Epilogue

...and a sneak peak at the Rainbow's End Series!

Two months later . . .

From the pages of the Rainbow’s End Register:

Reporting by Piper Mathews . . .

Susan Carroll Sheridan and Keith Torrance Callahan were married yesterday evening in a candlelight ceremony at Holy Family Parish. The date had special significance for the couple, because it was the tenth birthday of Susan’s son, Scott.

The bride looked radiant in a cream satin dress and floral headpiece. She carried a bouquet of red roses cleverly intertwined with ivy and mistletoe. The groom looked handsome in a black tuxedo with red cummerbund and red bow tie. The church was decorated with white poinsettias, and white lights shone on all the garlands and Christmas trees.

The wedding party consisted of Jan Callahan, the bride’s new sister-in-law, wearing dark green velvet, who served as matron of honor and Rory Callahan, brother of the groom, who filled the job of best man. Briana Callahan, niece of the groom, who wore a charming dress of red velvet and a matching headband, and Scott Sheridan, the bride’s son, wearing a tux that matched his new stepfather’s, were junior attendants.

In a touching and unusual moment, Laverne Sheridan, widow of prominent Rainbow’s End attorney Reginald Sheridan, and grandmother to Scott, gave away the bride.

Zoe Madison, the bride’s best friend, wearing a DKNY chocolate brown cashmere suit, coordinated all the wedding and reception details.

The reception at the Rainbow’s End Inn immediately followed the ceremony. The newlyweds, after a honeymoon in Italy, will live in Rainbow’s End.

* * *

“Happy?”

Susan snuggled closer to her new husband. She sighed. “So happy it scares me.”

They were spending their wedding night in Austin, the city where they’d first met. Tomorrow morning they would begin their long trip to Italy, flying first to Houston, then to Paris, then to Venice, where they had reservations at a luxury hotel on the Grand Canal. But right now they were in the back seat of the limousine Keith had hired, on their way to Austin.

“Not worried about Scott, are you?”

“Not any more. He’s so thrilled to be staying with Patrick Jr. and Jan while we’re gone. He’ll have a wonderful Christmas with them and Laverne. It was so nice of your mom to invite Laverne to spend Christmas day with them.” She chuckled. “Briana’s thrilled he’s there, too.” 

“Yeah,” Keith agreed, laughing. “I think it’s love. And speaking of love...” He tipped her face up and covered her mouth with his.

Heedless of the driver, Susan lost herself in the kiss. They were both breathing hard when they finally came up for air.

“I want you so much,” he whispered into her ear.

“Me, too,” she whispered back.

“When I get you in that hotel...” He brushed his hand over her breast, and her body responded immediately.

He smiled, moving his thumb back and forth across the fabric until she thought she would die of pleasure and need.

It had been a mutual decision to wait until they were married before having sex. They didn’t want to sneak around and hide from Scott. Both agreed they needed to set a good example for their son. But it had been harder than she’d imagined it would be to wait. Finally, though, the wait was nearly over.

A half hour later, they pulled up outside their hotel. It seemed to take forever for the bellman to load their luggage on the cart, for Keith to get them registered and get their room key, for their luggage to be transferred to their room, for Keith to tip the bellman, and for him to finally leave them alone.

As soon as the door shut behind him, Keith reached for her. But Susan gently resisted. “Let’s change our clothes first, okay?” She was afraid that if they started kissing now she wouldn’t ever get to put on the beautiful powder blue satin gown trimmed in lace that Zoe had given her.

“You’re a hard woman,” Keith grumbled.

“Just be ready when I come out.” She blew him a kiss and, grabbing her overnight bag, headed for the bathroom.

It only took her ten minutes to change from her wedding finery to the gown and another five minutes to brush her teeth and hair and freshen her makeup and perfume.

She looked at herself in the mirror before going out to join Keith. She would do, she thought, smoothing the gown over her body. Taking a deep breath, she turned and opened the door.

