More to Give (29 page)

She tilted her head. “That means you get my mother, too.”

He hadn’t thought of that. Good thing he loved Callie more than anything. “Can we limit how often she visits?”

Ice-blue eyes rolled heavenward. “We can try, but I can’t guarantee we’ll be successful.”

“Are you prepared to meet the great and powerful Eugenia Edwards?” he asked, knowing his mother wasn’t such a bargain either.

Callie’s nose crinkled. “She isn’t going to think I’m good enough for you.”

“Then it’s a good thing I don’t care what she thinks.”

With a nod, Callie agreed. “That
is
a good thing.”

“But she might surprise you. When I let her know I wouldn’t be home for Christmas, she barely made a fuss.” Sam rubbed a thumb along Callie’s bottom lip. “She might be mellowing in her old age.”

Stepping backward, Callie reached the bed and pulled Sam down next to her. “I could turn on my spectacular people skills and win her over,” she said, her eyes on Sam’s mouth, which made it difficult to focus on what she was saying. “Eventually, she might think of me as the daughter she always wanted.”

Sam’s body hardened as Callie dropped onto her back. “Can we stop talking about my mother now?” he asked, his body and brain warring over whether to be turned on or utterly disturbed.

Callie laid a hand on his cheek, and her eyes darkened. “How about we stop talking altogether?”

With that, she took his mouth, ending the war with one hot stroke of her tongue. And, as Sam had promised, they spent the next several hours showing each other how much they had to give. Which was more than he’d ever imagined.

EPILOGUE

B
loody hell. The little bugger is off again.”

Jude Sykes pinched the bridge of his nose as Joe Dempsey chased his rambunctious daughter around the gazebo. As the flower girl, Mary Ann was required to stand still and look pretty for the wedding pictures. Looking pretty, she could do in her sleep. Standing still was another matter altogether for a one-year-old who’d only recently found her legs.

In direct contrast with the runaway pixie, Jacob Littleton, a somber and serious-looking three-year-old, perched calmly on the bottom step of the gazebo, his ring-bearer pillow hugged tight against his chest. Jacob took his duties very seriously, as he did all things. Mary Ann had made him drop the pillow twice already. He was not about to let her do so again.

“Come on, pumpkin,” Joe said, settling his daughter next to Jacob, who had to swipe her wayward curls out of his eyes. “Sit pretty for Daddy. Don’t you want your picture taken in your fancy dress?”

“Cake!” Mary Ann exclaimed, trying to make a break for it again. This time her daddy kept her in place with one hand on her knee.

“If you sit, you get cake,” Joe said, resorting to bribery. “If you get up, no cake.”

Mary Ann stuck out a mutinous bottom lip but crossed her arms and stayed put. Joe backed away slowly while the photographer dropped to one knee.

“This is why I don’t do weddings,” Jude mumbled. “I should charge Will double my wages for this one.”

“We signed a contract, Picture Boy,” Will Parsons said, stepping up between Callie and the photographer. She made a goofy face at the pouting children, making them both laugh and allowing Jude to land the shot.

“I need the bride and groom,” he yelled, as he rose to his feet, examining the kiddie shot. “You didn’t tell me there would be children, love.”

“It’s a wedding,” Will said, as Callie waved over her groom. “Kids were a given.”

“Not in my world,” the Brit mumbled.

“I can’t believe how perfect the weather turned out,” Callie said, holding a hand over her eyes to dull the glare of sunlight off the harbor. “Last year at this time, there was snow on the ground.”

The bride wore a white faux-fur wrap over a stunning, sequined mermaid gown that showed off her figure to perfection and had every man in attendance exceedingly envious of the groom. Not that the groom noticed anyone but the woman taking his hand.

Sam Edwards was a changed man. He’d become a cynic about love, and with good reason, until he’d fallen headlong in love with Calliope Henderson. There were disagreements. Differences of opinion. But Sam had vowed exactly one year ago to show Callie every day that she was more than any man deserved.

And he’d kept that promise. Callie ended many a day with sore cheeks from constant smiling and laughter. If anyone had told her that the stuffy, uptight hotelier who’d tried to terminate her employment before he’d even hired her would become as lighthearted as a child, Callie never would have believed it. But then, Sam was full of surprises.

