Epilogue

 

Kate West sat in the window seat of the Hawaiian Air 767 looking between the puffy trade-wind cumulus clouds. “There it is, Josh. Maui.” She pulled her husband of less than seven hours closer to the window.

“Look at that water, Kate. Near the shore it matches the color of your eyes.”

She turned her head to look at Josh’s face, but it was too close to focus, so close her lips brushed his.

Kate put her cheek against Josh’s. “This is where our life together begins.”

Josh softly kissed her cheek. “My life seems almost like a dream since I met you.”

“But I brought you a few nightmares, didn’t I?”

“That’s not what I meant, but I knew that was part of the package. I guess you’ll always be trying to save the world and taking some risks to do it.”

“But you weren’t a risk, Josh. You were a sure thing. Steady, reliable. So handsome sometimes it hurts to look at you.”

“That’s how I feel when I look at you, Kate.”

Kate fell back in her seat as highlights of the past six years of her life played through her mind. God had blessed her beyond measure. From the moment He brought Jenn and Lee into her life in that shack on the Olympic Peninsula, she had been given protection, love, a home, a loving Savior, and now a husband whom she loved more than she thought it was possible to love another human being. From Katie Lloyd, foster child, she had become Katie Brandt and now Dr. Kate West.

Tears filled her eyes and spilled out, tickling her cheeks. Though she tried to hold back the flood of emotions, she found herself softly sobbing.

Josh swiveled in his seat and his twin frown lines appeared. “You’re crying, Kate. What’s wrong?”

She tried to smile at him through her tears. “Nothing’s wrong. Everything’s good. Too good. I don’t deserve any of it. My family. You…”

With a soft touch, he brushed tears from her cheek. “Isn’t that what makes Christianity wonderful? We don’t get what we deserve. We get something far better.”

She peered into the tenderness expressed in Josh’s deep brown eyes. “Guess I need to listen to my baby-believer husband. You’re pretty smart for a two-month-old.” She wiped her cheeks and leaned against his shoulder. “After the rehearsal last night, you and Lee talked for quite a while. What did you two talk about?”

Josh looked out the window. “He was, uh…giving me some advice.”

She sat up in her seat. “Josh, he wouldn’t do that. Not the father-to-son stuff…about me, about us…”

Josh’s smile looked more like a smirk.

“OK. Spill it, Josh. All of it.”

“Are you sure you want to hear this, Kate?”

She gave him her most piercing stare. “We’ll be landing in about five minutes. I want to hear it all before then.”

Josh sighed sharply. “OK. He said when we land on the island to get our bags, throw them in the rental car, and then do not pass go, do not collect two-hundred dollars, but go straight to our room. Then he said I shouldn’t take my eyes off of you for even one second for the two weeks that we’re here.”

“Oh. I guess he would…I mean after Jenn was abducted…I…”

“We won’t have to worry about any bad guys.” His voice softened. “Lee said Peterson got assurance that the Maui Police Department and their intelligence organization will be giving us special attention. The government wouldn’t want Dr. Kate Brandt falling into the wrong hands.”

“It’s Kate West, Josh. And she’s in the right hands. First God’s, then yours.”

Josh leaned close to her, lifted her chin, and then stopped and looked at the passengers seated around them. He released a long sigh.

She cupped his cheek. “Save it for later, Josh. And remember, we’re not passing go on the way.”

“I remember. And I’ve got my eyes on you…I love you so much, Kate.”

“I know. And I love you too, sweetheart,” Kate whispered as the plane touched down on the island paradise, the place where her life with the only man she had ever loved would truly begin.