Eighteen months later in Keroka, Kenya

^“Hey, Kitty! Camille and Bernard are here!” Rex calls from the front yard.

Our little three-bedroom cottage has thin walls and almost no electrical appliances running during the day. Plus we leave all the windows open this time of year, so I can hear him perfectly well.

I crack an eye open, glancing at the clock. They’re not early, I’m just dreadfully exhausted and I overslept a little.

“Coming!” I call.

I stand and pull on a pair of simple trousers and a loose caftan top. No need for finery way out here. It’s just us and the locals, and they seem to like and trust us better when we keep things simple.

Besides all our pocket money has gone into building the school.

I slip on my sandals and head outside, finding Rex with an arm around his sister Camille. Bernard is unloading some luggage from the Land Rover, and he stops to give me a wave.

My first thought is how pale they both look, compared to the bright red dirt and the colorful laundry hanging on the line in our yard. Everything in our lives now is carefully worn, lovingly stitched together time and again, and it gives our home a patchwork quilt sort of appearance.

Even the sky is bigger and bluer here than I remember it being in Courtland, though the sun is setting now.

In their brand new matching khaki safari outfits, Camille and Bernard stick out like sore thumbs. Rich sore thumbs. They don’t realize it yet, but Rex and I are going to use this trip to leverage the Courtland monarchy into building a girls’ dormitory for the school, a bright place where the girls can live safely while they learn.

Getting a good education, especially as a girl, is just one more thing I took for granted in Valencia City.

No longer, though.

“Oh my goodness,” Camille says, practically pushing her brother off to rush over to me. “Look at your baby belly!”

She hugs me, and it’s wonderful. Just for a moment, to feel that sense of home.

“I know, I know. I’m showing so early,” I sigh.

“You look so tired,” Camille says with a frown, patting my shoulder. “I brought you all kinds of good stuff. Ginger everything, to help with the nausea.”

“You’re a lifesaver,” I say with a smile.

“We’ve got the bags inside,” Rex says, grinning.

I see his sister eye his simple shorts-and-cotton-tee outfit with curiosity. Her examination rolls right off Rex’s back, like water off a duck. Nothing affects him, not since he found out he was going to be a dad.

For the last four months, he’s been more cheerful than a songbird, I swear. Walking on the clouds.

Who knew that Courland’s biggest playboy would take so kindly to fatherhood?

“We can go scope out the school in the morning, yeah?” I ask, shading my eyes against the brilliant orange sunset. “I think the cook’s got something good on for dinner.”

“I can’t believe you’ve got almost a hundred students now!” Camille says as I escort her inside. “Rex’s been sending me photos. He’s a doting brother all the sudden, now that we’re on different continents.”

I lead them into the huge kitchen, where our cook is bustling around, making some kind of huge stew. She’s got piles of vegetables and herbs all over the place, in some haphazard fashion that makes sense to her.

I’ve learned not to question Mama Oduya when she’s cooking.

“Mama Oduya,” I call over the sound of the radio. She’s listening to some kind of funky Congolese pop music on full blast, and she grins at us when she realizes we’re in the kitchen.

“Ay! Beef stew, very very nutritious,” she shouts. “The girls will like it!”

I glance at Camille and Bernard.

“We’re feeding a lot of our students, some twice a day,” Rex explains.

“Sounds expensive,” Camille says.

I wink at her, and she laughs.

“It’s nice to see you guys here,” I say. “Let’s sit at the big dining room table.”

“We’re impressed with you,” Bernard says, glancing around. “Both of you, equally. I can’t believe you two found each other and ran off into the sunset, as it were. Caused quite a stir in Courtland, you know.”

“Two years ago, if you’d told me we’d all be here… I wouldn’t have believed it,” Rex admits.

“Well, we all have a lot more in common now, don’t we?” I ask as I pour us all some water from our private filtration system. “Growing families, plus Camille’s foundation has supported us in building the school.”

“Dad misses you,” Camille says to Rex.

Rex arches a brow. “He knows where I am, I should think.”

“And granddad is ailing, wants to know when you two are returning to the fold.”

Rex looks at me as I drop into a wooden chair, eyeing my belly.

“Rather soon, I think. Within the month.”

“It’ll be nice to have you back, then,” Bernard says. “Glad we came and visited when we did. It was murder trying to pry Cam away from the twins.”

“It was tough,” Camille says with a shrug. “You’ll soon see, it’s hard to leave them home long enough just to go get takeout.”

“I have to say, I don’t want anyone getting… expectations,” I tell Camille. “I’ve been trying to explain this to my mum, we are staying in Courtland long enough for the baby to develop his or her immune system. Then we’re starting a new project.”

“And what’s going to happen here, with the school?” asks Bernard.

“Would you be willing to believe that Bramford has gotten his act together and gotten clean? He and his mother are coming over to run things for the next year. Then… we’ll see. It will stay in the Westwood family, I hope,” Rex says.

“No idea what your own next step is yet, then?” Camille asks.

“Not yet,” Rex says, winking at me.

The scoundrel. He knows we’re going to be working to provide vaccinations to newborns in Central America, he just wants to keep it a secret for a while longer.

“Well, I suppose that calls for a toast, then,” Camille says, raising her water glass. “To the future!”

“To the future!” we all echo, clinking our glasses and laughing.

Rex comes over and gives me a kiss, and I grin at him. Our life has changed in a thousand ways, large and small, but I wouldn’t give up a single one.

The future looks bright, indeed.