He’d vowed to give Callie the wedding of her dreams, which was why the event had taken a year to plan. And though planning weddings had become Callie’s new profession, Sam had insisted she surrender all the planning to him. Which she’d done, but only once he’d agreed to allow Will, Callie’s new boss, to consult.

According to Will, Sam had informed her of his intentions and choices, but she wasn’t sure the man understood the meaning of the word
consult
.

As Callie stood in the center of the gazebo she’d helped design, with the sun dancing off the water behind her and all her new friends enjoying the perfect day her new husband had given her, she wouldn’t have changed one single thing about the moment.

“Are you happy, Mrs. Edwards?” Sam asked, his smoky gray eyes shining as he held her close against him.

Pretending to straighten his pristine bow tie, she said, “Happier than I ever thought possible.” Looking up, Callie couldn’t believe this man was her husband. Hers. Forevermore. “There’s a latent wedding planner hidden deep inside you, my dear. Maybe you should work with Will and
I
should run the hotels.”

Dropping a kiss on her nose, Sam said, “I have no doubt you could run my hotels with little effort, but this is the only wedding I’m ever planning.”

“Ever?” Callie said, struggling to hide her smile.

“Ever,” Sam said, taking her mouth for a less innocent kiss.

“These are wedding photos,” Jude yelled, “not boudoir shots.”

The groom reluctantly ended the kiss, but he refused to let so much as a breath of air pass between him and his bride.

“Let’s bring in the rest of the wedding party, please,” Jude directed, as Will herded her husband, Randy, as well as the flower girl’s parents, Joe and Beth Dempsey, onto the gazebo stairs. “Where’s the maid of honor?” she asked, looking around for the slender woman with the shock of white-blonde hair.

“Right here,” Henri answered, dropping Yvonne’s hand and hiking up the hem of her long gown. As she took her place beside her cousin, there was still one person missing.

“We need Lucas.” Will scanned the crowd.

“He was with Sid at the dessert table last time I saw them,” Beth said.

“I still feel bad that Sid couldn’t be in the wedding,” Callie mumbled, searching the crowd along with everyone else.

“She was fine with it,” Beth said. “I doubt we would have found a dress to cover her belly at this stage of things anyway.”

Watching the tiny boat mechanic waddle their way, Callie sighed. “She looks so miserable.”

“She is,” Beth replied. “But little Pilar will be here any day now, and Sid won’t remember any of the misery.”

Callie cut her eyes to the curly-haired bridesmaid. “You don’t really expect us to believe that.”

Keeping her green eyes on Sid, Beth said, “That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Sid yelled, “I’m fine. Get your scrawny ass up there so they can take the damn picture.” With one hand braced on her lower back, Sid shoved her husband toward the gazebo with the other.

“But you said—”

“Don’t ruin this for Blondie.” Sid shoved again. “Get in the picture.”

Seconds later, the party was in place and Jude snapped off a round of shots before a loud wail echoed from the pregnant woman. Bending at the waist, Sid kept a hand on her lower back.

“Not again,” Sam said, charging down the steps with the rest of the party. “The limo is waiting out front. It can hold six of you.”

“But that’s for you guys!” Beth said.

“It’s the best option.” Sam helped Randy clear a path through the crowd as Lucas fussed around his wife, who was cursing and panting in tandem. “We’ll call the hospital to let them know you’re on the way.”

The Anchor Health Clinic had been upgraded to the Edwards Medical Center, which served as a small but well-equipped hospital, including a full birthing ward, six months before.

Eugenia Edwards approached her son as the pregnancy posse circled the end of the Sunset Harbor Inn. “I say, what in the world is all the commotion?”

“Sid Dempsey has gone into labor,” Sam said.

“Right here at your wedding?” Evelyn Henderson asked, a hand pressed to her chest in horror. “How rude to steal my daughter’s day.”

“Don’t be a ninny, Evelyn,” Eugenia said. “Babies come when they’re ready, not when it’s convenient.”

Sufficiently silenced, Callie’s mother slithered back to her table, and, with a twinkle in her eye, Sam’s mother returned to her relatives.

“That’s going to be an interesting dynamic,” Callie said, leaning against her husband’s side.

“I suggest we not put them in the same room too often.” As they stood arm in arm on the fringe of the crowd, Sam squeezed his bride. “You want to go, don’t you?”

“Would that be a terrible thing to do?” Callie asked, debating whether she could abandon her guests.

