Kincaid’s Dangerous Game

Epilogue

“Pearse, could there be a more perfect day for a wedding?”

This was, of course, a rhetorical question, which Sam’s husband knew better than to answer. He smiled at her, and she settled back in her folding chair as she added with a sigh, “Or a more perfect spot for one. This was a brilliant idea, havin’ it in the Portland Rose Garden. I’ve got to hand it to Wade and Tee for comin’ up with it.”

“It was a good choice,” Cory agreed. “A good compromise.”

Sam snorted. “What compromise? The brides’ hometown down in Texas has bad memories for both Brooke and Billie-I’m never gonna be able to call her Brenna, Pearse, I’m sorry-and Las Vegas just seems a little bit tacky, if you know what I mean. So where were they gonna go? I think this is perfect. Not only is it the most gorgeous place I’ve ever seen, but it’s where it all started, sort of.” She knew she was chattering, but couldn’t seem to help it. Her emotions were all over the place these days. “Well, not where it started, I suppose that would’ve been back home at Mama’s house in Georgia, but it’s where you first laid eyes on Wade. He was the first brother you found, and you first met him right here in this rose garden. And now…here we all are. Together.”

She reached over and took her husband’s hand and squeezed it, then sniffed. “Tell me the truth, Pearse-did you really think this day would come?”

Cory lifted her hand to his lips. “Never doubted it.”

“Oh, come on, Pearse, don’t lie to me. Don’t you sit there and tell me there weren’t a few bad moments. Like right here in Portland, when Wade mistook you for a serial killer and almost shot you?”

Cory rubbed ruefully at the back of his neck. “Yeah, that was a bad moment, all right. Especially when the real killer took that opportunity to take Tee hostage, and then shot Wade. For a while there I thought I’d found him only to lose him for good.”

“And,” Sam pressed on, “how about that day in the Kern River Canyon, when that woman almost ran us off the road, trying to kill Matt-”

“But she didn’t,” Cory pointed out, “and as a result, he and Alex found each other again.”

“Finding your little brother in a wheelchair,” Sam said softly. “That wasn’t your best moment, either, Pearse.”

“No…” He took a breath and smiled. “But that little brother of mine has taught me an awful lot about courage and inner strength. Like you did, Sammie June.”

She nodded, and for a moment was silent. A soft breeze stirred through the evergreens that encompassed the rose garden and carried the sweet scent of the blossoms with it. Recorded chamber music floated on the warm spring air and the sun was gentle on her skin. Everything was beautiful, and in spite of that, she shivered.

“I don’t know, though…I don’t think anything your brothers put us through could hold a candle to your sisters. My lands, Pearse-when I think Brooke might have gone to prison-or worse-for murdering her ex-husband, when she was totally innocent…”

“I know. Thank God for Tony. And Holt. None of it would have happened without him.”

She couldn’t help but notice her husband’s voice was husky, too. Weddings have a way of doing that, Sam thought.

She sat up straight. “Look-here they come. It’s starting.”

The men were coming along the pathway between rose beds flush with their spring bloom. The minister, first, wearing cream-colored robes. Then both grooms-Holt tall, straight and solemn, sunlight glinting off the silver at his temples…Tony a bit shorter and broader, solid as a mountain, his beautifully rugged face split in an irrepressible grin. Right beside him was Brooke’s son, Daniel-such a handsome boy, so tall and blond, like his mama-looking up at the man who was about to become his new daddy as if the sun rose and set at his say-so. Then Matt in his wheelchair and Wade right behind him, both brothers handsome as sin. Like their brother, Sam thought with a misty glance at her husband.

The music rose in volume and quickened in tempo, and there was a rustling among the assembled guests as most of them turned to watch for the arrival of the bridal party. It was a small group, most of Sam’s family having decided to wait for the big reception they were planning to throw for the happy couples back in Georgia. The whole staff of Penny Tours, Matt and Alex’s river-rafting company, had driven up from California together in one of the company vans, and of course quite a few of Wade’s fellow cops from the Portland P.D. were there in their dress uniforms. Most of the rest of the crowd consisted of Tony’s family-his mom and sisters and kids, the husbands and brothers standing in back of the rest since they’d run out of folding chairs.

Then…the first of the brides’ attendants started down the aisle. So beautiful, Sam thought, and felt a fluttering in her chest as she watched the little girl float toward her, carrying her basket of roses and wearing a simple ankle-length white dress. Hannah Grace waved shyly at her mom and dad, who smiled and waved back from their seats in the front row across from Sam and Cory.

Then it was Alex’s turn, and she was grinning at the bunch from Penny Tours as if to say, Hey, look at me, I’m wearing a dress! Then Tierney, radiantly, gloriously pregnant, with eyes only for Wade, already teary-eyed from what Sam guessed must be an overwhelming banquet of emotions.

The music paused…a hush fell over the assembly, and over the gardens beyond. Then there was a collective sigh of breath as Brooke and Billie came from opposite sides of the garden to meet at the back of the aisle. They looked at each other, and Brooke lifted a hand to brush something from her twin sister’s cheek. Then they both laughed, and turned…and waited.

Cory squeezed Sam’s hand as he rose from his seat and went to meet them. He kissed each of his sisters on the cheek, then each one took an elbow, and they started up the aisle together.

Oh, Lord, that’s done it, Sam thought. She clapped a hand over her mouth, but tears were already welling up and spilling over, and she didn’t have a tissue, of course, to save her life. She watched through a blur as Cory handed over the brides to their respective grooms, then came back to take his seat. He handed her a handkerchief as he settled into the chair beside her, waited for her to mop her cheeks and blow her nose, then reached over and took her hand.

“Thanks,” she whispered soggily. She leaned her head on his shoulder. “Oh, Pearse, look at them up there. All of them together…did you ever imagine anything like this?”

Cory’s laugh sounded wistful. “To tell you the truth,” he whispered back, “I always imagined them the way I saw them last. You know-little. Just babies.”

Sam drew a long breath, gathering courage. “Well, darlin’, it sure does look like there’s about to be a baby boom in your family. You don’t look out, your family’s apt to be as big as mine.”

Her husband laughed without sound. “I don’t think there’s much danger of that-the Starrs have a pretty good headstart.”

Another breath she didn’t really need. “And…they’re about to get bigger, too. By at least one.”

He threw her an interested smile, eyebrows raised. “Really? Who’s pregnant this time?”

“Oh, for Lord’s sake, Pearse!” She glared at him in exasperation. And watched his face go blank, then pale with shock.

“Samantha?”

“Yes?”

“Sam-when did you? When were you…? And you’re telling me this now?”

“It seemed like a good time.”

“Does this mean-are you quitting the CIA? Are you going to quit flying? What-”

“Well, now, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” she said serenely.

“Sam, when-”

She squeezed his arm and nodded toward the gazebo. “Hush up, Pearse. It’s beginning.”