Three months later
KENDALL BROKE DOWN the second last of the packing boxes and tossed it onto the pile with the others by the front door. Hands on her hips, she took a long, approving look around the onetime welding shop.
Lori’s and Calliope’s suggestion months before about the Stedman house and property being for sale had been the perfect solution. Phoebe had fallen in love with the place the moment she saw her proposed bedroom that included a bay window surrounded by large built-in bookcases. Hunter’s new office, as promised, overlooked the ocean, which was close enough for them all to take walks along their own cliff’s edge most nights after dinner.
As for Kendall’s workshop, now home base for Kendall Construction and Refurbishment, she had everything she’d always been afraid of wanting.
Kendall walked across the cement floor to the office she’d created for herself. It wasn’t anything fancy—a laptop computer, business cards, a schedule of jobs she had lined up well into the next year. She sat at the desk that had been her father’s, one of the many pieces of furniture she and Hunter had brought back from their trip to North Dakota.
Some might have considered it an odd kind of honeymoon, but it was time to tie up all those loose threads of her life before Hunter and Phoebe. Before she’d arrived in Butterfly Harbor.
Thankfully, she’d kept her mother’s antique writing desk, which was now in the front hall, her grandmother’s china cabinet and a few other pieces that brought back fond memories of her childhood.
There was only one box left. The box sitting on the corner of her desk beside the framed picture of her and Hunter on their wedding day, with Phoebe, a rather spur-of-the-moment event that had taken place at the Liberty Lighthouse shortly after the job was completed.
With surprisingly steady hands, Kendall lifted the lid of the box. Sam’s dog tags and military ID sat atop the collection of letters she’d mailed him—the letters they’d exchanged beyond the emails and the video chats. She sifted through them, pulling out the photographs and silly notes, setting them aside until she stopped.
Sam’s officer’s photo. Kendall’s eyes misted as she looked at his smiling, handsome, glasses-clad face beaming through the lenses at her. “You’d like him,” she whispered, tracing her finger across Sam’s face. “You’d like him a lot.” She would always miss him. Miss the boy she’d grown up with, the man she’d loved. But he of all people would have understood her need to move on. And that she could have a bright future with Hunter without ever forgetting Sam.
She slipped the letters and pictures back into the box and stored it in the bottom of the filing cabinet behind her. Kendall did one more pass through the workshop, made sure everything was in its place, before heading out and, with one more glance at the cabinet, managed a small smile as she closed the door.
“Phoebe! Charlie!” She headed up the path to the house, ducking around to the customized swing set she, Frankie and Kyle had built for the little girl as a wedding gift. She and Hunter had gotten presents. It only made sense that Phoebe should get something, too. “You two girls ready for dinner?”
“Almost!” Phoebe called as she soared through the air, leaning outrageously far back in the swing. Charlie, flying just as high, let out a laugh and Phoebe joined in. It lightened Kendall’s heart.
A gentle tinkling of butterfly wind chimes from the patio behind her had Kendall looking over her shoulder. Kendall swore she heard the sound of laughter; another child’s laughter, before it floated away on the breeze. “Samira,” Kendall whispered as a trio of butterflies flitted into view. Her heart thumped, but the sadness and longing that had ensnared her for so long didn’t descend as they once did.
“Did you see the butterflies?” Phoebe’s excited words were like a balm to Kendall’s soul. Kendall watched as Phoebe and Charlie raced past her to chase after the butterflies. “There were three of them. Did you see?” Phoebe yelled out, huffing and puffing, but with a grin that stretched from ear to ear.
“I always see them, now,” Kendall whispered and nodded, as she headed into the house through the patio doors. “Hunter?” She had to navigate the rooms since the unpacking and rearranging hadn’t been finished yet. She found him in his office, sitting at his desk with his back to her. “Hey. Did you get anything out for dinner because I forgot to?” She knocked on the door frame. “Did you hear me? What’s wrong?” She walked up behind him, leaned over his shoulder and peered at his computer screen.
“Nothing.” Hunter’s fingers went white around the computer mouse. “Yet.”
“What do you mean, yet? Oh.” She saw the email from Max, Hunter’s literary agent, and felt her own nerves flutter. “I forget.” Kendall slipped her arm around his chest and leaned closer. “Is it good news or bad that comes in threes?”
“I don’t want to know.”
“Come on, you have to face your fear.” She reached over and covered his hand with hers. Together, they clicked to open the email from his agent. She could feel the tension in his shoulders.
The same sort of tension that had disappeared when Stephen and Eleanor Cartwright had dropped their custody suit in exchange for Kendall not pressing charges. Kendall had asked that they not get into trouble for having hired a private investigator to steal her medical records, even though she hadn’t seen much remorse over the fact, or that Eleanor had tried to blackmail her. As a result, Hunter and Kendall felt it was better for Stephen and Eleanor to keep their distance until Phoebe turned eighteen and could decide for herself whether or not she wanted to have any contact with her grandparents.
The entire situation struck Kendall as just sad. But it was the only thing that was.
“Huh.” Kendall scanned Hunter’s email, unable to hide her smile. A smile she’d become more and more accustomed to since the night she’d found Phoebe on the cliffs. “I guess you’re getting a book deal.”
“Three books.” Hunter sagged back in his chair. “They want a series. Off a single book proposal. Kendall, that just doesn’t happen.”
“All evidence to the contrary.” She bent down and kissed his cheek. “Congratulations, author. We can add that to our celebration today.”
“Are we really doing this?” He spun in his chair and tugged her onto his lap. Pointing to the unorganized room, he said, “It’s been a lot for us to take on. Newlywed homeowners. Phoebe back in school. You getting your business license—”
“Kendall Construction and Restoration Inc., at your service.”
“And now a book deal, too?” This time, he kissed her. “You are definitely my good-luck charm.”
“Mom! Dad!” Phoebe burst into the room and practically slid into a heap at their feet. “Charlie says we’re invited to Calliope’s tonight for dinner cause Holly and Luke are coming with the babies. Everyone’s gonna be there. Can we go? Please! Sebastian is going to be there with a new litter of kittens from the shelter. Can I finally get a kitten, Daddy? Or maybe two? Sebastian says two is better than one. That way they’ll always have someone to play with like when I’m in school and we don’t want them to get bored. Please?”
Hunter looked to Kendall and she gave a small nod of approval. She sighed, leaned back in his arms.
“Honestly?” Hunter said, with good humor in his voice. “I think the only thing missing from our lives is a cat. But just one!” Phoebe didn’t seem to take any notice, though, since she’d already run off and started yelling for Charlie. “Shoot.”
Kendall laughed. “It’s like you can read my mind.”
“We’re going to end up with two kittens, aren’t we?” He caught her chin in his fingers and brought her mouth to his.
“Yes,” she murmured happily. “Yes, we are.”
Other great titles in the
Butterfly Harbor Stories
miniseries include:
The Bad Boy of Butterfly Harbor
Recipe for Redemption
A Dad for Charlie
Always a Hero
Holiday Kisses
Available at
www.Harlequin.com today!
And don’t miss Frankie’s romance,
Under the Mistletoe,
coming in November 2019!
Keep reading for an excerpt from Their Forever Home by Syndi Powell.
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