The intake of oxygen made her brain begin to function again. That made her remember Belinda and the children.
“I haven’t checked on the kids!”
“I went out there with Nate. They’re fine. The girls might be a little dirtier than you’d like. The boys were playing a little one-on-one, then taking breaks to let the girls do granny shots.”
“They’re letting the girls play?”
He made a face at her. “Can you keep Addie out of anything?”
Nate and Bobbie appeared beside them suddenly. “There you are!” Hunter exclaimed. “Were you...kissing in the closet?” Nate pointed to the open door. “Clarissa said she saw Hunter follow you in there. Honestly,” he teased. “Have you no sense of decorum, no—”
Bobbie put a hand over his mouth. “The committee’s having a quick meeting to go over...” She hesitated and looked to Nate.
“Um...finances,” he said. “Yeah. Finances. Right over there in the furniture department.”
Sandy arched an eyebrow. “We have a furniture department?”
“Well, somebody brought a small kitchen table and some chairs tonight.”
“Did you fix the thermostat?” Sandy asked Nate.
He appeared confused. “What thermostat?”
Before she could answer, Bobbie bustled across the room. Sandy followed her through the maze of bins and racks to the table and chairs set up near the treats table. She was surprised to see her parents around the table; Mike Wallis, who owned the Wine Cellar and rented Nate the office space upstairs; Clarissa Burke, the Morenos, Stella. Many of the people from Sandy’s neighborhood stood around the table: the Jensens, the Crookhams, the Wedells, the Johnsons, Alan Berg and Irene Wolfgram. Calli and Terri were there.
She nodded at them, delighted to see them, but surprised as well. They weren’t part of the committee.
Hunter pulled out a chair for her and she realized with a niggle of alarm that everyone was looking at her. They were smiling, so she had no reason to be frightened, but her heart began to race all the same.
Nate went to the other side of the table so that he could smile into her face. “Sandy. Welcome to the first meeting of the SS Dancer Savana Corporation. We’ve gathered here to form this entity to get your savvy self back in business. As your friends and neighbors, we’ve all decided to put our faith and trust in you into practice by pooling our money and resources and handing them over to you to do your magic. Many of us have worked with you on community projects often enough to know your work ethic and your nimble brain. Your neighbors know you to be brave and resilient and eager to help anyone who needs anything. So, we’re helping you.”
She put a hand over her mouth to prevent blubbering. There’d been no problem with the thermostat. There was no discussion of finances—except for the loss of her business. Hunter held firm hands on her shoulders, and her mother caught her hand and squeezed it, tears starting to fall.
“Only problem is,” Nate went on, “the funds invested are too much for a simple coffee cart. You might want to consider three carts, or even a restaurant.”
Her father pointed a finger at himself and then her mother. “You have a sous chef and a pastry chef right here.”
“I have waited tables,” Celia said.
Mike Wallis raised his hand. “I’ll be your wine supplier and I have access to tableware.”
“If you decide to do this,” Clarissa added, “I can uniform your staff.”
“And we’ll do whatever you need,” Calli said, speaking for herself and Terri.
There was sudden silence. Completely overwhelmed with everyone’s kindness and support, Sandy struggled to clear her mind so she could express how touched and grateful she was. For a moment all she could see in her mind were the colorful blocks of Hunter’s blanket.
She wanted to say that she couldn’t possibly accept their outrageous generosity, but she couldn’t do it. These people had stepped out in faith because they believed in her, trusted her, wanted to help her.
She had to accept.
“I...I can’t imagine why you are so generous and so kind, but I’m happy to be a part of...what was it again?”
“The SS Dancer Savana Corporation,” Nate supplied with a grin. “Blame Bobbie. You try to make a new name out of the letters in Cassandra Evans and see what you get.”
“I’ve done Bobbie one better,” Hunter said. “I’m going to turn Cassandra Evans into Cassandra Evans Bristol.”
There were squeals and shouts as the room erupted with congratulations. Handshakes and hugs were exchanged and Clarissa told Sandy she wanted to give her her wedding dress.
Wedding dress. Sandy allowed herself a moment to absorb the words.
“The law requires,” Nate said, breaking her spell as people began to gather up jackets and purses, “that we meet twice a year. We can do that in the conference room at my office. We’ll email next—” he calculated “—January to see what date works for everybody. And, of course, as plans finalize for whatever Sandy decides to do, we’ll let you know.”
A general goodbye followed as the SS Dancer Savana Corporation streamed out the door, Sandy’s parents and Stella promising to be in touch tomorrow.
