Tangled Web
Page 25
She looked at him, almost afraid to hope she could have everything.
“I can’t promise you what kind of husband I’ll make,” he continued honestly, clasping both her hands in his and lifting them to his mouth for tender kisses. “The truth is I don’t know.” He squeezed her hand and put his mouth to her palm, planting a warm kiss squarely in the middle. “I never felt I was the marrying kind.” He grinned again at the mixture of shock and happiness on her face. “Until now,” he amended.
Hope went into his arms. “Oh, Chase,” she sighed, feeling as though all her dreams were finally coming true.
He hugged her back tightly. “Is that a yes or a no?”
Grinning from ear to ear, she hugged him back, just as confidently. “What do you think?”
Epilogue
“Joey, have you seen the canteens?” Chase asked, from a corner of the garage.
“No. Aren’t they with the rest of the camping gear?” fifteen-year-old Joey asked, a perplexed expression on his face.
Hope looked up from the sleeping bags she was shaking out. Beside her, three-year-old Kevin played contentedly with three Sesame Street figures. He repeatedly dropped Bert, Ernie and Big Bird in an empty cooler, then rescued them all moments later. “I think the canteens are in the supply cabinet next to the freezer.”
Chase opened it. “Right again, as usual.”
Hope smiled at her husband and oldest son, then consulted her list of Things To Do. The list was never more important than when she was trying to organize their family of four for any group activity. Without a master plan, she would be lost, she knew, and so would her circle of three loving “men.” She checked off dinnerware and went to the next item. “Are the tents all ready?”
“Yep.” Joey answered for Chase. He looked at Hope importantly. “I took care of that myself.”
“We’re going camping!” Kevin cried excitedly, running over to embrace his daddy around the knees. “Yeah, yeah, yeah!” he cheered.
Chase picked Kevin up and embraced him in a warm bear hug. “Yes, we are. Think you can handle it, big guy?”
“Yes!” Kevin cried. “But I get to sleep next to Joey!”
Joey moaned in mock aggravation. “Oh, no,” he said, pretending to be in great pain. He pointed a teasing finger at his three-year-old brother. “You snore!”
“I do not,” Kevin said indignantly. “You snore, Joey!”
“Do not!” Joey teased, and they were off, laughing and exchanging loving insults.
Watching them, Hope thought back to the changes the last five years had wrought. She had a solid marriage to a man she loved very much. Joey had a brother twelve years his junior, Chase two sons and a wife to take camping. Chase still left for the rain forests, spending several months a year total there, but because he only left for two weeks at a time Hope didn’t mind.
The store had slowly become profitable again, with the changes Hope had implemented becoming chain-wide. And Hope was still president. Chase had tried to get Rosemary to sell her shares to him, to no avail. However, she was not as vocal about the running of it as she had been. And Hope appreciated that.
Joey’s asthma was better. He still couldn’t have a pet, but he liked having a younger brother better. Or so he said. Strong and fit, he had shed his glasses and was now wearing contacts and playing on his high-school baseball team. These days, if anyone teased him, it was usually about the girls who were chasing him.
It would have been better had Chase’s mother approved of their marriage, Hope supposed, but she was also realistic enough to know that Rosemary would always harbor some resentment against her. However, things were better now than they had been five years ago, when she and Chase had first married, largely due to the reconciling event of Kevin’s birth. Hope had every reason to expect things would continue to improve, very gradually, over time. Currently, Rosemary was living in Europe but she did visit them in Houston from time to time.
“Well,” Chase said, looking around at the gear they had scattered all over the garage. “I guess it’s about time we start loading up the Jeep.”
“I’m ready.” Hoisting one of the rolled-up tents over his shoulder, Joey stalked to the Suburban parked in the driveway.
Chase handed Kevin to Hope. “You can be in charge of our budding frontiersman,” he said.
Hope happily accepted her son’s thirty-pound weight, balancing him on her hip. For the next few minutes, they all were busy loading the car, Hope admittedly doing more supervising than carrying. Finally Chase shut the rear compartment. Joey held out his hands to Kevin. “Okay, big guy, we’re going to take a last look around and see if there’re any other toys you want to bring.”
Chase looked at the crammed rear compartment of the Jeep. “Just so long as it’s not too big,” he cautioned practically.
“Got ya,” Joey said, sauntering off, Kevin in his arms.
Feeling incredibly content, Hope watched the boys walk inside then laced her arms around her husband’s neck and stood on tiptoe to give him a kiss. “Days like today,” she confided in a tender whisper, her eyes meeting his affectionately, “I feel like I have everything.”
Chase smiled down at her, contentment radiating from him. “I know what you mean,” he confessed softly, ardently tightening his grip. “Except one thing.”
Hope’s brow furrowed and she flushed warmly. She couldn’t think of a thing. “What?” she prompted curiously, her pulse beginning to race at the close proximity of her body to his.
“A daughter.” He paused, eyes twinkling, his strong body radiating resolve. “Kevin’s three now. Maybe when we get back, we can get started on that.”
Hope grinned in anticipation, easily reading the desire and love in his eyes. Two qualities that were emanating from her own. “Now that,” she said standing on tiptoe and kissing him soundly once again, “sounds like a very worthwhile project indeed.”
ISBN: 978-1-4592-4878-6
TANGLED WEB
Copyright © 1992 by Cathy Gillen Thacker
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