mom?”
“Yes…”
“And I was already at the house when she got home and you were with her?”
“Yes…”
“I’d quit looking because…”
“Because…”
Josh frowned. “At that point I already knew she was okay.”
“How?”
“I saw her pulling out of Lucky’s driveway and flagged her down at the end of the road.”
“Did she say if she’d spoken to Lucky?”
“She wouldn’t tell me, which was indication enough. She mentioned that she was going to Finley’s to get some stuff for dinner, so I went home to tell Dad.”
Mike dropped his head in his hands and massaged his temples. He’d wondered at the suddenness of Lucky’s departure. Now he knew. Unfortunately, it didn’t bode well for future relations with his family.
But he hoped his mother would come around some day. Once she had the chance to know Lucky, he couldn’t see Barbara—or anyone else in the family—continuing to dislike her. Besides, he and Lucky would have an ace in the hole. They were going to have a baby, maybe two or three over the next ten years, and the mother he knew would never be able to reject her own grandchildren.
“Send Lucky another fax,” he said.
“What do you want me to say?” Josh asked.
“Tell her I want to consummate this deal right away.”
Josh grinned. “That’s it?”
“No.” Mike imagined holding a soft, squirming bundle in one arm and Lucky in the other and couldn’t help returning his brother’s smile. Life was going to change—a lot. But he was ready. Evidently the big 4-0 was his year. “Tell her I love her.”
EPILOGUE
HEARING THE DOORBELL at ten o’clock on a Wednesday morning surprised Lucky. The initial two weeks after the birth had been a flurry of excitement and activity, what with all the visits and gifts from her brothers and Mike’s friends and family, and Mike himself being home so much. But the past few days had slowed to a leisurely crawl. Although Mike appeared for lunch every day—sometimes an extended lunch because he seemed to have difficulty leaving—he worked mornings and most afternoons, which afforded her a few quiet hours with their new daughter.
The bell rang again before she could reach the front door. She parted the lace drapes she’d just bought for the Victorian to see Senator Holbrook standing on the porch. He’d called her occasionally over the past few months, to ask how she was doing. He’d even offered to go ahead with the paternity test. But there’d been so many positive changes in her life, Lucky had decided against it. Privately, she wanted to know, but she understood how worried Mike was about Gabe’s reaction. She didn’t want to cause a problem for Gabe or Reenie or anyone else. She and Mike were happy together. Her health was good; the ulcer she’d fought for more than a year before returning to Dundee was finally gone She already had more than she’d ever dreamed.
“Good morning,” she said, smiling as she opened the door.
The senator’s eyes swept curiously over her. “I hope I haven’t come at a bad time.”
“No. As a matter of fact, I could use the company. Sabrina’s been sleeping all morning.”
She invited him in, and he sat on the antique couch she and Mike had bought at an auction in Boise.
“You’ve done a lot with the house,” he said, gazing around. “It’s beautiful.”
Lucky experienced a moment of pride as she sat across from him. When she and Mike had decided to live in the Victorian, they’d seen it as a symbol of peace—the coming together of his family and hers. And it had been a good choice. She finally felt as though she belonged here. “Thank you. I’m not as good as Celeste at filling my house with fabulous paintings and other works of art, but I’m trying.”
“I’m sure she’d help you, if you’d ever be interested in shopping with her.”
“I’d like that,” Lucky said.
“Maybe we can make it a day when all three of us could go to lunch.”
Lucky hesitated. She wasn’t sure quite how to respond. The three of them? “Senator—”
“Please, call me Garth.”
“Garth, I understand why you responded the way you did in the past. Please don’t feel as if you have to make it up to me.”
His eyes strayed to Sabrina’s infant seat sitting by the door, which reminded Lucky of the day she’d bumped into him on one of her first forays into town after the birth of her daughter. He’d stopped her so he could see the baby, and had seemed oddly touched by the whole encounter. Lucky supposed she could be wrong in thinking that it held special significance for him, but something about the senator’s demeanor today seemed to confirm it.
“I think Mike’s done the right thing,” he said, surprising her by changing the subject.
“In what way?”
“He’s made it a point to let the whole town know how much he loves you, how much he respects you, and it hasn’t left any room for the past to intrude on the future.”
Lucky smiled at Garth’s comment. Mike’s actions and attitude had gone far toward neutralizing the old rumors and resentments. If someone turned away or whispered in her presence, Mike would only put his arm around her and stand taller. Even his family, his mother, had started making overtures of kindness, especially since the baby was born. “Sometimes I can’t believe I’m married to him,” she admitted. “I’ve loved him since I was sixteen.”