by Susan Sands
Ben looked over at Sabine and shook his head. “Nope. I’ve got enough going on here with my law practice, and hopefully will be planning a wedding.” The crowd oohed and aahed.
Sabine grinned at him as he struggled just a bit to get down on one knee. “Theresa Sabine O’Connor Prudhomme, will you marry me?”
He left off the Habersham, she noticed.
“What? No ring?” someone shouted.
“I’m going to let her pick it out. But until then, I’ve got something to keep us busy.” Ben gave a cue to his two young nieces.
They giggled and ran to get something inside.
“Thank God. We’ve been waiting all day for this,” Emma said.
The girls were back in an instant hiding something behind each of them.
Sabine couldn’t have been more shocked and thrilled when each of them presented her with a furry creature. Lucy held a squirmy puppy of about six weeks, which looked to be a golden or Labrador retriever mix, and Samantha held a tiny golden kitten with large blue eyes. Sabine nearly melted right there. The crowd went wild, which caused the kitten to bury its claws in her arm while she tried to hold onto it.
Ben took the puppy, and asked again, “So, will you marry me?”
Sabine laughed and slid into his arms, along with their new family. “I will marry you, gladly, Ben Laroux.”
More cheers from the crowd.
Someone shouted above the din. “Ben, would you consider being the mayor? We’re in need of one, you know?”
Since Ben had helped rid the town of Tad Beaumont, the town’s former mayor, for his corruption last year, they’d had an elderly interim mayor, who’d made it clear he had no interest in a permanent career.
Ben looked at Sabine, who smiled and said, “Mayor Ben Laroux. I like the sound of it. It’s not like they don’t already treat you like their public servant already. We wouldn’t have to go to Washington D.C., would we?”
He laughed then. “Um, no. But are you sure you want to be a mayor’s wife? I mean, you might have to judge a pie contest or cut a ribbon from time to time, and then there’s the Ministry Christmas Parade. How do you feel about riding on the back of a convertible?”
“Sounds like great fun compared to my past as a politician’s wife. Just don’t let it go to your head, okay?”
“Me? Let popularity go to my head? Never.”
Surrounded by family and friends and most of the town by now, they turned toward the crowd, puppy and kitten in one arm each, Sabine held up Ben’s empty hand between them. “Ben Laroux for mayor of Ministry!”
Of course, the crowd went wild.
The governor, not to be ignored, added, “I support this candidacy!”
Epilogue
One Year Later
“Can you hold her for a second? I need to feed Ala and Bama before we go.” Sabine handed their little nine-month old nugget, Janie, over to her daddy, who took the wiggly, giggly baby with open arms.
“How about we go wrestle you into that devil car seat? ’Kay?” Ben carried his daughter out to the SUV they’d purchased several months before Janie’s birth. The past year had been the busiest, craziest, and most fun of Ben’s life. He’d become mayor of the town, which had been a whole new kind of insanity he’d only imagined, married his beautiful wife, gained two codependent pets, and become a father. It was everything. All the best things he’d wished for such a long time.
Wrestling his cooing, gurgling baby girl into her car seat wasn’t an easy feat. Ever. She was a handful, and never static. “Be still, you little mess. But first, I must blow on your belly!” He raised her little dress and make loud raspberries on her chubby tummy, which sent her into peals of screaming giggles.
He looked up to see Sabine watching them, such love and happiness in her gaze that it humbled him.
“So, it’s the first time your dad is meeting Norman, huh?” Ben asked.
“Yeah. I hope it goes well. Mom and Dad have done pretty well as friends so far, but it’s taken him a while to get used to the idea that she’s found someone else.”
“What about Rachel?” Ben didn’t see Rachel that much. She did a lot of wedding photography for Evangeline House clients and had been taking on a lot of magazine shoots, but their schedules hadn’t meshed much lately. But he got the impression she planned to stick around.
“Rachel’s starting to get her bearings here. I think she likes the town, and that’s saying a lot for her. She’s such a free spirit; I’m surprised at how much she’s been in one place lately.”
“We all get to a point in our lives where the future begins to weigh on us,” Ben said.
“Maybe. She and Dad seemed to have made peace, for the most part, now that he’s out of prison. His decision to stay away from Louisiana was surprising, since his history was there. But he says his family is here, so he wanted to be closer to us.” Jean-Claude had bought a home on the coast at Orange Beach a few hours away. It was a beautiful area with white sands and crystal waters. He told Sabine he wanted to have a place for them to come with their children on vacation and to visit their grandfather. It was close enough and far enough away.
Her brother, James, had crawled back to New Orleans and had gone to work for an ambulance-chasing law firm that advertised on huge billboards and on television. At least he was keeping busy and staying away.
Richard was well ensconced in prison for the foreseeable future. The evidence against him was overwhelming and his new attorneys had strongly advised him to save the taxpayers the time and expense, and himself the humiliation of a long trial. His sentence reflected the disgust the judge held for those who’d been elected by the people to serve and protect, but had broken that trust in a terrible fashion.
Cammie had also given birth to a bouncing baby girl, Stephie, who was now fifteen months old and teaching their little Janie, all the tricks. Lucy and Samantha were in baby heaven as the designated babysitters. Emma had worried she and Matthew wouldn’t ever be able to have children because they’d been trying to get pregnant from day one. Since Emma’s biological clock was ticking away, she’d been more and more stressed. They’d just gotten word that twins were in their immediate future.
Ben and Sabine, despite their rocky beginning and misunderstandings, had overcome their many challenges. The world kept turning, and even when awful things happened, they’d come together and done what family did—stuck together. And they always would. With family like theirs, how could they not? Ben continued his therapy with Sabine and worked his way through his list to make amends with anyone he felt a need to apologize to or have a conversation with regarding a past indelicate situation where he might have misunderstood signals.
Sabine made him a better man. And she still made the ground shake—every single day. Just as she had from the moment he’d met her.
The End
More by Susan Sands
The Alabama series
If you loved Forever, Alabama, don’t miss the rest of the Alabama stories.
Again, Alabama
Cammie Laroux and Grey Harrison’s story
Love, Alabama
Emma Laroux and Matthew Pope’s story
Forever, Alabama
Sabine O’Connor and Ben Laroux’s story
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About the Author
Susan Sands grew up in a real life Southern Footloose town, complete with her senior class hosting the first ever prom in the history of their tiny public school. Is it any wonder she writes Southern small town stories full of porch swings, fun and romance?
Susan lives in suburban Atlanta surrounded by her husband, three young adult kiddos and lots of material for her next book.
Visit her website at SusanSands.com
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