EPILOGUE

SERENA STOOD AT THE EDGE of her property, looking out across the sweeping expanse of green where it disappeared down to the edge of Loch Eishort, the brilliant blue of the water reflecting an unusually sunny July day. They had been in this home on the far tip of the Sleat Peninsula for more than six months, but she still sometimes found it hard to believe she was back for good. Even harder to believe that she and Malcolm had been married almost an entire year.

“Getting inspiration for another painting?” As if her thoughts had summoned him, Malcolm stepped up behind her, slid his arms around her middle, and pressed a kiss to the side of her neck.

She leaned back against him, soaking up his familiar, solid presence. “Just thinking how much I love this place.”

“Is that the only thing you were thinking about?”

His lips were working their way down her neck to her shoulder.

She smiled. “We have guests, you know.”

“Do we? I’d not noticed.”

She laughed and turned around in his arms so she could kiss him full on the lips. “Did you ever think that we would end up here?”

“Kissing in the back garden? Or married with two kids and a dog?”

“Kissing in the back garden is a given. But you’re mistaken. It’s three kids. Or soon it will be.”

He frowned in confusion for a moment, and then his eyes widened. “Are you serious?”

A bubble of nervous laughter spilled out. “I found out this morning. I’m pregnant. About six weeks.”

He picked her up and gave her a squeeze, then put her down quickly. “Sorry, should I not have done that? Did I hurt you?”

Serena laughed again at his concern. “I’m not breakable, I promise.”

“But how? We were so careful because we agreed there were too many risks.” Even though Malcolm had admitted he would like a child of his own, they’d both been concerned about what a pregnancy would mean for her, considering she was now forty. Somehow that had seemed so old when she’d had Em nearly ten years ago, but she felt younger, happier, and healthier than she’d ever been. She attributed that to her husband and their peaceful life on Skye.

“Sometimes God has other plans, I suppose. It wouldn’t be the first time He’s decided to surprise us, would it? You’re going to be a father.”

“I already am a father,” he said softly. “I was perfectly content with Em and Max and Kylee. But this—this is wonderful news.”

She sighed happily and lifted her face for another kiss. She’d known he’d be thrilled, and even though she felt a quiver of nervousness at the prospect of starting over with a baby, it was a gift. This time around, Malcolm would be with her every step of the way.

“We should probably go in now before everyone wonders where we are,” she said. “And I should start getting ready for the party.”

Malcolm took her hand, and they walked together up the slope to their sprawling home. The Ord house was another blessing that had fallen into their laps. After they’d eloped the previous September and spent a week’s honeymoon in Cornwall, they came back to Skye and immediately began searching for a new home together. Kylee’s Breakish house was leased for the year, and Serena’s home in Nairn was on the market, but even if they’d not been, she and Malcolm had decided they needed a new start together. Serena had been thinking of a modest little croft house that they could fix up together, but when this whitewashed five-bedroom home had become available, they’d fallen in love with it.

It didn’t hurt that it was situated on the water with views of Black Cuillin and the Isles of Rùm and Canna. Not only did it have enough bedrooms for the children and guests, including Kylee, but it also contained spaces for Serena’s art studio and Malcolm’s home office, something he’d put to immediate use when he’d started his own business. Contract software engineering, he’d told her, could be done anywhere with an Internet connection. Working for himself also gave him the flexibility to spend afternoons on the project he and Serena had just begun, an after-school program that offered classes in their areas of special interest: boxing, art, and astronomy.

Malcolm opened the patio door for Serena, and they stepped into the windowed conservatory they used as a dining room, its twelve-person table large enough to accommodate the family that always seemed to congregate on free weekends. Right now, it was decorated with streamers and balloons and a big paper banner that said, “Happy Birthday, Mara.” Serena had already set the table with pink flowered paper plates and matching plastic cups.

“Where is everyone?” Malcolm asked with a frown.

In answer, a round of laughter rang out from the front reception room. They followed the sound and found Serena’s family gathered on the large overstuffed sofas, Jamie and Andrea on one, Ian and Aunt Muriel on the other. Grace was kneeling in the corner, the ever-present camera in her hand, snapping photos of the three children standing stock-still in the middle of the room. Or at least Em and Max were motionless. Mara was wiggling with typical one-year-old enthusiasm, grasping one of Kylee’s fingers for balance. The teen looked absolutely smitten with her baby “cousin.”

“Simon says . . . hop on one foot.” Jamie grinned as Em and Max started hopping. It took Mara a second to catch on before she started jumping in an adorably awkward two-footed hop. “Simon says, turn in circles. Stop.”

Em and Max froze, but Mara kept on spinning, helped along by a grinning Kylee.

“Mara wins!” Jamie said, scooping up his adopted daughter and smothering her in kisses. She laughed delightedly while Em and Max groaned over their loss. “Uh-oh, someone needs a nappy change.”

“Here, I’ll take her.” Andrea held her hands out for her little girl, but Jamie just bent down and kissed his wife’s nose.

“I have it. I’ll be back straightaway.”

Andrea watched her husband and daughter with an expression just short of beaming and then fell back against the sofa. “All right, you two. Are we playing for second place?”

Serena let out a happy sigh. Maybe it was the emotion surrounding her own news, but having everyone together in one place filled her heart to bursting. The house never felt more like home than when it was the center of a family gathering, even if it still felt strange to take over the status of hostess from her aunt. She plopped down between Muriel and Ian on the sofa and kicked her feet up on the padded ottoman.

“How are you, Sis?” Ian slung an arm around her shoulders in an affectionate hug.

“Good. Having fun?”

“I am. Grace won’t sit down and relax, though.”

“I heard that,” Grace called. “And this is relaxing.” But she rose and perched on the ottoman across from him. Ian tugged her forward by the strap of her camera and stole a kiss, earning him a smile from his wife in return.

Jamie came back into the room, swinging a giggling Mara by the arms. “So I think there’s a birthday girl ready for cake and presents. What do you say, Serena?”

“I think that’s an excellent idea.” She hoisted herself up from the sofa, and she couldn’t help but think about how difficult that was going to be in a few months, when she had a baby bump to maneuver around. She’d been so intent on the birthday party and the need to break the news to Malcolm that she hadn’t let herself dwell on what that meant. The first thrill of excitement shot through her at the prospect.

The whole assembly moved to the dining room and adjacent kitchen, Muriel and Em following Serena to help move the cake and punch to the table while everyone else took their seats. As they filed in—the whole extended family that would be growing even more in the future—Serena felt tears well up again.

“You okay?” Malcolm whispered in her ear, putting his arms around her.

“Blasted pregnancy hormones,” she whispered back, but she smiled through her tears.

It was impossible not to feel grateful when she looked back on how much her life had changed since coming to Skye more than a year ago. She had felt alone and disconnected, gripping what she had so hard that she couldn’t grasp the blessings God had for her future. And now the center of her universe was a home built of love and laughter, all proof that the greatest gifts were the ones that could never be planned.