Epilogue

Three months later…

“What was your favorite part of the day?”

“When everyone left.”

Sawyer laughed and pulled Regan close. “No, seriously. I watched you fluttering around all over the place today and always with a smile on your face, but I want to know what your best part of the day was.”

Regan snuggled in. The day had been long and it was late. Although she always loved their late-night chats, she was completely exhausted. “Well…if I had to choose, I would have to say that it was the location.”

“We could have had the same thing,” he reminded her, but Regan shook her head.

“I didn’t want the same thing. No, it was wonderful to see the look on Mom’s face as she saw the way the yard she’s always loved was transformed for her wedding. She’s never had much of a green thumb either, and with everything looking the way that it did—her smile was priceless.”

“I’m glad she was happy.”

“Did you see her face as she walked toward your dad? I hope the photographer was able to capture that because it was the stuff of fairy tales.”

“You told me to hang those twinkly lights,” he said with a little disgust at himself for even using the word. “There had to be a million of those things around the yard so that it would look like a fairyland.”

“Magical. I said it would look magical,” she reminded him. “And it did.” Regan placed a gentle kiss on his chest as she rested her hand over his heart. “Thank you for making it all look so amazing. You have a real gift for that sort of thing. Have you ever considered doing it professionally?”

Sawyer chuckled and tickled her ribs until she was squirming and laughing. He rolled her beneath him. “Very funny.” His expression turned serious. “It was their wedding, and I wanted everything to be perfect. They’ve both waited a long time to get married again, so I wanted to make sure that everything went beyond their expectations. But I do have to admit, I outdid myself.”

Regan slapped his arm and he rolled off her but immediately pulled her back to his side. “The yard did look amazing. It’s a good thing we put off doing the pool until next year. We would have had to eliminate about fifty people.”

“Nah, we just would have had to get creative with the seating. Not that it matters—it’s not like we’re going to host another wedding back there.”

“No,” she said absently. “It’s not.”

“Are you sad that we didn’t have our wedding back there?”

Regan shook her head. “No, our wedding was perfect. The beach at sunset? I still think you must have made a pact with God to make it so colorful that night.” Just thinking back to their wedding two months earlier had Regan feeling all dreamy. They hadn’t wanted to wait and neither wanted anything big. Sawyer had decided to take her to the coast. They’d discussed it over coffee a few days before that, told Max and Caroline of their plans, and decided to go for it.

“You looked like an angel walking toward me barefoot in that white dress, which was one of the sexiest things I’d ever seen. That knot in the front had my hands twitching to undo it the entire time we were saying our vows.”

That made her smile. “Good. You were pretty sexy yourself standing there with the sun setting behind your back.” She sighed.

“So you’re not disappointed that we did something small?”

“Sawyer, we’ve been over this a million times. I didn’t want anything big, plus we had a big party here a few weeks later so that we could celebrate with all our family and friends. It was perfect.”

“We do throw a good party.”

“That we do,” she said and snuggled down a little more into the blankets. Sawyer’s arm tightened around her. “That we do.” Sleep was calling and she softly kissed his chest one last time.

“I wonder what we’ll celebrate back there next,” he said, unaware that Regan was just about out cold.

“A christening,” she said quietly before yawning.

Sawyer jerked up, effectively knocking his wife from his arms. “What?”

Regan pulled herself up to get her head onto her pillow before facing him. “A christening. You know what they are, right?”

He nodded, but his expression was pure confusion. “Whose christening?”

“Oh, that,” she said around another yawn. “I wanted to wait until after the wedding—you know, didn’t want to take the focus off of Mom and Max.” She rolled onto her side to get more comfortable and was finally about to drift off when Sawyer shook her awake.

“Regan? Stay with me here,” he said a little frantically. “What are you saying?”

With a huff of irritation, she rolled onto her back and looked at him. “We’re having a baby.” Another yawn. “Good night.”

When she made to roll over again, Sawyer’s hand on her arm stopped her. “What? When?” he stammered. “How?”

Regan opened her eyes and looked at him with disbelief. “We are not having the birds and the bees talk now, Sawyer. It’s late and I’m very tired. It’s a lot of work hosting a wedding in your home while growing a tiny human being inside you.”

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Because you would have gotten all goofy and not let me do anything and then everyone would have known that I was pregnant. Besides, I’m kind of enjoying your reaction right now. I don’t think I would have gotten this at some other point in time.” She giggled at his indignation. “This really wasn’t how I planned on telling you. I was hoping that after the wedding when everything was cleared away and we were back to normal around here, I’d surprise you with the news over dinner or something.”

“Oh, you surprised me all right,” he said, his expression turning to one of wonder as he placed his large hand over her flat tummy. “There’s a baby in there.”

Regan nodded. “Sure is.”

“When? When are we due?”

“I haven’t seen a doctor yet, but—”

“Then are you sure? How can you be sure if you haven’t been to the doctor?”

“I took eight pregnancy tests, Sawyer. Honestly, I don’t know how you missed the fact that I was taking out the bathroom trash on a daily basis.”

He shrugged. “I figured you were a bit of a neat freak.” He looked up at his wife’s face and saw his whole future there. Them, children, and a lifetime of love. “I can’t believe how lucky I am. That I have you. I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you.”

“I feel the same way,” she said softly.

Leaving one hand on her belly, the other cupped her face. “I know that you hated me when we met, but I’m so glad you changed your mind.”

“It wasn’t you that I hated, Sawyer, it was the situation. And now, looking back, I am so thankful for it. If Max had never approached my mom that day, none of us would be here right now experiencing all this happiness.”

“So the show was good for something,” he teased, laughing when Regan rolled her eyes.

“Yes, for something. I’m still annoyed that they snuck in some private footage of us, but it all worked out for the best.”

Nodding, Sawyer shifted and reclined next to her. “I heard from the head of the network the other day, and he offered me another show.”

Regan turned and looked at him. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because it meant nothing. They can keep waving the salary increase and the merchandising shares, but they don’t seem to understand that it’s not about the money. It was never about the money for me. I do what I do because I love it. I love the craft. Plus, I don’t want to have to travel and be away from home for such long periods of time again. And if I had known then what I know now, I could have driven that point home even more.”

“What did he say?”

“What could he say? I told him that I’m enjoying being back to regular carpentry work and small renovation projects that let me work more closely with the homeowners. He wished me well but said that he’s still hoping to find a project to bring me back.”

Regan smiled with pride. “That’s because you’re amazing and they probably lost a large part of their viewing audience when you left.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I do. That one episode where you were shirtless for most of it kept me going while we were apart.” Regan had shared with him all about her marathon of episode-watching.

Laughing, he pulled her in close and turned out the bedside lamp. “Well, lucky for you that you don’t need to watch it on TV, you’ve got the live show right here.”

Regan giggled at his cocky tone, but was willing to agree. “I am indeed a very lucky woman.”

Sawyer kissed the top of her head and sighed. “I’m the lucky one. You changed my whole world and showed me all that I was missing. And now? I have even more to look forward to and it’s all because of you. I love you.”

“Love you, too,” she said sleepily, and this time, she really did get to go to sleep.