Keith, clad only in low-riding black silk pajama bottoms, sat on the side of the turned-down bed. He had turned off all the lamps except the one at the bedside and opened the drapes. The lights of the city twinkled in the distance. He looked up as she walked out, and she could see by the widening of his eyes and the quickening of his breath that he approved. Suddenly shy, she dropped her gaze.

He got up and walked toward her.

“Susan.” His voice sounded rough.

She looked up. Swallowed.

“You’re not afraid, are you?” he murmured.

“I could never be afraid of you.”

His eyes darkened. He put his hands on her shoulders, running them slowly down her arms, then back up again.

Susan shivered.

Leaning forward, he kissed her softly. Then, in one smooth motion, he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. For a long moment, he looked down at her. Her heart thumped crazily.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered. Then, smiling, he pulled at the drawstring waist of his pajamas. A second after that, he’d turned off the bedside lamp and gotten into bed beside her. Moonlight spilled into the room, gilding his body.

Susan touched his chest. “You’re beautiful, too.” And then she was in his arms, and he was kissing her and touching her as she’d dreamed of being kissed and touched. She met his passion with an equal fire, and soon they could wait no longer. She cried out when they were finally united, and her heart filled with a joy so blinding, she was certain she must surely die of it.

Later, wrapped in his arms spoon-fashion, she knew that no matter how long she lived or how many times they made love, she would never forget this night.

Like Keith, she had finally come home.

The End . . . For Now

But if you want to know what the future holds for Susan and Keith and all the people you met in WHERE THE HEART IS 

Then you’ll definitely want to read Book #2 of the Rainbow’s End Series, IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY, starring Zoe and Emma, coming January 1st!

The scoop about all the upcoming books in the Rainbow’s End series .

And I’ll let you in on a little secret . . . I’m working on new ideas for additional stories set in Rainbow’s End, so check in often. :)

Now here’s a sneak peek of  the Prologue for IT RUNS IN THE FAMILY. Enjoy!

 

Chicago, February, 1983 . . .

Pregnant.

Zoe Madison stared at the pregnancy test stick. It was definitely blue. No doubt about it. She was pregnant.

How could this have happened?

She had been so careful. Not trusting Luke to take care of prevention, she had seen a doctor and gotten a prescription for birth control pills as soon as she realized theirs was going to be an ongoing relationship.

Obviously, the pills hadn’t worked!

What am I going to do?

Zoe thought about Mandy Rogers, the drummer’s girlfriend, who had been traveling with the band since before Zoe had been hired on as their singer. Mandy had gotten pregnant a couple of months ago, and Jimmy—the drummer—had insisted she have an abortion. He’d said he was too young to be a father. Besides, what would they do with a baby on the road? Mandy had cried on Zoe’s shoulder, and Zoe had felt so sorry for her.

Zoe would never forget how Luke had dismissed the problem when she’d told him about it. He’d shrugged, saying, “Hey, that’s the breaks. She was stupid to let herself get pregnant.”

Zoe had felt like saying it took two, that Jimmy had to assume some responsibility for the pregnancy, but she knew it wouldn’t have done any good. She would just tick Luke off, and nothing would change.

So she’d kept quiet.

Mandy had her abortion. But ever since, in unguarded moments, her blue eyes looked sad and haunted, and Zoe knew she was thinking about her baby, the one who would never be.

And now I’m in the same boat.

As much as Zoe wished she could forget her rural Pennsylvania roots, as much as she wanted nothing to do with her father’s rigid views of right and wrong, there was a part of her that knew she could not do what Mandy did. The question now was, should she take a chance and tell Luke? Or should she figure out how she was going to manage on her own without involving him?

Luke.

Just saying his name used to fill her with such excitement and longing. She’d been crazy about him from the first moment she saw him with his long, shining black hair and dreamy gray eyes, his sexy smile, his cocky stance.

They’d been together now for six months. Six incredible months filled with music and sex and an intoxicating freedom Zoe had reveled in, because it was so opposite from the world where she’d grown up.