“It’s our wedding,” he said, shuffling Callie toward the end of the building. “They can eat and be merry without us just as well as they can while we’re here.”

“Have I told you how much I love you?” Callie asked, giggling as she hopped through the damp grass in her ivory pumps.

Sam swept her up into his arms and continued to jog toward the parking lot. “Not in the last five minutes. You can make it up to me by repeating those words for the next sixty years.”

“You’ve got a deal.” Callie held on to her veil as Sam dropped her on the passenger seat of his Murano. Minutes later, they pulled into the Edwards Medical Center parking lot, Callie’s veil draped across the backseat and Sam’s bow tie hung over the rearview mirror.

Less than two hours later, they celebrated the new arrival as Lucas passed out pink bubblegum cigars with a mixture of fear and pride in his eyes.

“That look on his face is killing me,” Sam whispered in Callie’s ear. “The unflappable lawyer looks scared out of his mind.”

“You don’t think you’d be scared in his situation?”

Her husband pulled her close. “I’d be the happiest man on Earth,” he said, with complete confidence.

“Good,” Callie said, dropping a kiss on his cheek. “Because you’ll be the one passing out cigars in about seven and a half months.”

Tension filled the arms wrapped around her as Sam froze. He didn’t look like the happiest man on the planet. In fact, he looked ready to pass out.

“Are you . . . ,” he started.

Callie nodded, worried this might not have been the best way to tell her brand-new husband that he was going to be a father.

Sam continued to stare, wide-eyed, as if she’d confessed herself to be from another planet, instead of pregnant. When he did finally react, Sam took Callie completely by surprise.

With one swift movement, he lifted her off her ivory toes and twirled them both in a giant circle. Plopping her back down, he said, “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure,” she said, laughing as she caught her breath. “The doctor confirmed it two days ago. I’ve just been waiting for the right time to tell you.”

“We’re going to have a baby,” he whispered, with awe in his voice. And then, more loudly, “We’re going to have a baby!”

Lucas jammed two cigars between Sam’s lips as backs were slapped and hugs exchanged. Callie hadn’t doubted that Sam would be happy about their impending life change, though she doubted he understood the realities to come. Truth be told, Callie wasn’t sure she understood them either, but she had friends who would help her through it.

And the most wonderful husband any woman could ever ask for. Callie sighed as the celebration died down, wondering how she’d ever gotten so lucky, but something told her that all the happiness in this tiny waiting room could be attributed to the ground beneath their feet.

There was something special about Anchor Island, and Callie felt extremely lucky to have landed on her shores.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Writing this book has been both wonderful and bittersweet. I have lived on Anchor Island, at least in my mind, every day since early 2010. I have grown to love all of the characters who inhabit her shores, and I will miss them dearly as I move with enthusiasm and excitement on to new worlds and meet new characters.

As I’ve mentioned before, Anchor Island is fully and affectionately based on the very real Ocracoke Island, North Carolina. I could never have brought this magical place so clearly to life without the
Ocracoke Island Journal
(
http://villagecraftsmen.blogspot.com/
), as well as the Village Craftsmen Newsletter (link found on the blog site.) Thank you to Phillip (Mr. Craftsman himself) for sharing everything from current events to personal histories of islanders throughout the years. You brought Ocracoke to life for me, which brought Anchor to life on the page.

Also, thank you to the SeaSide Inn at Hatteras, which was the inspiration for the Sunset Harbor Inn. There’s a great photo gallery on the inn’s website (
www.coverealty.com/seasideinnrates.asp
), in which you’ll recognize the lovely little hotel that brought Callie and Sam together.

Thank you to Katrina Bunn for the Eton Mess dessert idea, which added a fun layer to Callie’s character. I never would have imagined a Brit food–loving heroine without your help. My ever-reliable writing support group—Fran, Marnee, Maureen, Jessica, and Sabrina—pulled me through yet again. I don’t know what I would do without them. This book is better for the love and input of the amazing editor Kelli Martin, and none of this would be happening without my agent, Nalini Akolekar.

I must give a special shout-out to all the readers who have visited and returned over and over to Anchor Island. A simple thank-you isn’t remotely sufficient to express my gratitude for your willingness to take a chance on a new author, for loving this little island as much as I do, and for making my dreams come true. You have changed and enhanced my life in beautiful ways, and I will never forget that it is you, dear readers, who truly bring these books to life.