"Daddy, this terrible person tried to take me away, but you and Mama stopped him." Christa laid her head on Kate's shoulder. "Daddy fought him and saved me. And you grabbed me and held me, Mama, and told me you loved me."
Tears poured down Kate's cheeks. The joy bursting inside her hurt with the most intense pleasure-pain she'd ever known. Thank you, God, thank you. Christa had called her Mama. And she'd called Trent Daddy.
Trent leaned over the bed and wrapped his arms around Kate and Christa. "We both love you," he said. "Your mother and I love you more than anything, just like we love each other. One of the reasons I love you so much is because you're half mine and half your mama's. And you're special, Christa, because you're you."
Kate reached up and caressed Trent's cheek. "The answer is yes," she told him.
He kissed Kate's forehead. Christa lifted her head from Kate's shoulder and said, "You can do better than that, can't you, Daddy?"
"Yes, I can, young lady, but not tonight. Tomorrow we'll celebrate properly and I'll give Kate a kiss that will knock her socks off. But for now, we all need to get some sleep. We've just been through quite an ordeal."
Trent turned to leave the bedroom.
"Don't go," Christa cried.
"All right, I'll stay." Trent walked across the room and sat in one of the two floral chintz lounge chairs flanking a small tea table. "I'll keep watch from here the rest of the night. Now, you two girls go to sleep."
Christa tugged on Kate's hands. "Sleep with me tonight, okay?"
"Okay." Kate lay down beside her daughter, then pulled the covers over them up to their shoulders.
Christa snuggled against Kate and whispered, "You're going to marry Daddy again, aren't you, Mama?"
"Yes, I am." Kate hugged Christa.
"And I'm going to be your maid of honor, right?"
"Right?"
"And I'm going to be the luckiest man in the world," Trent called from across the room.
"We're all three lucky," Kate said. "We're a real family again."
At long last.
* * *
Epilogue
« ^
"They're here," Christa Winston called out to her nana and aunt Mary Belle, then she rushed off the porch and down the brick sidewalk toward her mother and father who were just getting out of Trent's Bentley.
Kate opened her arms as Christa flew toward her. After giving her mother a hug, Christa said, "May I carry one of them?"
Trent opened the car's back door and looked inside, then smiled at Christa. "Take your pick. Do you want Bay or Belle?"
"Give me Belle," thirteen-year old Christa said. "She and I will have to stick together, being sisters and all."
Trent removed the infant carrier from the back seat and handed his younger daughter to her big sister. "We think she looks just like you did when you were a baby."
"Which means she's a living doll, right Daddy?" Christa beamed happily as she accepted the carrier and headed up the sidewalk. "You should see your nursery, young lady. Mama and I went all out decorating it. Your side of the room is all pink and white. And I chose all your dolls and stuffed animals myself. We let Daddy pick out things for Bay, since he's a boy. He'll probably play football and baseball. But I'll teach you to play soccer and softball. I'm on both teams, you know."
Trent lifted his son's carrier from the car, then reached out and put his arm around Kate. "Miracles do happen, don't they, honey?"
"Absolutely. We are living proof of that."
"Hurry up, you two," Aunt Mary Belle fussed as she came toward them. "You do not want to keep that baby out in this hot July sun another minute. It's enough to give me a heat stroke. Ninety-five in the shade today. That's what the weather forecaster said."
Christa took Belle inside, then Brenda and Mary Belle followed. Kate held open the door for Trent and went in behind him and Bay. Kate gasped as they entered the foyer. Blue and pink streamers hung from the crown molding and draped the staircase. Baskets of fresh flowers—in pale baby pastels—had been situated in every corner of the foyer. Kate saw plainly Aunt Mary Belle's extravagant hand mixed with Christa's youthful exuberance in the celebratory displays.
The entire assembly treaded upstairs, straight to the nursery. The room, a pale cream, boasted a hand-painted mural, and had been decorated in shades of light pink, blue, yellow and green. The furniture for both babies was a rich mahogany—the baby beds, chests, dressing tables and rocking chairs. Trenton Bayard Winston V's bed was an identical Genny Lind style to his sister's except hers had a white-eyelet-lace canopy. Where Bay had his father's brown hair and mother's blue eyes, Brenda Belle Winston was her older sister's look-alike, with Trent's brown eyes and Kate's blond hair.
After removing both sleeping infants from their carriers and placing them in their beds, Christa and the adults stood watching the little ones, in awe of the miracle before them.
"Babies are so amazing, aren't they?" Brenda said. "I'd hoped to have more children after Rick, but it wasn't meant to be." She put her arm around Christa. "But God blessed me with this young lady."
"And now you have two more grandchildren." Christa looked from her mother to her father. "Isn't that right?"
"Absolutely," Kate said.
"And I'll teach them to call you Nana, just like I do," Christa told her.
"Christa, I'm not sure—"
"Of course, they'll call you Nana." Kate smiled at Brenda. "You and Aunt Mary Belle will share the honor of being their grandmother, just as y'all do with Christa."
"I've got to phone Shelly and Alexa and tell them they can come over and see our babies." Christa galloped out of the nursery, then called back to her parents, "Is it all right for them to come over in about an hour?"
"An hour should be fine," Trent replied, then draped his arm around Kate's shoulders. "Now, Mrs. Winston, I think it's time for you to lie down for a while. You've had a busy day today, not to mention the fact you just gave birth to twins only a few days ago."
"Brenda and I will go downstairs and see to lunch and field any phone calls." Mary Belle ushered Brenda from the nursery.
Trent and Kate heard the two talking like magpies as they went up the hall and down the stairs. Christa's nana and her aunt Mary Belle had become fast friends and both seemed to greatly enjoy living together at Winston Hall. Mary Belle had gotten Brenda involved in all her clubs and civic organizations and you seldom saw one of them without the other.
While the ladies kept busy and happy blocks away at the old family manor, Trent, Kate and Christa lived what Kate thought of as a fairly normal life here on Madison in their homey old house, with a swing on the front porch and a white picket fence. Last year Kate had thought she couldn't be happier, that she had everything her heart desired. That was until she discovered she was pregnant—at thirty-six—with twins.
Trent marched Kate into their bedroom and all but forced her to take off her shoes and lie down. "Rest while you can," he told her. He kissed her forehead, then turned to leave.
"Stay with me."
"You won't rest if I'm here."
"I won't rest if you're not."
"Okay, but no hanky-panky," Trent said jokingly as he got in bed with her and sat, his back against the headboard.
"We'll save the hanky-panky for a few weeks." She snuggled up against him, placing her head in his lap. "For now, I'll settle for some TLC. Lots and lots of TLC."
"Ah, honey, you're going to get plenty of tender loving care. Now and for the rest of our lives." He tenderly stroked her head, threading his fingers through her hair. "I love you, Kate. I love you so much it hurts."
She sighed. "And I love you the very same way."
Life didn't get any better than this. After years of loneliness and heartache, Kate and Trent had been given a precious gift—a second chance for a happy life as husband and wife. And as parents.
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