Blin appeared with the six children, every one of them absolutely filthy.
Celia gasped as she drew her dusty girls to her. Mando, stocky and smiling, shook his head. “I tell you over and over that boys don’t get as dirty as these two girls.”
“What did you do?” Bobbie asked, her eyes going over the boys’ dirty faces and their smudged and rumpled clothes. Their appearance refuted Mando’s claim. She pulled a leaf out of Dylan’s hair and a candy wrapper out of Sheamus’s collar. “I didn’t realize basketball involved rolling around on the ground.”
“We were rolling down the hill!” Zoey announced with a giggle. “It was fun.” She touched each of the Raleigh boys on the shoulder with her wand and declared, “Clean!” She did the same with the Moreno girls.
Addie, wearing her tiara like a bracelet, said, “We only did it once ’cause Blin said no.”
Blin apologized guiltily. “I was watching them, then the ball got away from Sheamus, he fell while chasing it down the hill and rolled the rest of the way. All four girls thought it looked like fun and followed, then Dylan was right behind them.”
The girls’ pretty summer dresses were probably ruined, but Sandy found it impossible to look into those smudged and happy faces and scold them. She was too happy, anyway.
Zoey suddenly noticed Sandy’s ring. “Mommy!” she said. “Where did you get that?”
Sandy held her hand down so the girls could see it. “Hunter gave it to me.”
“Wow. It’s more sparkly than my wand.”
Celia and her daughters closed in for a better look.
“That means he wants to be your husband.” Crystal leaned over it so closely she was cross-eyed. She refocused on Sandy’s face in excitement, a small clone of her mother. “There’s going to be a wedding?”
“Yes.”
“Do we get to come?”
“You do. In fact, you’re all going to be in it.”
Mando appeared concerned. “All of us?”
Nate turned to him. “If I have to wear a monkey suit, you do, too.”
“No tuxedos,” Sandy said. All she and Hunter had talked about the night before the accident with her cart flooded back to her. She’d been so sure those dreams would never come true. “Casual but elegant. The church, then the Red Building for the reception.”
Zoey tugged on her mother. “Do we get to wear floaty dresses?”
“You do. Purple ones.” The four girls jumped up and down like wild pistons. Even Addie, the grease monkey, was excited.
“Purple?” Nate asked.
Bobbie waved the questio
n away. “It’s a girl thing. All little girls love purple. And make it floaty, and they’re in heaven.”
“Brunch at our house on Sunday,” Bobbie said, “so we can talk about this. I’m going to design your wedding invitations, so I’ll need time. You’re not planning to get married next week, are you?”
Sandy leaned into Hunter and felt his arm inch around her. She could have died a happy woman at that moment. “We talked about early October. Fall flowers. And you and Celia in pink and plum, the guys in gray.”
Hunter squeezed her shoulder. “Okay, Nate and Mando and I are going to have to go look at a car engine, or put on boxing gloves or something. The estrogen’s getting a little thick in here.”
“We’ll pick this up on Sunday.” Bobbie shooed everyone toward the door. “You guys go home. We’ll lock up.” She caught Sandy’s arm and gave her a final hug. “Thank God!” she whispered. “I thought you two would never wise up.”
“Really. As I recall, you were heading off to Europe when Nate was trying to talk you into marriage.”
“Yeah, well, some of us are a little slow. But how cool is this? College roommates who end up in the same town married to friends, so that we get to live out our lives together. Great, huh?”
There had to be a bigger word than great.
Hunter helped Sandy put her girls in the car.
“If you marry Mommy,” Zoey said, “you’ll be Daddy.”
“Right.” He cinched the belt on her car seat.
“And you’ll live at our house.”
“Yes. But we’re going to have a new house. We’ll go see it tomorrow.”
Worried blue eyes gazed back at him. “You mean, move to a different house?”
“Yes. Where we’ll have a swing set and room for a puppy.”
The worry turned to delight. “A puppy? Addie, we’re going to get a puppy!”
When Hunter leaned out of the car, Sandy’s brown eyes questioned him. “A puppy? Really? Hunter, we...”
“She looked worried. I didn’t want her to worry.”
“We have to discuss these things. You can’t just...”
He pinned her to the driver’s side door and kissed her. She surfaced breathlessly. “Well played. We were about to have our first fight.”
“You’re wrong there.”
“We’re not going to fight?”
“Sure we are.” He laughed. “But this would be number 672.”
* * * * *
We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Heartwarming title.
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ISBN-13: 9781460329665
LOVE ME FOREVER
Copyright © 2014 by Muriel Jensen
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