Sinful Temptation (17 page)
Authors: Ann Christopher
Epilogue
Twenty years later
A
s though he knew that repressed tears were about to make her nostrils flare and her chin tremble, Tony took her hand, lacing her fingers in his strong grip.
She squeezed back, grateful for the support.
They walked on, across the blazing green lawn of The Plain.
It was R-Day. Reception Day. Already. Where had the time gone?
The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, with its light breeze, clear blue sky and bright—but thankfully not hot—sunlight. The setting? Indescribably beautiful. The Hudson River, a sparkling gray today, stretched before them and those craggy hills surrounded it on either side. They’d visited some gorgeous colleges in the last year or so, yeah, but this one, as far as she was concerned, took the cake.
She sighed, feeling that sweet ache around her heart again.
Without breaking stride, Tony raised her hand to his lips and pressed it with a lingering kiss.
Talia gave him a sidelong glance. This, naturally, made him grin with happiness that was both crazy and peaceful.
He had gray at his temples now, and interesting lines fanning out from the corners of his eyes and bracketing his mouth when he smiled. He was, in other words, handsomer and more intriguing than he’d been the day they met, and she loved him more every day. If someone had told her that this would be possible back when they’d gotten married, she’d have convulsed with laughter, but it was true.
“Congratulations, baby,” he told her, smoothing a strand of her windswept curls, which had grown back longer and more luxuriant than ever, out of her face.
“For what?” she asked, even though she knew. “Not killing the boy when he let his pet tarantula loose in the living room so it could stretch its legs?”
“No,” Tony said, unsmiling. “For hitting your twentieth anniversary today.”
The day’s poignancy snuck up on her again, choking her up a little, but she nodded. Twenty healthy, cancer-free years. With Tony. “God is good, isn’t he?”
Tony swiped at his eyes with his free hand. “God is good.”
Their joy bubbled over in mutual laughter, and they let it come.
Then she checked her watch and decided they’d better pick up their step.
“If you’re finished being mushy on me, we’d better get going. We don’t want to be late for the ceremony, do we?”
“Hell to the no,” he agreed. “Alexios would kick both our butts.”
Still laughing, their arms swinging between them, they headed for their seats to watch their eighteen-year-old son—who had his father’s eyes, and was tall and handsome in his white dress shirt and dark slacks—take the new cadet oath with his classmates at the United States Military Academy at West Point.
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ISBN: 9781459223264
Copyright © 2012 by Sally Young Moore
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