by Gina Wilkins
Her instantaneous reply made him laugh. “Right. I have fallen in love with a woman who definitely knows her own mind.”
“And I’m in love with a man who is smart enough to remember that in the future,” she told him, patting his cheek.
As a declaration of their feelings, it was a rather prosaic moment, she thought as she followed him through the doorway. But as far as she was concerned, it was perfect.
Epilogue
Miranda spun into the hotel room, humming the tune to the last song they had danced to, her head still buzzing from champagne.
It had been an adults-only evening. And she had savored every moment of it. She was eagerly anticipating the rest of the night, she thought as she turned to her husband with a smile.
Smiling broadly, he caught her around the waist and twirled her into an impromptu dance. “Did you have a good time?”
She almost sang her reply. “I had a wonderful time.”
“You’re a little tipsy.”
She laughed and looped her arms around his neck. “I’m drunk with love.”
“Not to mention a couple of bottles of champagne,” he said with a chuckle.
She reached up to kiss him. “You think we should call Mrs. McSwaim and check on the kids?”
“Mrs. McSwaim knows how to reach us if there’s a problem,” he replied firmly. “Tonight is for us. We only get a three-day honeymoon—we’re going to make the most of every moment.”
During the past eight weeks, they had learned to make the most of all their moments together. That was how long it had taken Miranda to realize that marriage was exactly what she wanted with him. She planned to make the most of every moment with him for the rest of her life.
The children had eagerly accepted the newest development in their eventful lives. There had been some turf battles, some concerns about the changes to come, but on the whole, they seemed pleased to be melding into a new family unit.
Miranda was under no illusions that all their problems were solved, and that the next few years would be easy ones. They had formed a blended family with four children who had been abandoned by their mothers, and with two adults who both carried baggage of their own. But she and Mark had agreed that burdens were much lighter when the weight was shared.
Holding her close, he gazed down into her eyes. “You haven’t changed your mind?”
She didn’t hesitate. “I haven’t changed my mind.”
“I’m sorry your parents weren’t at the wedding.”
At his urging to face her past, Miranda had called her parents. She had told them what was going on in her life, and asked them if they would be interested in getting to know her again. Instead they had expressed their disapproval that Lisa had borne children out of wedlock and then got herself into so much trouble that she couldn’t be a mother to them. They had sanctimoniously condemned Miranda’s decision to take those boys in, and to marry a man who was divorced and had children of his own.
She and Lisa had never listened to them when they had tried to “guide” them before, and look where it had gotten them, they said. The call had ended coolly, with them insincerely wishing Miranda luck and her telling them quite sincerely that she hoped they would enjoy the rest of their rigidly controlled lives.
“It was their loss,” she told Mark with a shrug of resignation. She had reached out without expectations, so she hadn’t been overly disappointed by the results. But in her mind, it was her parents who were missing out by not knowing their adorable grandsons.
As for Miranda, she considered herself immeasurably blessed to have Kasey and Jamie with her. When she looked back now at her former life—a string of empty parties and emptier friendships—she couldn’t imagine going back. And now when she thought of her parents, she could do so with more pity than bitterness. So perhaps calling them had been the right thing to do, after all.
This, she thought, snuggling into Mark’s arms, was where she belonged.
She tugged at the knot of his tie, ready to do away with the formality of clothing. “Since we only have three days…”
They had agreed it was all the time they could spare, between the need to spend time with the children and the demands of their jobs. They had already made arrangements to take a vacation as a family in October and attend the weekend anniversary party at the Walker ranch in Texas—a way for Mark to reconnect with his past.
Mark already had the zipper down on her dress, his hands slipping eagerly beneath the fabric. His lips moved against hers. “I love you, Miranda.”
She shimmied out of the dress and offered herself to him wholeheartedly. “I love you, too.”
They spent the rest of the evening throwing their own private little party. And Miranda planned for the rest of their lives to be a continuation of that celebration.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-2197-0
ADDING TO THE FAMILY
Copyright © 2005 by Gina Wilkins
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†Family Found: Sons & Daughters
**Hot Off the Press
§Family Found
‡The Family Way
*The McClouds of Mississippi