EPILOGUE
Six Months Later
Mara sighed as she watched her husband hammering nails into a board in the new interior of what used to be her old home, ogling him openly as she watched the powerful muscles in his arms and back flex. He was sweating even though it was winter, shirtless because of the manual labor he was doing at the moment.
Unaware of her presence, he kept working, and Mara kept watching, still wanting to pinch herself to make her believe that the life she was living now was actually real and not a very lovely dream.
A whimsical smile passed over her face when the glitter of the enormous diamond wedding ring on her hand winked at her as she lifted her hand to pull the warm knit cap from her head. She’d just come from her new site, situated right outside of town, an enormous warehouse and shop that produced and sold the products for Mara’s Kitchen. The small business she and Jared had started had grown into a monster in a very short amount of time, and her products were now in demand all across the country, her consumer list growing larger every day.
She had more employees than she could count, and a huge storefront that was managed by a lovely woman who she worked with on a daily basis. Jared was already searching out more sites for the business because it was growing so fast, and the demand was already getting too high for just one large site. The products were currently being produced in a special kitchen with commercial equipment in the enormous warehouse that was separate from the shop. Even though she had plenty of employees, Mara still supervised the production kitchen and the shop every day, never wanting her product to lose its original taste or appeal because it was being produced in mass with commercial equipment.
The presence of a large, new business had brought incredible economic growth to Amesport, employing many people who needed jobs. For Mara, that was one of her greatest accomplishments.
As she eyed her husband hungrily, she knew Jared was her greatest asset and always would be, no matter how large her business grew in the future. She could live without the business; she couldn’t live without him.
Just like he’d promised, he did seem to love her more and more every single day. So much so that they’d both had a hard time parting in the morning since he’d started work on rebuilding the house, doing some of the manual labor himself.
Jared had needed to make a few short business trips for his commercial real estate business since they’d gotten married, and separation for even a few days had been excruciatingly painful for both of them. Maybe it was the newness of their love, or maybe it was just because they were addicted to each other and couldn’t bear to be apart. Now that she had so much competent staff, if he needed to go away, she tried to arrange to travel with him.
I love you even more today. I miss you.
That text appeared on her cell phone every day without fail while she was working at Mara’s Kitchen, and her heart never ceased to skitter every time she saw it, and she quickly texted back.
I love you. I miss you, too.
Today, his text had been different, throwing her off balance.
I love you even more today. I need you.
He’d never texted that he needed her, and the slight difference had put her senses on high alert. She handed everything over to her manager and left Mara’s Kitchen early, suddenly needing to see Jared, to assure herself that everything was okay.
Now that she was here, she could see that her husband looked fine in more ways than one, and she wondered if she’d just panicked for nothing.
She removed her jacket and gloves, dropping them onto a newly built countertop by a beautiful, large window. Jared had done a complete teardown on the old, burned-down structure and had started over again. He was building a replica of the old house, trying to duplicate everything to resemble the same model and period of the previous residence. The majority of the house was up, and there was heating and wiring installed, but many of the details on the inside still needed to be completed. Eventually, Jared wanted to make the old home a museum, displaying antique items to tell the history of Amesport. She’d cried like a baby on the day he’d shown her the plaque he planned on designing, dedicating the museum in memory of her mother and her gran because her family had spent so much time on this small plot of land.
Mara kept her eyes glued to his muscular back as she moved toward him anxiously, needing to touch him.
I need you.
It wasn’t like Jared didn’t tell her that all the time, but he’d never changed his text. They’d been married for five months, having an even hastier wedding than Sarah and Dante had put together. Evan had come back for their wedding, as had Hope and Jason. A few months later, Jason had brought Hope back to live in Amesport permanently, and she and Hope had become extremely close. Actually, she’d become good friends with Sarah, Emily, and Randi, too, all of the women—including her now-healed best friend, Kristin—getting together as often as possible.
I have family again. Lots of family and friends.
