At Last (The Idle Point, Maine Stories) - By Barbara Bretton Page 0,116

tuck me in!"

"Be right there, Soph!" Noah called back to her.

Gracie's heart was suddenly three sizes larger than it had been just moments ago. "I've been thinking about what your mother said about the years we lost," she said, choosing her words with great care. "You know I would give anything to get back those years but not if it meant losing Sophie."

He met her eyes. "Not too many women would say that about walking into a ready-made family."

"We have a lot of time to make up for," she said, leaning her head against his shoulder. "Why not get a head start?"

Life was about compromise. They had lost eight years but gained a miracle, a child who needed their love as much as she needed oxygen. Little did Sophie know that they needed her even more. Sophie was their chance to get it right, to love a child the way all children deserved to be loved, with constancy and respect. They both knew how it felt to be on the outside of family life, looking in, and they would see to it that Sophie never felt that way again. They would create a home that endured.

Family bonds were forged in many ways. Some were forged by blood; some by circumstance. If you were very lucky, the bonds were forged by love.

"I'm waiting!" Sophie called down to them and they looked at each other and started to laugh.

Still holding hands, they climbed the stairs to the second floor and went to check on their daughter.

Epilogue

Christmas Day—the lighthouse

"Tell me again," Sophie said. "Do I throw them or drop them?"

Gracie knelt down next to Sophie and took a handful of rose petals from the basket looped over the little girl's arm. "You scatter them like this." Rose petals fell at their feet in a graceful arc. "See? All you have to do is walk very slowly and scatter the petals into the wind."

"Storm told me that flower girls are terribly important." Sophie's expression was quite serious as befit the subject. "She said that weddings aren't weddings without them."

"Storm is right," Gracie said. "I don't think your daddy and I could possibly get married today if we didn't have you here to lead the way."

Sophie's sober expression broke apart into a smile that turned Gracie's heart inside out. Lately that had been happening at least ten times a day. It seemed that her heart had an infinite capacity for love. The more she loved Noah and Sophie, the more love she had to give to everyone else who crossed her path. Why hadn't anyone ever told her about this amazing phenomenon or was everyone meant to discover it in her own way.

Ruth appeared in the doorway. She was dressed in a bright red wool coat with a huge corsage made up of red poinsettia and white roses pinned to her left shoulder. It fairly screamed "mother of the groom" and made Gracie smile every time she saw it.

"Father Tom wants to know if you're ready," Ruth said as she smoothed a hand over her granddaughters' mass of shiny blond curls. "The wind died down and he would like to take advantage of it."

"We're ready," Gracie said and the two women met eyes over Sophie's head.

"You look so beautiful, Gracie."

Gracie blushed and did a pirouette that made Sophie giggle. "Rachel and the girls really outdid themselves on this one, didn't they?" The dress was floor-length and slim, high-necked with long tight sleeves and a fitted bodice. Laquita, a newlywed now herself, had embroidered seed pearls on the mandarin collar and along the turn-back cuffs.

"The dress is lovely," Ruth said, "but you're the beautiful one." She took a deep breath then continued in a rush. "You've always been special to me, honey. I'm so happy to be part of your family."

There had been a barrier between them since the night Ruth told her and Noah the truth. It was never easy to discover that one of your idols was only a mortal woman after all. Ruth's decisions, born of loyalty and love, had changed the course of their lives. But each time Gracie felt the pain of those lost years, she looked at Sophie's sweet face and the love she felt for the child made her regret and anger fall away. It hadn't been so easy for Noah. It would take a lot of hard work to re-establish a relationship with his mother but the fact that both Noah and Ruth were willing to work on