will be awarded to those who have embraced healing’s grace. Wear it next to your heart, Nicole Callahan. Carry the grace you found here with you whatever life path you travel.”
“Angel’s wings!” Nic exclaimed with delight. “How perfect. This is your design, isn’t it, Sage?”
“Yes.” Sage took the necklace from Celeste and fastened it around Nic’s neck. “I have to say, the design was inspired.”
“Thank you.” Nic’s smile encompassed them all. “I’m blessed to have friends like you, a home like Eternity Springs—”
“And a man like Gabe Callahan,” Sarah finished. “Now, quit fiddling around and go marry him again.”
As Nic slipped her bare, swollen feet into white rhinestone-trimmed flip-flops, a knock sounded on the door and Ali stuck her head inside. “They’re all ready for you … oh, Nic. You look fabulous.”
“Thank you. So, Gabe and Jack are waiting?”
“Yes.” Ali waggled her eyebrows salaciously. “And allow me to say that both the groom and his best man are hotties in tuxes.”
Moments later, Nic lived her very own fairy tale as she walked down the aisle of the pretty little church to repeat her vows with the man she loved. A man who, with his spirit now healed, loved her in return.
Gabe held his wife’s hand as they crossed the footbridge over Angel Creek that led to Angel’s Rest, where his friends and his family waited to celebrate … what should he call it? His rebirth? Renewal?
Life.
At the center of the bridge, he halted. “Nic, would you mind … can I have a minute?”
“Of course.” She reached up and cupped his face in her palm, and as she smiled up at him with such sweet love that it took his breath away, he knew she understood. “You take as much time as you need.” Resting her hand on the babies, she added, “We’ll be waiting for you.”
His heart full, Gabe watched her go. Then he gripped the bridge’s handrail and stared down at the clear waters of Angel Creek for a long moment before lifting his gaze to the brilliant blue sky that rose about the snowcapped mountains. “I’m okay, Jen. It’s been a long, ugly winter, but I made it to spring. I know that is what you wanted for me.
“I’m going to contact my father and brothers, let them know I’m still around. It’ll do the babies good to have a grandfather and uncles in their lives, don’t you think? I know you always wanted more family for Matty. I couldn’t give him the Callahans back then, but I’ll make sure they know about him now. And about you, too.
“I’ll miss you forever, and I’ll carry my love for you and Matty always in my heart. Right there along with Nic and the twins and whoever else life brings me to love. I never thought it would happen, but life is good again. I found what I needed here in this valley. I think—no, I believe—that I was guided here by angels.”
Gabe stood up straight, drew a deep breath, then turned toward the house. He saw Nic watching him, waiting for him. Love warmed his soul. “Come on, Clarence,” he said to the boxer at his feet. “Let’s go home.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
New beginnings are exciting things. For this one I’d especially like to thank my awesome, talented, oh-so-keen-eyed editor, Kate Collins, and my agents, Meg Ruley and Christina Hogrebe, for their support and guidance and belief in this series. You ladies rock. Special thanks to Lynn Andreozzi for the spectacular cover designs for the Eternity Springs series. I love this look! Also, thanks to my dear friends Scott and Christina Ham, who knew just the motivation to give me to find my way to Eternity Springs, and to Mary Dickerson for being my reader, my red-liner, and, most important, my friend.
Read on for a preview of
Emily March’s next novel
in her Eternity Springs series:
Hummingbird Lake
September
The echo of the gunshot jerked Sage Anderson out of her nightmare. Her eyes flew open. She lay in the darkness, panting, sweating, her heart pounding in fear, her hands clenched into fists. Oh, God.
The images. The sounds. Oh, dear God.
It was a dream. Just a dream. One of those old, horrible, terrifying nightmares that had haunted her ever since the events she’d just dreamed about had taken place.
Slowly the past retreated. Her pulse calmed and her fingers relaxed. At that point, the shivering began, a reaction to both the chill in the room and the aftermath of the dream.
Sage rolled up and reached for the bedclothes she’d