Forever Family (Forever #5) (22 page)
Read Forever Family (Forever #5) Online
Authors: Deanna Roy
Epilogue: Gavin
The three girls were all sitting at the water’s edge. Jenny’s daughter, Phoenix, was the big kid, toddling along, falling face-first in the sand, getting up, and doing it all over again.
I elbowed Chance. “I see where she gets her coordination.”
He shook his head and stuck his hat back down over his eyes. He’d been up half the night at some rock-star party and was seriously not thrilled about being out before noon. Tough life. I didn’t feel one bit sorry for him.
The doc was digging through the cooler, probably looking for something healthier than the pastrami on rye I was eating. He occasionally looked up to watch Tina with their baby, who was big enough to sit up, laughing her head off every time a wave came in and touched her feet.
“Give it up,” I said. “Eat crap and drink beer.”
He held up a bag of carrots like it was a gold nugget he’d personally cut from a mine. “Never surrender,” he said.
Corabelle tried sticking Ethan’s feet in the water, but the minute the cold touched his toes, he seized up like a frog and screamed. He was two months old and had definitely discovered how to get people to act fast.
“Your kid has some lungs,” Darion said, plunking back down in the sand. “I bet he keeps you up at night.”
I could hear his wails over the waves. “I’ve got three words for you, Doc. Noise. Canceling. Headphones.”
Darion laughed. “Smart man.”
Corabelle lifted Ethan to her shoulder and patted his back. He quieted down. She glanced over at me and shrugged her shoulders. So much for his first swimming lesson.
“So, what’s she going to do about the teaching position?” Darion asked me.
“I think she’s going to turn it down,” I said. “It doesn’t pay squat and it’s not worth missing Ethan’s first year. We’ll just tough it out.”
Darion crunched into a carrot. “That’s a good plan. It’s time you can’t get back.”
“Says the workaholic.”
“Part of the job,” Darion said. He nudged Chance’s boot. “At least I’m not hungover after being out half the night.”
“Somebody’s got to make the sacrifice,” Chance grumbled from under his hat.
The girls headed our way. Jenny stood out with her crazy pink ponytails. Tina was so tiny that you couldn’t even imagine the chubby baby she was holding had actually ever been housed inside her.
Corabelle’s black hair whipped in the wind, like a goddess. Some things had changed about her over the years, but not that classic beauty. Even though I’d known her since I was in diapers myself, looking at her never failed to catch my full attention.
“You’re up,” Jenny said, dumping the wriggling toddler onto Chance’s belly. She immediately rolled off and took off for the waves again. “Better catch her.”
Chance shifted the hat, saw Phoenix making a beeline for the ocean, and jumped to his feet, mumbling something that sounded pretty colorful.
Jenny smacked him as he passed. “Don’t teach her advanced cursing just yet,” she said. “You know we can only get away with
damn
and
hell
!”
I took Ethan from Corabelle. “Didn’t much care for the Pacific?”
“It’s like he knows,” she said.
“I remember that day,” Jenny said. She shuddered. “Don’t ever get in that water again,” she told Corabelle. “I so do not want to be fishing anybody else out.”
Corabelle watched Chance chase Phoenix across the sand and said, “Everything important has happened on the beach. This is where you got yourself pregnant, if memory serves.”
Jenny plopped down on a towel. “Point taken.”
“I do believe somebody’s first encounter with somebody was also here,” she said to Tina.
“Gross, I have that in common with Jenny?” Tina said.
Darion choked on his carrot.
“Somebody do a Heimlich!” Jenny called.
Darion held up his hand. “I’m good,” he said. “I didn’t realize how much you all shared.”
“Oh, we know all the good stuff,” Jenny said. “We know all about getting busy under Tina’s big skirt.” She turned to Corabelle. “Are you the only friend who hasn’t banged on this beach?”
I grabbed Corabelle’s hand and pulled her down. Ethan immediately reached for her, and she took him back. “That can be arranged,” I said.
Jenny tossed a potato chip at my head. “Gross. There are children present.”
“Says the girl who conceived hers by a rock.” I tossed the chip back.
Chance returned with Phoenix. “Maybe she should have a snack,” he said. “Keep her in one place for thirty seconds.”
Jenny pulled an applesauce pouch from her bag and handed it over. “Okay, I think we can all agree that this piece of oceanfront property has definite history for all of us.”
Corabelle bounced Ethan on her knees. Her boobs jiggled in her bikini top, and I began to wonder how long we had to stay before I could get her home.
“I can’t imagine living anywhere else,” Tina said. “Even though I was late getting here.”
“We always wanted to go to the school by the sea,” Corabelle said to me. “And now we’re pretty much done. You’ll graduate before the end of the year.”
“You can’t leave!” Jenny said. “Our kids have to grow up together!” She passed another snack to Chance to keep Phoenix from toddling off again.
