Epilogue
Hallelujah
Christmas, Three years later…
The smoke detector’s piercing beeps set the Savage family into motion. Like a well-oiled machine, Hawk, HL, and Heather dropped the strand of Christmas lights in the grass and went inside, straight to the kitchen. Their noses wrinkled at the smell of smoke and burned sugar.
No one panicked because this had become part of the routine over the last four months. Each person manned a station. Heather grabbed the hand-held fan to wave under the smoke alarm, while Hawk and HL moved over to the kitchen windows, sliding them up for the smoke to escape.
“Whelp, that’s it for me.” Nora stood at the oven, waving away the smoke that puffed out when she opened it. She pulled out the tray of burnt sugar cookies and set them on the granite counter with a look of disgust. “Three strikes and I’m out.”
“They probably taste okay with icing,” HL said, watching the smoke rise off the dark brown cookies. “Icing makes lots of stuff taste better.”
“HL, I love you, but you’ll eat anything.”
“Nora, babe, you don’t have to bake cookies. In fact, I can guarantee you Georgie will be insulted if you do.” Hawk knew this wasn’t about the cookies though. It wasn’t even about baking. Nora could care less about being the next Martha Stewart in the kitchen.
“I know. But I don’t want anyone calling me a quitter.” She looked up and around at everyone faces. “Three tries seems fair.”
HL snickered and glanced at Hawk who only nodded, wisely keeping his lips in a straight line even if he did want to grin.
Heather smiled and said, “No one would call you a quitter, Mom.”
Nora blinked a few times, then she smiled like she did every time one of the kids called her Mom: like they’d just handed her a puppy. “Well, you guys gave me a hard time about the whole volleyball thing.”
Hawk maintained the serious expression on his face, but he couldn’t keep the laughter from his eyes, especially when he heard HL snort. Hawk quickly dropped his head and stared at his boots until he was under control again.
When he looked back up, Nora stood scowling down at the tray of Christmas-tree shaped charcoal briquettes.
“I mean, I wanted to be one of those baking moms. I’ve tried three years in a row.”
She had. They’d had to upgrade the smoke detectors to accommodate Nora’s baking experiments. Just thinking of all the ways Nora had added to their lives finally broke him, and he let the smile already warming his chest slide onto his lips.
“So we’re all clear, right?” Nora rolled her shoulders back and lifted her chin. “Nora Joy-Savage is not a quitter.”
HL and Heather giggled.
“Agreed.” Hawk walked around the island until he stood in front of Nora. He reached out, grabbing the counter behind her so she was caught within the circle of his arms. “But I think the gold medal in the family room proves Nora Joy-Savage is no quitter.”
“But that’s volleyball.” Nora sighed, tilting her head and gazing into his eyes. “I really want to win at being a mom.”
“Well, Jordy says you’re a babe,” HL said, trying to comfort her. “Do you think she’s a babe, Dad?”
Did he think she was a babe? Mile-long legs. Lean, strong body. Perfect ass that still made him stop in his tracks. But she was much more than that. Smart. Funny. Devoted. She had a generous soul. Her heart was one part joy, one part passion, and one part marshmallow. Nora had become the sun in their universe.
Hawk leaned forward, running kisses along Nora’s jaw until he took a soft nip of her earlobe and whispered, “Total babe. You still stop my heart.”
Throwing her arms around his neck, Nora relaxed into him and whispered, “Back at you. I love you, Jackson Hawk Savage.”
“Here they go again,” HL announced behind them, but his voice sounded pretty okay with it.
“Close your eyes, HL. Just one kiss. I promise,” Hawk said.
“I don’t mind. Jordy says he hates when his parents get all gooey. But kissing makes you two happy and then Nora says yes to almost everything I ask.”
Nora dropped her forehead onto his chest and whispered, “He’s on to us. That’s how we ended up with the tire swing, the pair of stilts, and the stray cat. And her surprise litter of kittens.”
Marshmallow through and through. Partly because that’s just who Nora was. Partly to make up for the crappy parenting she’d had. And partly, too, for Holly.
One day, about two months after Nora had agreed to stay in Climax, Hawk had gone outside to find Nora in the yard. She was sitting next to the garden she and the kids had planted in honor of Holly and she was talking to her.
