Epilogue
“Smile for the camera,” Ben said, lifting his phone and moving his head beside hers.
She eyed him. “Since when do you take selfies?”
He raised his beer so that it fit into the shot. “Oh, since Finn texted saying they got an early snowstorm, and you and I are lying on a beach. Remember my plan to torture Finn?”
She laughed and he snapped a photo and then lay back on the beach towel, pulling her into him. “I actually don’t think you should torture him anymore.”
“What? Why? There is no other way for us. I wouldn’t know what to do.”
She smoothed her hand over her husband’s taut, tanned stomach. “Technically, if it weren’t for him, we might not be back together.”
He stilled, his beer halfway to his mouth. “Omigod.”
She laughed. “I know.”
He put the beer down and turned to look at her. She pulled his sunglasses off his face and kissed him, never missing an opportunity. True to form, he kissed her back with the same passion as their first kiss. He rolled over and covered her body with his and then pulled back, bracing himself on his forearms. “We can deal with the Finn problem in two days when we go back and not a day earlier. Maybe I’ll tell him he doesn’t have to build me that deck. I did get the promotion to fire chief in six months…it might not be cool. Nah. No need to go crazy just because we’re happy.”
She laughed again. Happy. Happier than she’d ever been in her life. She hadn’t thought this was in the cards for her ever again. She had never known a happiness like this before. True to his word, he’d accompanied her to therapy. She’d found a wonderful therapist and knew that her journey might be lifelong, or it might end earlier, but she knew that it was something that she could live with now. Ben made her feel as though they could overcome anything.
Their wedding ceremony had been just the two of them on a small island in the Caribbean. She had explained to her family that they didn’t want a big traditional wedding, that they just wanted something quiet and together. Everyone said they understood, and they promised to celebrate when they returned. “Have you ever not worked this long in your adult life?” Molly asked Ben.
“Never. Almost two weeks of no working. I didn’t think I’d know what to do with myself. I now realize, I was completely mistaken,” he said, kissing her again.
“I know. A part of me never wants to go back, and the other part can’t wait to start our life officially as Molly and Ben Matthews.”
He smiled at her. “Me, too. Maybe the renovation plans will be finished when we get back, and we can get started on the addition in the spring.”
She nodded, a thrill of anticipation running through her. They had decided they wanted to add on a joint home office space along with two more bedrooms and another bathroom. When their contractor, Jack Bailey, had suggested the extra rooms, they had both agreed. Ben hadn’t said anything to her about how they were going to use those rooms, and she hadn’t felt pressure, only the rush of hopeful anticipation. Those two extra rooms were sort of like an unspoken promise of fulfilling dreams they’d shared a long time ago. “I can’t wait to see them,” she said.
His eyes were solemn as he reached out to cup the side of her face. She turned her head to kiss the palm of his hand. “Me, too. Are you sure you’re okay with postponing Doctors Without Borders? I don’t want you to give anything up,” he said.
She nodded. “I know you don’t. I don’t see it as giving something up. I have time for that. I’ve put my work first for so many years. It’s time I put myself first and that means being with you. Spending as much time as I can with you,” she said, leaning forward and kissing him again. She couldn’t wait to start a new routine when they got home. They both had a lot on their plates, and they had decided to head up the fundraising campaign for the Shadow Creek Women’s Shelter that needed rebuilding.
When his phone rang, he laughed. “I’m pretty sure that’s Finn’s nasty reply.” But his brow furrowed when his mother’s picture came up on his screen.
“Mom?”
He paused, his face turned white, and he sat up. Molly held on to his thigh, trying to hear what his mother was saying. Ben swore under his breath and then squeezed his eyes shut. “Is he going to make it? Is he going to live?”
Molly gasped, covering her mouth as tears filled her eyes.
“Thank God. Okay. That’s all we need. We just need him alive; we can deal with anything else.” He hung up the phone, promising to be on the next flight out.
“Oh God, what happened?
Ben looked over at her. “A floor collapsed during a rescue. He saved a kid…but…they don’t know what shape he’s going to be in when he wakes up from surgery.”
Molly wrapped her arms around him, capturing the tremor that ran through his strong body. She pulled away, framing his beloved face with her hands. “He’s going to be fine. He’s strong. He’s stubborn. Come on. Let’s go back and find a flight out of here. I’ll call Drew Barrett on our way and see what I can find out.”
“Molly?”
She nodded, staring into his eyes, trying to keep her emotions in check as she saw the torture in his. “He…if he can’t work again, it’ll kill him.”
She kissed him. “I know.”
They stood and ran hand in hand, across the beach toward their private house in the distance. She held on to him and prayed for Finn. She held on to him and knew this was living. Being in the thick of it. Being there for triumphs and tragedies. For holding on when it felt like the entire world was slipping away.
This was what she’d signed up for, what Ben had always known, that being with family, being with loved ones, was so much more life-giving than being alone. When the bad happened, you rallied and became the good.
She held on to Ben’s hand, letting him lead her, finally trusting someone enough to hold on, without knowing where they would end up.
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