It didn’t matter that none of them were blood related. Mara had quickly discovered that once you became a Sinclair by marriage, or were taken under their wing, you were family to them. And oh, it felt good to have brothers and sisters, something she’d never had before, people she knew she could count on to support her through anything.
Mara carefully slipped her arms around Jared, hugging him from behind after he’d put down his hammer. “Hello, handsome,” she purred against his back.
“Hey, sweetheart. You’re early.” He turned instantly and wrapped his arms around her. “I’m sweaty and I probably smell,” he warned her huskily.
“I happen to love you hot and sweaty.” Visions of the many times he’d been hot and perspiring with exertion from making her come until she screamed floated through her mind. She inhaled his musky scent, the erotic images becoming more vivid. She had plenty of those memories due to Jared’s insatiable desire to make her come. Not that she was complaining.
“I love you that way, too. Wanna work up a sweat with me?” he asked hopefully as he moved his hands down the back of her sweater.
She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “Are you okay?” She could see that he was fine, but the sense that something was troubling him still lingered.
He hesitated a moment before replying, “Yeah. I’m good. Why?”
I need you.
She shook her head slowly, realizing she’d overreacted. “Your text was different today. I thought you needed me, so I left early.”
Jared pulled back for a minute to dig into his pocket for his cell phone. He stared at it for minute before he replied, “I guess I typed what I was feeling at the moment. It is different.” He frowned as he looked up at her with an intense expression. “I can’t believe you even noticed.” He put the phone back into his pocket.
She tried to explain. “It wasn’t just the words. After I read them, it was like I sensed . . . something.”
Jared released a masculine sigh. “I was thinking about an idea I’d been considering right before I texted you.”
“What?”
“Since I’ve been working on this house, I realize how much I miss doing this. I know I’m only doing a replica, and I’m not doing all the work myself, but I miss working to restore history. I got a crazy idea to stop my commercial real estate business and start up a new venture.”
Mara’s heart skipped a beat. Did he want to go back to his original passion? “You want to start restoring old homes again?”
He shrugged. “It was just a thought, and not very realistic. How can I relinquish control of a business that makes billions now to go into a new one that’s not going to make a ton of money?”
“Very easily,” Mara said fiercely, wrapping her arms around his neck. “We have billions, Jared. You don’t need to make even more money. Are you ready to go back to restoring old homes again?” She wanted this for him desperately, but only if it would make him happy.
He grinned at her. “You’re willing to watch me let go of a corporate life to restore old homes?”
She smiled up at him. “Gladly. You look hot when you’re sweaty and shirtless. And I think your butt is delicious in jeans.” He’d played the corporate game for years, trying to be more like his brother Evan. It was time for Jared to just be himself. “Is it really what you want?”
“Yeah. It is. I guess I finally realized that what I want to do and Selena and Alan’s deaths aren’t really connected. They were only linked in my head by guilt.”
Mara stroked over his whiskered jaw tenderly. “Then do it. I want you to be happy.” She was jubilant, knowing that Jared was finally free. After years of tormenting himself, he could finally move on.
He pulled her tightly against him and buried his face in her hair. “I’m already happy because I have you, sweetheart. Going back to restoring old houses like I’d like to do would just be a very small amount of icing on an already very sweet cake.”
“Then bring on the frosting,” she murmured right before she pulled his head down and kissed him tenderly. “A cake can never be too sweet.”
“You’re amazing,” he said huskily. “I think I really did need to talk to you.”
Mara thought he did, too. Otherwise, he would have talked himself out of it, claiming he was too invested in commercial real estate to pursue his original dream. The last thing they needed was more money. Jared was already one of the richest men in the world.
She was startled when Jared’s cell phone rang, and he scowled as he pulled it back out of his pocket again. “It’s Jason.” He answered it immediately.
Mara listened intently as Jared spoke, his voice sounding nervous.
“Okay, we’ll be there soon. I don’t care if there’s nothing we can really do. I want to be there. This is my first nephew, and I want to be around when he’s born,” Jared grumbled into the phone.
