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Epilogue

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Four years later

Kate caught hold of the little body barreling past her and swung her wriggling daughter into her arms. "Hold on, there, tiger. Where are you off to in such a rush?"

Jessica pushed at her chest. "Want down, Mommy. Jessie down!"

Kate looked past her armload as Jonas came through the living room, stumbling over a collection of play dishes and cursing under his breath. She hid a smile. "Hey, handsome."

"Stop trying to butter me up, lady," he retorted with mock ferocity, joining them. "You're late."

"Sorry. I got tied up in the office and then hit traffic because of an accident. Have you spoken to Mrs. Barr yet?"

He dropped a kiss on her forehead and poked Jessica in the belly, sending the two-year-old into a gale of giggles. Jonas's blue eyes lit up at the sound of little girl laughter, and Kate marveled again at the changes in the man she'd married. From tough, fiercely independent cop to doting, undignified fatherhood. Four years in, and it still didn't seem possible. She set the toddler on the floor and watched her run down the hallway.

"I have," Jonas answered her question. "I talked to the old battle axe after I called you. She's looping the principal in on the meeting this time. It ain't gonna be pretty."

"Did she say exactly what he'd done?" Kate watched her husband anxiously, knowing how close Jonas was to being at his wits' end with their fourteen-year-old foster son. Daniel had been with them now for almost six months, and as far as they could tell, they'd made almost zero progress with him. They were the third foster home the boy had been in during the last year, and Jonas took this one very personally. It was so close to home for him.

"Another fight," he replied. "What else?"

"Do you want me to come with you?"

"Nah. You put your feet up for a while. I can handle her...I mean, it." Jonas paused in his search for his keys on the hall table and narrowed his gaze on her. "You look tired today."

"Nothing that dinner and an early night won't fix."

He shook his head, looking doubtful. "Are you sure you shouldn't be the one at home? I see you like this"—he nodded at her ballooning belly—"and think about you having to work all day, then fight traffic to get back home, and I can't help thinking we made the wrong decision. I shouldn't have let you—"

"Burke." Kate crossed her arms and regarded him.

He paused.

"Remember that taking-too-much-responsibility thing you keep doing?" she asked.

"I'm doing it again?"

"You're doing it again."

He gave her a sheepish grin. "Sorry."

"Besides," Kate said, as she ushered him toward the door and his appointment with Daniel's homeroom teacher and the school principal, "how gullible do you think I am? You really expect me to believe that being home all day with the munchkin and all the housework and the animals to look after would be better for me than sitting in air-conditioned comfort and napping through meetings?"

He grinned. "Can't blame a poor househusband for trying."

"Well, you can stop trying, because it’s not going to work. Now, are you picking up Sarah and Nathan as well, or are they taking the bus?" Their other two foster children were at the primary school on the way to the junior high that Daniel attended.

"I'll pick them up. By the way, dinner's already in the oven, but that early night you wanted..." Jonas turned to take her into his arms, trailing tiny kisses down the side of her neck to her collarbone. "I don't suppose we could delay that for an hour or two, could we?"

Kate's fingers tightened on his shirtfront as her knees turned to mush. Three years of marriage, a veritable parade of foster kids, a daughter of their own and another child on the way, and he could still turn her world upside down with just a touch.

Bemused, she stared up at him. "How do you do that?"

"What?" He nibbled on her lower lip.

"That," she said breathlessly. "Turn me into a puddle like that, just by touching me."

"Fair's fair. You can do it to me with just a look, sweetheart."

Kate smiled her satisfaction at the response, and Jonas chuckled. "Now you look like the Cheshire cat."

"And you've been watching too much television with Jess."

"Speaking of whom—"

"I'll find her. Give Mrs. Barr my regards."

"Yeah, right."

Kate watched the minivan drive down the lane until it disappeared behind the trees near the road. Jonas would handle Mrs. Barr just fine, despite his doubts. Just as he handled the million and one other problems that arose almost daily in raising four children, three of whom came with rather a lot of baggage. He had a knack for it, something that went beyond the understanding he'd gained from his own rocky start in life. Kate had known it instinctively, when he'd first suggested the farm and the idea of fostering to her.

It hadn't been a difficult decision to make. Hailing from opposite sides of the border as they did, they'd known from the beginning that only one of them could keep their career, and Jonas’s dream of making a difference had been the deciding factor. And so here they were, living forty minutes from Kate's job in Ottawa, each working in their own way—and together—to make a difference.

As for Daniel, Kate suspected he'd come around eventually. He wasn't a bad kid, just angry and mixed up, betrayed and disappointed. But he'd come to the right place for healing—and found the right man. Just as they all had.

Kate closed the door and, still smiling at the last thought, went in search of their daughter.

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