Epilogue

 

In a week, he could get around the apartment and go out without difficulty. Cash had gone back to Louisiana but he called often and so did Mama. Slattery had to reassure Hope that he was on the road to recovery and that he’d be home soon. His formal letter of resignation had been accepted, and he was free.

Sabetha hovered and spoiled him as much as he’d allow. On the first day that she went back to work and left him to his own recognizance, Slattery made the trip to a jewelry store in Beverly Hills. He selected an exquisite engagement ring with a central marquise-cut diamond flanked by small sapphires and a matching wedding band. On the way home, he bought two dozen roses, one dozen red and the other yellow. When she came home, he insisted they make a trip out to the Malibu pier, and he asked her the question of his heart.

“Will you marry me and go home to Louisiana with me?”

Her eyes sparkled and her smile outshone the sun. “If this is for real and you’re serious, then yes, I will.”

He slid the ring onto her finger and kissed her.

The Pacific stretched out, eternal and blue as the sky above, as boundless as the love he had for Sabetha, and as deep.

He had his woman, and at last he would going home where he belonged, where they would stay.

“I love you, honey,” he said. “I can’t begin to tell you how much.”

“You can spend a lifetime trying,” Sabetha told him. “I’m listening.”

And Pride Slattery knew she always would be.