by Lee McKenzie
The girls let out a whoop and flung their arms around each other, then Kate whirled around and hugged him. Really hugged him. “Thanks, Dad. Now we can be a family,” she whispered. “All of us.”
Outside the courtroom, he thanked his lawyer, at least he thought he did, but he was mostly focused on the three women in his life. Kate, his amazing daughter. Sarah, the beautiful woman he’d fallen in love-at-first-sight with. And Casey, his daughter’s best friend and, he hoped, her soon-to-be someday sister.
He knew Sarah wasn’t ready to make a commitment, but she’d get there. He was sure of it. And now that his family was staying intact, she could take all the time she needed because now he had all the time in the world.
EPILOGUE
Ten months later
SARAH PEEKED BETWEEN the curtains of the cabana that had been set up on the lawn of the Serenity Bay Resort.
“Is everyone here?” Casey asked. “Are they ready for us?”
“Should be any minute now.”
“Can you see my dad?” Kate asked.
Jonathan, heart-joltingly handsome in an off-white summer tux, waited in the late afternoon sunshine near the water’s edge. “Yes, I see him.”
“I hope he didn’t see you,” Kate said. “It’s bad luck.”
Sarah let the curtain fall back into place and turned to face her daughter and her soon-to-be daughter. “No, he didn’t see me. Now come here,” she said, pulling them both in for a hug, feeling like the luckiest woman alive.
And then the music started and the curtains were drawn aside. Casey and Kate, arm in arm, made their way down the flower-lined walkway to the beach. They looked adorably sweet and so grown up in identical yellow off-the-shoulder dresses, each with a bright orange sash at the waist. Kate had vigorously lobbied for heels but Casey’s preference won out so they wore white ballerina flats instead. Their bouquets, smaller versions of hers, consisted of yellow and orange roses, dahlias and ranunculus—her favorite flowers in her favorite colors and absolutely perfect for summer. These two amazing young women, best of friends in spite of their different interests, were about to become sisters.
And then it was her turn to follow the path that led to her future, their future. The girls insisted on taking credit for all of this—Casey for coming up with the plan that brought their parents together and Kate for convincing the judge to let her stay with her father. Sarah and Jonathan were happy to let them take the credit because they were...happy.
Now as she walked past a cluster of family and friends seated on white folding chairs, she only had eyes for him. She was grateful he had come into her life and so very thankful that the man who had become her best friend in the world was about to become her husband. As she approached, he extended his hand and she readily put hers into it. This was where she belonged, side by side with him.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he whispered.
“Dearly beloved...”
* * *
THE SUN WAS setting when Jon led his wife onto the dancing platform that had been set up just above the high tide line. She was a vision in an ivory cocktail-length dress—and yes, thanks to her and his daughter, he was completely conversant in all things fashion. He also had a deep appreciation for Sarah’s ability to organize a wedding while running a business, working out a study schedule that put both girls on the honor roll, and planning a honeymoon. She only half-jokingly said she would be unstoppable now that she no longer had to shop for fast food and pick up takeout, and that made him love her even more.
“Happy?” he asked as he swung her into his arms to hold her close.
The music mingled with the rustle of the yellow, orange and white bunting she and the girls had strung around the makeshift dance floor, strings of white lights twinkled in the deepening dusk.
“The happiest.” She laid her head on his shoulder and he pressed his cheek to her hair, loving that he could do this for the rest of this life, loving the scent of floral on the sea breeze, loving her.
“Happier than you’ll be tomorrow when our flight lands in Paris?”
“That’ll be a different kind of happy,” she said. “That’ll be magic.”
She was right. It would be magic. Ten days to themselves to explore the city she’d always dreamed of visiting. Meanwhile the girls would visit Kate’s mother. After losing the custody suit, Georgette had really stepped up, and now her wedding gift to the girls was a tour of Italy. Any city they wanted to see. Casey was excited about going to Naples and Pompeii, Kate was desperate to see the fashion houses in Milan, and the two of them couldn’t wait to sail the canals of Venice in a gondola. Then their daughters would join them for a week in London before they came home to Serenity Bay.
His household had been packed up, in labeled boxes this time, and he and Kate would move next door with Sarah and Casey when they returned. Everyone was excited about the move except Princess, who grudgingly tolerated Petey.
“Our girls look happy, too,” he said.
Kate danced with Henry and Casey with Dexter, and after all these months he was only now getting used to the idea of his daughters actually dating. Sarah had been right about them, though, as she was right about everything else. They were good kids, making good decisions, and as Sarah liked to remind him, living by example.
“They do look happy, don’t they?”
“And beautiful. You chose exactly the right dresses for them.”
“Aren’t they perfect? They’re happy yellow dresses.”
“That’s a good description.”
She lifted her head and smiled up at him. “It’s not just a description. Happy Yellow Dress is the designer’s label. Kate loves her stuff.”
Of course she did. There was a time when talk of labels and designers had made him apoplectic but now, thanks to Sarah’s influence, those things weren’t about trying to impress. They were simply about finding enjoyment in beautiful things.
And he knew all about enjoying beauty, he thought, pulling her close again, guiding her around and between their guests.
“Can you believe those girls will be sophomores in the fall?” he asked. “That they’ll be away at college in a few years?”
“Slow down,” she whispered. “I still haven’t wrapped my head around spending the next ten days without them.”
Her earnestness always touched him. “Ah, but Paris will be magic, remember?” Long walks along the Seine, sipping cafe au lait at a sidewalk cafe, and starry, starry nights. “I love those girls with all my heart, but Paris will always be ours.”
She leaned into the dance, rested her head on his shoulder again. “Paris will be ours,” she said. “Always and forever.”
* * * * *
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ISBN-13: 9781460341353
The Parent Trap
Copyright © 2014 by Lee McKenzie McAnally
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