take Harper Media. I’ve been too worried about failure to throw my whole energy behind it before, but I have a million ideas and want to see what I can do. I’m done being afraid.”
He hugged her close, overwhelmed all over again that she was here with him and that a lifetime of possibilities stretched out ahead of them.
She would do amazing things, he had no doubt. And he would be here to support her in whatever she tried.
Epilogue
CAITLIN
Thirteen months later
“What a beautiful day. Isn’t your aunt a lovely bride?”
“She is,” Caitlin said, pressing her cheek against her grandmother’s as they watched her dad twirl Olivia around the wooden plank dance floor that had been laid down in the beautiful gardens at Sea Glass Cottage, overlooking the ocean.
“I can’t tell who’s prettier. My aunt or my new stepmom.”
“It’s a toss-up,” Mimi said with a smile. “Especially as she is the same person.”
Olivia and Cooper did make a great-looking couple, she had to admit. More than that, they just seemed perfect together.
She thought of the journey they all had been on over the past year and some of the changes. It hadn’t always been easy. At first, she had been a little jealous of Olivia, she had to admit, until she realized she was being stupid.
Olivia had been supercool about stepping back and urging her and her dad to spend time alone so they could get to know each other. She also had been the one who had encouraged Caitlin to become a junior EMT, something she never would have done on her own but which she’d unexpectedly come to really love—and not only because it gave her a great opportunity to be with her dad.
She wasn’t jealous now of the two of them. Her father, she had discovered, had a huge heart, with plenty of room for her and for Olivia—and for the kids she suspected he and her aunt would someday have down the road.
“The bride might be beautiful,” she said now to Mimi, “but she gets it all from you.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” Henry said from Mimi’s other side. Her grandmother rolled her eyes but she smiled, looking pleased. In reality, Caitlin thought Mimi really did look younger and prettier than she ever had. Marriage obviously agreed with her.
So many changes over the past year. Henry and Juliet had married at Christmastime, a beautiful ceremony at their church followed by a reception inside the largest greenhouse at Harper Hill Home & Garden, bedecked with garlands and Christmas trees and poinsettias by the hundreds.
Caitlin and Olivia hadn’t been the only people who cried watching their joy together, these two who had both lost someone they loved dearly but who had found happiness again.
Henry never stopped holding Juliet’s hand, which Caitlin found the sweetest thing. He and Jake had moved into Sea Glass Cottage while Olivia and Cooper were now renting Henry’s house down the hill, though she knew they had plans to build their own house. She split her time between both houses, feeling lucky to know she was loved by people in each.
The dance with Olivia ended and her aunt started dancing with Henry, which made a lump rise in Caitlin’s throat. She was pretty sure Olivia was a bit sad her own dad wasn’t there on her wedding day to dance with her. Yay for Henry for stepping in. His calm presence in their lives seemed to make everything better.
“May I have this dance?” She looked up to find her dad there, looking handsome and distinguished in his Air Force reserve officer uniform.
“I’ll step on your toes,” she warned.
“I’m willing to risk it.” He held his arm out and she took it, a lump in her throat as they danced together to a song she particularly liked.
When she started on the quest a year ago to find her father, she had no idea how important he would become in her life. The more she’d come to know him over the past year, the more she’d come to love him.
Her mom may have made a lot of mistakes in her life, mistakes that ended in tragedy for her. But she had certainly picked the best possible man to be Caitlin’s dad.
“You’re good with this whole wedding thing, right?”
She rolled her eyes. “Dad, you can stop asking me that any minute now. I’ve told you a hundred times, I’m thrilled for both of you. You two belong together. You make each other happy and I’m totally cool with it.”
He hugged her close and she tried not to sniffle a little. Would she ever find a guy who looked at her like her dad looked at Olivia? Instinctively, she searched the crowd until she found Jake, tall and handsome, now dancing a little awkwardly with Mimi, which made her smile.
When the music ended, somehow she and Cooper were close to the other couple, and before she knew it, they all traded partners and she was dancing with her best friend.
Jake had grown a lot in the past year. She knew she wasn’t the only girl at school who had noticed. He’d gotten taller and had filled out. She didn’t like the breathless feeling she got whenever he was around, which was all the time since they lived in the same house. For now, anyway, until he went away to college in a few months.
“How are you doing?” he asked as they moved around the dance floor.
“I’m good, Uncle Jake. How are you?”
He made a face. “Fine, except you know I really hate when you call me that.”
She knew, which was why she teased him by doing it often. Technically, she wasn’t wrong. Since his dad was her stepgrandfather, she figured that made Jake her stepuncle.
But he was so much more to her. He was her best friend, who always had her back. He was also, though she wasn’t ready to tell him yet, the guy she loved with all her heart.
Someday, she and Jake would be the ones dancing together at their wedding with fairy lights in the trees and ocean waves crashing below and family all around. Jake had never even kissed her but she somehow knew it, without the tiniest sliver of doubt.
She wasn’t quite seventeen yet and wasn’t ready to even think about taking things to the next level with Jake. Now that she knew who her dad was and had come to know her mom a little more—and, okay, maybe even forgive her a little—she knew the next step. Now it was time to go out into the world and figure out who she was.
Once she did, she knew the time would be right for her and Jake. For now, she was happy here, in this beautiful town by the water, surrounded by people she loved.