A Scandal So Sweet

Epilogue

The stairs creaked as Summer carried Terri, who was bundled in pink blankets and asleep, up to the nursery. But she couldn’t put her beautiful, dark-haired little girl in the crib. The baby was too soft and warm and cuddly, and every minute Summer held her was too precious.

The joy-filled days passed so fast. Summer had given herself a year off for maternity leave, and already four months of it were gone. So she sat in the rocker and began to sing to her little girl while she stared out at the pines that fringed the house that had belonged to her family for more than a hundred years.

Summer loved the time she and Zach spent in this old house, the time when they left their nannies and servants in their larger residences in Houston and New York, and they could be together with Gram and Tuck.

Downstairs Gram was cooking a dinner for all of them, so the house was fragrant with the rich aroma of Cajun spices. Nick had supplied Gram with shrimp, and she’d promised them all, including Nick, a big pot of gumbo.

Nick, who adored Terri so much he’d even made a place in his heart for Summer, would be joining them.

Summer heard Zach’s Mercedes in the drive. Then the screen door banged behind him. Would that man ever learn to shut a door quietly when it was nap time?

“Summer!” Zach hollered.

“Up here,” she called down to him softly and was relieved when he didn’t yell again. Much as she adored Terri, like any other new mother, she counted on having a breather when her little darling snoozed.

Zach strode silently into the room and knelt beside them. Reaching out his hand he touched Terri’s cheek. In her sleep, the baby smiled. Then she grabbed on to his little finger, and he gasped.

The baby’s pale fingers with their little fingernails were so tiny and perfect; his tanned ones so large and blunt.

“Can I hold her?” he whispered.

Summer nodded, lifting their daughter into his arms. She got up so he could have the rocker.

“She’s got me. I’m afraid I’ll never be able to be stern and say no to her,” he whispered. “I’ll spoil her rotten.”

“Well, we won’t have to discipline her for a while.”

Summer’s eyes pooled with tears of happiness as she watched her two raven-haired darlings-her rugged husband and their trusting and innocent baby daughter.

She wished she could hold on to this moment.

The past would always be a part of them, especially the loss of their first daughter. But love filled Summer’s days now with all its richly rewarding experiences. Marriage. Motherhood.

Life was so wonderful, she was determined to savor every sparkling moment of her shared happiness with Zach.

“Come here,” he whispered as he got up to put their baby in her crib.

Turning to Summer, he took her in his arms and pressed her tightly against him.

“I love you,” he said.

He told her that every day, and she never tired of hearing it.

She was glad that love was no longer a four-letter word he equated with hell. She was glad their love had become the guiding force in his life.

As it was in hers.