But even in this altered state of bliss, Zoe hadn’t been blind to Luke’s shortcomings. She was a smart girl. She’d skipped a grade and graduated at the top of her class at the age of seventeen. But Zoe was more than book smart, she instinctively understood people. She sensed things about them. She always had. So she’d realized from the beginning that Luke was completely and totally self-centered and focused on his music. This fact hadn’t bothered Zoe much since he was the center of her world, too, and she wanted the same things for him he wanted for himself.

But now...now things were different. Now she was pregnant. Now she had someone besides herself to think about.

And...if she were being totally honest, she’d admit that lately Luke had sometimes acted impatient. As if he might be getting tired of her. Zoe hadn’t wanted to think about it, had pretended she was imagining things, but down deep she knew she wasn’t. Bottom line: Luke didn’t like to be tied down. He wasn’t with her for the long haul but for the pleasure of the moment.

She had to face facts. What they had wouldn’t last much longer, anyway. One of these days, she would bore him. And then he would move on.

If I have this baby, I’ll have to do it on my own.

But could she?

Sure, she’d left home at seventeen, gone to New York with only seven hundred dollars in graduation money to her name, and managed to find a job and a place to live before running out of money. And that job—as a clerk in a music store in the Village where lots of wannabe musicians of all stripes hung out—had led to her audition as a singer with Freight Train, and now, just nineteen—she wouldn’t be twenty until July—she was an established member of an up-and-coming band that was beginning to make some really decent money.

Every member of the band was convinced they’d one day make it big. “We’re gonna be even bigger than The Eagles,” Luke would say. Glenn Frey was his hero. Luke was convinced people would one day say his name with the same reverence.

But if she had this baby, she’d have to leave the band. She’d have to strike out on her own again, because even if she could swallow her pride and stay, Luke wouldn’t want her there—a constant reminder of something he’d prefer to pretend had never happened.

Zoe tried to push down the panic that threatened to take hold. She had to think clearly.

Where could she go? Back to New York?

Zoe swallowed.

She had exactly thirty-three cents over one thousand dollars in her savings account. She should have put aside more, but she hadn’t thought she’d need it, so she’d been indulging herself recently, buying tons of clothes and some really great shoes.

Would she be as lucky this time as she’d been when she first left home? Would she find a job right away? Would her money last until she did?

And even if it did, how long would she be able to work? And what would she do when she no longer could?

If only she could go home.

But she knew that wasn’t possible. Her mother might have defied her father and welcomed her, but she’d died of cancer in Zoe’s junior year of high school, and her father would put so many conditions on her coming home that Zoe wouldn’t be able to stand it. Leo Madison believed a girl should know her place. And that place was on the farm, working from sunup until sundown. He had never wanted her to go to school in town, thought her mother should home school her. "No good will come of it," he’d grumbled. "You’ll see." But Zoe’s mother had fought for her, and Zoe had loved every minute of freedom from the backbreaking life of the farm.

If Nancy Madison, Zoe’s mother, hadn’t died, maybe things would have been different. Maybe Zoe would have stuck it out, but she doubted it. Picturing herself married to one of the boys who lived there and planned to stay there was impossible. From the time she’d read her first book, she’d wanted to get out, see the world, do things, meet people, live freely.

No. She couldn’t go home. She was alone. Completely alone.

Fear sidled into her heart.

I don’t have to make a decision right now. I have some time. I can think about this.

But maybe she wasn’t completely alone. She thought about her mother’s Aunt Ernestine, who had lived in Texas all of her adult life. Zoe had kept in touch with her great-aunt, because she admired the woman’s independence and spunk. As recently as Christmas, she’d heard from the fiery redhead who had escaped the small town where she and Zoe’s mother had grown up. Great-aunt Ernestine would be close to seventy now, Zoe thought. She’d never married, and after a long and successful career in something to do with retail sales, she’d retired to a small town called Dripping Springs. Zoe knew it was near Austin or San Antonio. Would Great-aunt Ernestine help her? Maybe Zoe should call her.

What if she says no? What are you going to do then?

