Epilogue
Hunter
“I miss her already.”
I took Char’s hand in mine. “I know you do. But she loves her grandma and Uncle Jacob, and besides, now she has a new uncle to charm and wrap around her dainty little finger. She’ll be just fine.”
The two of us were seated on the Kensington family private jet, a luxuriously outfitted Boeing 747-8. Between the bird’s eye maple paneling, the leather couches, and the enormous TV, there was plenty to see on board, but it was clear that her mind was with the little girl we’d left behind for two weeks while we headed off to honeymoon in New York City.
“She looked so adorable today, didn’t she?”
“She did.” Always happy for any chance to talk about Diana, I pulled out my phone. “Here, look at this one…”
We looked at a photo of our daughter clad in a long white dress, dancing with a tuxedoed Au who looked pleased but a little bewildered, as if he still hadn’t quite reconciled himself to his recent acquisition of a niece. I scrolled on to a short video in which Au had lifted Diana in his arms and was twirling her around.
We let out a collective “Awwwwwww.”
Our wedding earlier today had been beautiful, held in an Episcopalian church—a cathedral, really—in Richmond. Char had been absolutely glorious in a white satin-and-lace concoction with a huge train. She hadn’t worn a veil, just her lovely hair falling all around her, and her best friend Angela Robinson had been her maid of honor. Which made perfect sense, as Angela had thrown her the twenty-first birthday party which had set a long chain of events into motion. If not for Angela, Char and I might never have gotten together that first night.
Angela and the other bridesmaids had worn a deep blue gown that turned almost as many heads as Char’s had. I thought I’d looked reasonably handsome in a black Kiton tux—but of course no one really looked at the groom. Which was as it should be. The mother of the bride had been resplendent in shell pink, and I’d danced with her nearly as often as I’d danced with my wife and daughter, much to her delight. Diana’s dress had been a miniature version of Char’s, minus the train, and she’d drawn plenty of attention, too.
Which was also as it should be.
“She was a beautiful little flower girl, wasn’t she?” I said.
“She was gorgeous. And Au was a very handsome best man.”
“Jacob, too. It’s funny—I’ve gone through so much of my life as a loner. Never had any real friends in college, never was close to my family. I never guessed I’d wind up with two best men at my wedding.”
“I’m glad,” she answered, leaning her head on my shoulder. “If you want to know the truth, I don’t think you’re really the loner type, Hunter. You need people. I’m glad you have Au and Jacob back in your life.”
Since Char and I had both started working at the Pinecone Gazette, trying to remake it into a newspaper to be proud of, we’d had very few days off. As a consequence we were both looking forward to this break. But leaving Diana behind was hard—for Char because she’d never left her daughter overnight before, and for me because I still wasn’t accustomed to being a father. It was all new and wonderful, every day a delight, and I felt that being away from Diana for two weeks would be torture.
I thought I’d miss Au almost as much. Over the past months, I’d grown to admire the kid for everything he’d accomplished. He wasn’t the asshole I’d thought he was. And in point of fact, he was absolutely nothing like our father.
And then there was Jacob. Once we’d put all the bad blood behind us, it was amazing how much we still had in common. The two of us got together at Zippo’s for beers twice a week and had fun every single time, laughing, playing pool, and talking about the books we were reading. Char and I spent plenty of time at Mrs. Evans’ house too, and I reveled in her motherly kindness. When she’d rejected my diffident offer to pay for a house painter, I’d gotten up on a ladder and painted the whole exterior of the house myself. I was planning on replacing those warped boards on the porch next.
In short, I was no longer a loner, and in fact, I was a little worried I might spend all my time in New York Skyping with my extended family rather than sightseeing. But Char had promised to make me behave, and I was confident in her ability to keep my attention where it belonged.
On her.
Thinking about Au made me remember something, though. “Hey, I got him to confess, did I mention?”
Char blinked in confusion. “Who?”
“Au. Remember the guy in the alley, the one you kicked? You suspected it was Au because he was limping, remember that? Sure enough, it was him.”
She lifted her head and stared at me. “Au is the one who mugged me?”
“Well…” I shrugged. “It wasn’t actually a mugging, per se. He wasn’t planning on hurting you. Apparently he’d heard the news that I was visiting you at the diner, and he put two and two together and figured out that Diana was my daughter. But he’d also heard that you weren’t eager to let me back into your life. So he was trying to push the two of us together, and for some reason he decided that compelling me to rescue you might help. He was just trying to set up a damsel in distress sort of scenario. He wasn’t expecting you to be so quick with your feet, though.”
Char laughed but then grew more solemn. “What about the photographer in the park that day? That wasn’t Au, was it?”
“No. Just some random paparazzo. Now that you’re a Kensington, you’ll have to get used to having your privacy invaded on a regular basis, I’m afraid.”
It was true, and we both knew it. Our wedding, which had admittedly been grand enough for royalty, had already made headlines coast to coast. The Kensingtons had always been a subject of interest for the press, and the additions to the family of a flame-haired queen and a small but beautiful princess would only add to the allure.
Char smiled and squeezed my hand. “I think I can live with that. I love being a Kensington. I love you, Hunter.”
The plane began taxiing toward the runway, and Char looked out the window, her eyes gleaming with excitement. “Wow, this is so exciting. I can’t believe I’m going to see New York City. I’ve never been anywhere outside of Virginia before.”
I’d been to New York so many times I couldn’t even remember them all. But everything that was old and ordinary to me was new and thrilling to Char, and somehow that made my life new and thrilling all over again. I loved watching her face light up over new experiences. It made something inside me light up too.
Six months ago, I’d walked back into Pinecone as a just-released felon and almost instantly found her again. Maybe it had been fate, or maybe it had just been luck. But either way, it was the best thing that had ever happened to me. She was the best thing that had ever happened to me.
“I’m going to show you the world, Char Kensington.” I bent over and kissed her lightly on the lips. “Sooner or later, we’ll see every big city there is to see. Rome, Madrid, Athens, Tokyo…believe me when I tell you that New York is only the beginning.”
She threaded her fingers through mine, and I held her hand tightly as the jet lifted into the bright blue summer sky. It was a good beginning, I thought.
A very good beginning.
THE END
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