Hey, Holly. I just want to say you have amazing kids. You and Hawk. Heather and HL will always be your kids. Always. But I’m going to be the best mom I can be to them. You can count on that. I hope you can hear me because I’ll be asking you for lots of advice. And tell you all their stories. You won’t believe what HL said last week…
Yeah, that had melted Hawk’s heart on the spot. He’d backed away quietly and done the only thing a man could do—cut onions until he’d pulled it together. Then he’d called his sister to take the kids that night and made wild love to Nora until they were exhausted.
And then he’d asked her to marry him. She’d said yes. (Technically, she’d burst into tears first, then said yes, and then they’d made love again.) Six months after Nora Joy rang their doorbell, Hawk and Nora were married on a beach in the Outer Banks surrounded by family and close friends.
Somewhere in there Nora had sat them all down and asked if they were okay if she tried to wrap up her beach volleyball career with an attempt at one last Olympics. She explained it would mean she’d be away a lot for the next two years. And when she was home she’d still be doing serious training. It would affect them all. So, they might not want to sign up for that craziness. She was wrong; they were all up for it.
She was right too; it had been a challenging two years of not seeing Nora enough, and her missing them when she called from the training center or some faraway tournament. She’d gone into beast mode and made an amazing recovery after the arthroscopic surgery to remove the scar tissue. And, as it turned out, finding a new partner had been easy. Because Nora wasn’t the first player in the small world of beach volleyball who Beth had hurt. Never underestimate the wrath of a woman. And two women? Let’s just say when Nora and her new partner beat Beth for a spot on the National team—well, the Savages celebrated.
Watching Nora and her partner win the gold medal had been incredible for the whole family. To be in the crowd as people cheered their heads off was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It had been a wild ride, but Nora had retired immediately after the Olympics and come back to Climax and them for good.
Thus, Nora’s push to conquer her failure at cooking. Now that she was a full-time mom, she didn’t want to fail Heather and HL. Full-time mom and student. Nora’s mom had come to visit them once after the Olympics to talk Nora out of retiring. When her mom had thrown Nora’s worthless degree in Nora’s face again, Nora decided she was going to fix that and go back to school for a degree in occupational therapy.
“Mom, it’s okay if you burn stuff. You’re fun and funny. You read us stories and help us with homework when Dad’s working,” HL said. “Heather likes all the girly stuff you do with her, right, Heather?”
Hawk looked over at his daughter, his heart full at the smile on her face.
“No offense, Daddy, but there are some things we girls need to handle on our own.”
Nora lifted her head from his chest and winked over at Heather.
“Happy to step out of the way.” Neither of his girls were that girly, but, hell yes, Nora’s appearance in their lives had been a godsend. For all of them. For years he’d done his little girl’s hair, shopped in the pink section of stores, and comforted her when she cried. No problem. But puberty was like traveling to a foreign country and he was happy to have a tour guide along for the trip.
HL shrugged and moved on to his next point. “You go to all our games now that you’re here all the time. Jordy’s mom said the high school is hoping you’ll help coach volleyball by the time Heather gets there.”
Nora’s face looked doubtful, but Hawk was pretty sure it would happen. She loved kids and would make a great coach one day. Hawk also knew she wanted to wait until people thought of her as Nora Savage, Heather and HL’s mom and not Nora Joy, Olympic medal winner. Nope, not a bit of puffed up ego for his Nora.
His Nora. Damn, he loved the sound of that.
“Okay, you’ve convinced me.” Nora nodded, then leaned forward and kissed him. “I’m calling Georgie to order our cookies. Then I’ll be out to help with the Christmas lights. Wait until you see the new inflatable I bought.”
“Yes!” HL gave Nora a high five while Hawk and Heather laughed.
They never competed in the Light Up Climax competition or the Reindeer Games again, but they still went all out. Oh, yes, the Savage family did Christmas up big.
“Oh! I forgot to tell you guys…,” HL said. “I wrote a letter to Santa this year.”
Well, this was news. Henry Lee hadn’t written a letter to Santa since Nora arrived in their lives. Hawk figured it was because Jordy had convinced him Santa wasn’t real. Nora’s eyes met his and he got a bit sidetracked by the sexy heat in them.
Hawk knew magical things could happen at Christmas. What had happened three Christmases ago had defied logic and had required a leap of faith, but what else does a man do when all his dreams come true? All he could think was he sure hoped HL had asked Santa for something easy like the newest video game or a trip to the beach, because—
“I asked Santa for a baby brother. And a baby sister.”
“You did?” Heather’s face lit up. “So did I!”
“Twins? They both asked for twins?” Nora’s eyes went huge. “Our children really are savages.”
Hawk was beginning to think this might be the best Christmas of all.