Zoe tried to still the trembling that threatened to overwhelm her as she desperately considered her meager options. She stuffed the pregnancy stick and the kit it had come in deep into the wastebasket and covered it with wadded up toilet tissue. Then she took several deep breaths and opened the door.

“I thought maybe you fell in.”

Zoe blinked.

Luke stood there grinning at her.

Pushing the knowledge of her pregnancy to the back of her mind, she managed a smile she hoped wouldn’t give away her inner turmoil. “Sorry.”

“No problem, babe. Just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Leaning over, he kissed her.

Sometimes Luke could be so sweet, so thoughtful. Maybe she could tell him. Maybe she was doing him an injustice. Maybe he really did love her. Maybe he would feel different about a baby of his own.

But even as the thought formed, Mandy walked past, and Luke frowned. Once she was out of earshot, he said, “I’m gettin’ a little sick of her hangdog look. I don’t know why Jimmy doesn’t just dump her.”

And just as quickly as the possibility of telling Luke about the pregnancy had entered her head, it left. He wouldn’t be happy about her news. That had been wishful thinking on her part.

And really, could she blame him?

He was only twenty, and the band was just beginning to do well. The next few years would be critical for them. They would be on the road nonstop, building their fan base. They’d work hard and party even harder. Even if what she and Luke had did survive, that was no life for a child. No life for a family.

For the rest of the day and evening, she thought about her dilemma. She was still thinking about it that night, after the show, when Luke and the rest of the band and their hangers-on were heading out to get something to eat.

Zoe begged off, pleading a headache.

Luke dropped a casual kiss on her cheek. “Don’t wait up,” he said. “We’ll probably go to Charlie’s later.” Charlie’s was an after-hours club where musicians congregated for jam sessions that sometimes lasted till dawn.

Once Luke was gone, Zoe got up. Quickly—she didn’t trust herself to think too hard about what she was doing, because she might get cold feet—she packed up her belongings. When everything she owned didn’t fit into her two suitcases, she appropriated one of Luke’s duffel bags. An hour later, she was done.

She looked around their hotel room. For the past three weeks, this had been her home. She considered leaving a note for Luke, then decided not to. There was nothing to say. A clean break was best. He’d probably have a new girl before the next gig.

Picking up the phone, she called the front desk. Ten minutes later, the lone bellman—this wasn’t a fancy hotel—knocked on the door. After loading her things onto the luggage carrier, they rode the elevator down to the lobby in silence.

“I’ll get you a cab,” the bellman said. “You stay here. It’s cold out there.”

Zoe smiled gratefully. Chicago in January was more than cold. It was frigid. The wind cut through you like a knife.

Minutes later, the bellman signaled to her, and Zoe pushed through the revolving doors to join him. She was standing there, shivering as the wind off the lake buffeted her, while the cab driver and bellman loaded her bags into the trunk. Just as they finished, someone touched her shoulder.

“Zoe?”

She whirled around. For a moment, she didn’t recognize the tall, good-looking man with the slightly crooked nose who stood there gazing down at her.

Then she blinked.

Omigod.

It was Sam Welch, Luke’s older half-brother.

“Are you leaving?” he asked.

“Um, I—” At a loss, Zoe couldn’t think what to say. Her heart was beating wildly, as if she’d done something wrong.

“Are you okay? Did something happen?” He frowned.

His voice sounded concerned, but that was probably just her ears playing tricks on her. Because she was well aware that Sam didn’t like her. He’d made that obvious the few times she’d been in his company.

“I-I have to go,” she said, fighting panic. “A-a family emergency.”

“But—”

“I have to go.” Turning away, she handed the bellman three dollars. He opened the back door of the cab, and she climbed in.

“Zoe, wait!” Sam called.

But the bellman had already closed her door.

Sam knocked on her window.

Zoe shook her head. “Take me to the bus station,” she told the cab driver.

As the cab pulled away from the curb, the last thing Zoe saw was Sam Welch’s worried face.

* * *

Don’t worry. Zoe will be back January 1st!

And remember, you can stay up-to-date on everything concerning Rainbow’s End and the people who live there by