Mara smiled. Obviously Hope was in labor, and it might be a very long wait at the hospital since it was her first child, but Mara wouldn’t miss being there for any reason. She knew Hope was excited and nervous. If Hope had to wait around for her labor to start in earnest, Mara wanted to be there for her.
Jared hung up the phone. “Hope’s in labor. Jason said it could be a while, since the contractions are pretty far apart. I should be able to grab a shower.”
“I’ll make us all something to eat while you clean up,” Mara agreed as she moved to put her jacket back on. “I’m so excited. I can’t wait to see my new niece.”
“Nephew,” Jared rumbled. “It’s the first Sinclair of the next generation. It will be a boy. In case you haven’t noticed, boys seem to run in the Sinclair family.”
Mara laughed. “You know Jason and Hope didn’t want to know the sex of the baby beforehand. You’re basing your information on the fact that there are historically more boys than girls in your family?” Nobody would know the new infant’s sex until he or she was actually born.
His shirt and jacket now on, Jared grinned. “Not really just that.”
“You just hope it’s a boy,” Mara accused him with a laugh as he pulled her toward the door, her heart light at the thought of welcoming a new baby into the family. “It could just as well turn out to be a niece. Would you really care?”
“Nope. I don’t really care whether it’s a niece or nephew. I’d be just as excited to have either one.”
Mara stopped at the door to stare at her husband. “Then why do you keep saying it’s going to be your nephew?”
“Because Beatrice told me. She said her spirit guides are speaking very loudly to her.”
Mara burst out laughing. “Yeah. And she told me Evan would be married within the next six months to a woman who would be his perfect match, just a few days ago. She met Evan at the wedding.”
“She predicted Sarah and Dante. And she predicted us.” Jared pulled out his keys as he opened the door, dangling his key chain that still sported the Apache tear stone that Beatrice had given him. “Call me crazy, but I’m starting to wonder if there isn’t something kind of interesting about her predictions.”
Mara did have to admit he was right. Beatrice did seem to have a few rather eerie and unlikely predictions that had come true lately.
“We’ll see if I end up with a nephew or a niece,” Jared teased as he pulled her out the door and locked it behind him.
They sprinted to their vehicles because of the frigid temperatures, Mara following Jared back to the Peninsula so he could shower and she could put food together before they went to the hospital to await the arrival of Jared’s first nephew . . . or niece.
It was a very long night, but they had plenty of company with all of the Sinclair family gathered there in the waiting room. In fact, Hope didn’t deliver her healthy baby boy until the next morning.
Mara walked out of the hospital the next day yawning, her head resting on Jared’s strong biceps after they’d finally had a chance to welcome the new baby to the family.
“It was a boy,” Jared said smugly.
“Coincidence?” Mara asked sleepily.
Jared shrugged and pulled her closer to him to shield her body from the cold wind as they walked toward their vehicle. “I guess we’ll see if Evan ends up married soon. That would definitely make me a believer in Beatrice’s predictions.” Jared’s voice sounded slightly amused.
Mara nodded and huddled closer to Jared’s warmth. That particular prediction of Beatrice’s was a long shot. But she silently hoped that it did come true, no matter how unlikely it might be.
Somehow, she’d ended up married to Jared, and to her that occurrence had been nothing short of a miracle. She yawned as Jared unlocked the door of the vehicle and opened the passenger-side door for her.
“Tired?” he asked in a concerned voice.
“Definitely.” Now that the excitement of the new arrival was over and both Hope and the baby were healthy, her exhaustion had hit her like a rock.
“Let’s go home so you can get some sleep.” Jared settled her into her seat and belted her in before he jogged around to the driver’s side.
She smiled as her husband got into the car, shooting him an adoring look before she closed her eyes peacefully and started drifting off to sleep. Home wasn’t a place or a building for her anymore; it was a state of mind. As long as Jared was with her, she’d always be home.
~The End~