New Year's Day dawned crisp and promising, with a blue sky interspersed by puffy clouds. Faith left her bed to prepare coffee, and while it perked, stand before her living room slider. She never grew tired of her ocean view.
When she thought back over the summer months, she couldn't believe the changes in her life. Before then, she had been desperate to the point of fearing she would die of a broken heart, which forced her into the drastic change of moving to Oregon. In Somewhere she had met Baxter, and their relationship had been rocky as she tried to understand her encounters with a boy who had been dead for more than two decades. Baxter had believed someone was playing a cruel joke, but then he'd had his own encounter with his childhood friend.
Faith returned to the kitchen to pour her coffee. Leaning against the counter she continued her musings. Through supernatural occurrences the sadness in her heart had healed and she knew without a doubt that her dead husband and child, along with Vicky's brother, were happy in another realm, and someday she would join them there. But for now, she and Baxter had a life to live and perhaps children in their future.
Today was her wedding day.
Shortly after two in the afternoon, Gabby watched Faith descend the main staircase in the home she had inherited from her husband, and held back tears. When she glanced at her son waiting at the bottom step, he looked happier than she had ever seen him. Early on, when Faith had arrived at Hope Bed & Breakfast, Gabby had known they were a match made in heaven, but little did she realize how literal that was. Baxter and Faith had experienced supernatural happenings that ushered a dead boy into the light.
Baxter reached for Faith's elbow and together they turned to face the small gathering of family and friends seated in folding chairs. Gabby, with Noah on one side of her and Sunny on the other, and Leo beside Noah, surreptitiously glanced at Leo's profile. He'd always taken her breath away, but now that she knew him in the fullest sense of the word, she loved him desperately. He was an alpha male who had made her feel young, loved, and desired. But…she had blown her chance with him.
Pastor Hector Brand began the ceremony. "Welcome everyone to this joyous occasion that is, so appropriately, happening on the first day of the year. Let us begin the ceremony joining Baxter and Faith with prayers of thanksgiving and accolades of joy."