“We’re not planning to go anywhere just yet,” I said, pulling Corabelle and Ethan closer to me. The baby rested his chin on Corabelle’s shoulder and looked at me with big solemn eyes. He looked like Manuelito in that moment, and it struck me for the first time that the two boys of mine had so much in common. They had met only twice, but Rosa was bringing Manuel for two weeks at Thanksgiving. That wasn’t too far away.
“Good,” Jenny said. “Because I need my village.”
Phoenix dropped her cup in the sand and pointed a stubby finger at the sky. “Buff-fly,” she said.
“What’s that, sweetie pie?” Jenny asked.
“Buff-fly,” she said again.
Everyone looked up. At first, it seemed like it was about to snow, the way dark bits floated across the sky. But that was ridiculous. This was Southern California. Then I realized we were seeing the fluttering of wings.
Darion stood up. “It’s the monarch migration,” he said. “I’ve seen it once before, when I was a kid.”
We all got to our feet. Even Phoenix was silent as the cloud of orange and black butterflies arrived, swooping, sailing, and flitting silently by.
Corabelle found my hand and squeezed it. I looked at her, staring up in awe at the thousands of winged creatures passing through our little beach party.
Tina stood the farthest forward and stretched out her hand. After a moment, a single butterfly paused for a second on one of her fingers, then fluttered off again.
She started crying, and Darion put his arm around her. Corabelle let go of me and stepped forward, Ethan on her shoulder. She held up her hand as Tina had. It took a minute, but a butterfly landed on her as well.
She turned to me, tears in her eyes. “Look at all of them,” she said. “There are so many.”
Jenny snapped pictures like crazy. The butterfly didn’t leave Corabelle as the other had, just sat there, its wings fanning open and closed, lazily, as if it had nowhere else to be.
When Ethan was born, we recreated the butterfly mobile we had once made for Finn. Above his crib, the glitter-sprayed cutouts swayed whenever we brushed against them.
Now the sky was filled with the real thing, colorful, flitting by. Several took a break on our cooler and chairs, and Phoenix toddled over to them, fascinated.
Ethan waved his hands and the butterfly on Corabelle’s finger fluttered higher, hovered over them, then settled on Ethan’s fuzzy head.
“Oh!” Corabelle cried. “Look!”
I came up behind her. Ethan’s eyes were wide, looking around at all the grown-ups staring at him.
“It doesn’t want to leave you,” Tina said quietly.
Ethan brushed his forehead with his arm, and this time the butterfly landed on my shoulder.
“See?” Tina said. “He belongs to you.” She sat down and jerked a drawing pad from her bag. Her fingers flew as she sketched on an empty page.
“You should move along,” I told the butterfly. The numbers were already thinning, the majority of them already past. “Your friends will worry about you.”
It sat a moment more, wings slowly flapping, its antennae quivering, bright against my white T-shirt.
Then it took off, fluttering into the sky, until it mixed in with the others and we no longer knew which one it was.
“That was beautiful,” Corabelle said. Tears were slipping down her cheeks.
“We were at the right place at the right time,” I said.
“Again,” she said.
I knew she was thinking of that astronomy class where we found each other after four years apart. If anything had gone differently — if I hadn’t enrolled, if she hadn’t moved here after getting kicked out of her first college — this moment would never have come.
But we had taken that class. And Jenny had hooked up with Chance. And Tina had decided to keep the doctor after insisting she never would go on a second date.
Because of all this, we were together now. And the moments that we thought were fleeting, like the passing of these butterflies, had come together to make something that would last forever.
~*´♥`*~
This is the end of the Forever series. It was such a healing, sad, and joyful experience to delve so deeply into these women’s lives. This is certainly the work I was meant to do since losing Casey Shay. I like to think his memory goes on forever and his life wasn’t as fleeting as it seemed.
TWO new projects are coming under my real name Deanna Roy in 2016. Join my
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My
Annie Winters
name will be releasing a new Vigilante book in 2016 as well.
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Love to all of you,
Deanna
THE END
Coming 2016
The Dance Series
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Deanna is a passionate advocate for women who have miscarried. She founded the web site
www.pregnancyloss.info
in 1998 after the loss of her first baby and continues to run both online and in-person support groups for women who have endured this impossible loss. Find her on
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•*´`*•
♥
•*´`*•
Dedications to my amazing fans!
Love you guys!
♥
Patti C. ~ May she always know what a hero she is, in my eyes, and in the eyes of my children. Love, AK
♥
♥
Kristin H. ~ For my family by blood and my family by choice, I love you all!
♥
♥
Bianca M. ~ For my Husband, daughter, and son my Forever Family, I'll Love you Always
♥
♥
Tanya ~ To Jarred, father to our Forever Family.
♥
♥
Abbie Ball ~ For my family by blood and by choice I be with you no matter what.
♥
♥
Keri Greear ~ To the two most important men in my life. My dad(you were taken way too soon) and my hubs. <3
♥
♥
Angela D ~ For the love of my life Jeremy, thank you for making me feel that I'm the most beautiful girl in the world. Also for showing me that true love really does last Forever!
♥