The Doctor's Lost-and-Found Bride (15 page)

Fourteen months later

‘H
OW
did we get to be so lucky?’ Max asked, coming to stand behind Marina and wrapping his arms round her waist. He rested his chin on her shoulder and looked through the kitchen window to the garden. His mother and Marina’s were sitting next to each other in the shade, chatting away and cooing over Carly Rosamond Fenton, the youngest member of the family. Rupert, his mother’s partner, was manning the barbecue with Marina’s father. Rosie was taking dishes of salad through to the huge table set ready for lunch under the gazebo, and Neil and various Petrelli aunts, uncles and cousins were chatting in groups and playing with the children.

Max had grown up with a small, intense family. Now he was part of a huge, noisy one that believed in fun and love and laughter—and his mother and Rupert had been accepted right along with him. Over the last year his mother had relaxed, discovering that she wasn’t losing a son but gaining a daughter, and a whole new family to boot. Marina had made a point of sitting down and talking with her, and making her realise that she was always going to be part of their lives—that there would be room for her.

‘I think,’ Marina said, turning round in his arms and kissing him, ‘That we make our own luck.’

‘Tut tut. Put each other down, you two,’ Rosie teased from the doorway to the garden. ‘You’re supposed to be getting drinks, Max. And you’re supposed to be sorting out the buns for the burgers and the rolls for the hotdogs,’ she told her sister. ‘Dad and Rupert sent me in to find out where you’d got to because everything’s almost ready.’

Marina laughed. ‘Is it my fault that I have the sexiest husband in the world? He distracted me.’

‘On the contrary,
you
distracted
me
,’ Max countered. ‘So I think that deserves a forfeit.’ He stole another kiss.

Rosie spread her hands. ‘Honestly, you two. Anyone would think that you were newlyweds!’

‘We are. We only got married a year ago today,’ Marina said.

‘And what a year it’s been,’ Max said softly. Marrying the love of his life; being promoted to consultant in a unit where he was most definitely part of the team. And becoming a father to a baby girl who’d taught him that the Petrellis knew exactly what they were talking about: love stretched and grew along with the family. ‘Life doesn’t get any better than this.’

‘Tell me that in twenty-five years,’ Rosie said. ‘When we’re celebrating your silver wedding and you’ve got grandchildren in your arms.’

Max looked at his wife and smiled. ‘You know, I think you might just be right…’