*Mark hefted another cardboard box from a stack surrounding him and put it onto the desk he and Butch had carried upstairs to the attic in Sage Springs house.
Dust flew around him, but he ignored it. All the space needed was a good polish, and it was about the last space left in Surrender that needed dusting. But it was going to make a fine study. A place where he could hide away and write his book. His own book. No more ghostwriting, and thankfully—no more ghosts on his back.
He’d never been filled with such pride and satisfaction. He’d had a hand in all the wonder going on, here in the house and in town. Damn right he was meant to have come here. Damn right he was meant for Lauren and she for him. They were a team.
Work was still going on in the house, but the wall had been rebuilt, with no scary moments, no falling plasterwork or spikes from the spire. Lauren had hired a team of workers to sort out the garden, which was beginning to look like it belonged to the house.
She hadn’t levitated again, for which he was grateful, as any man would be. She hadn’t had any more visions, either. He wasn’t sure what he thought about that but whatever ability she had, she’d use it wisely. He was happy to roll with whatever happened next, because he had a deep understanding that it was all focused on love and commitment.
The saloon was now fully under Doc’s management, giving Mark the opportunity to write that novel. The candlemaker’s shop and the flapjack kitchen were coming close to completion. The museum would open in a month’s time with Mr. Fairmont as the curator, with help from Hortense.
And best of all, his mom and his youngest sister were planning to move to Surrender. His other sisters were going to live in the house in LA and continue with their jobs, but they’d visit often.
He pulled open a drawer in his desk, took out a jewelry box, opened the lid and smiled. A long string of pearls. Real pearls. His wedding gift to Lauren.
There would only be one wedding at the house. Theirs. They were going to marry by the lake and the waterfall and hold the reception for their family and friends at Sage Springs where warmth and love and care abounded. There’d be a rehearsal the day before, with dinner supplied for anyone who wanted it at the bar. Chili, no beans.
For a guy who’d had bad luck on his shoulders, he sure was blessed.
*
He replaced the jewelry box in the far depths of the drawer, then straightened the potted palm he’d taken from the bar and poked a finger into the soil to make sure it was damp but not overly wet. He was nurturing it. And so far, it was thriving.
He took a moment to look out the window.
From up here, he could see the road that first brought him to town. The road that had brought him back. It was his favorite view.
How could he ever explain his thankfulness for the life he’d been given, and the one he was going to live?
“Mark!”
He turned at the sound of Lauren’s voice from the landing below. “Up here!”
“I know! Pepper just called me and Molly on Skype, so I’ll be in our bedroom if you need anything.”
The only pressing need was perhaps another lingering kiss. “Hey, Lauren!”
“Yes?”
Words failed him. He wanted to find some expression of his love for her. Different words. New words. A whole dictionary of words.
“I know,” she called up to him, with a laugh. “I love you, too.”
He straightened. Life with a Mackillop was going to be interesting. “I was actually going to say—what’s for lunch?”
The sound of her tinkling laughter softened his grin to a smile.
“I love you,” he said quietly, knowing she’d hear him.
*
“So when do you two soothsayers-in-the-making think I’m going to get the call to come home?” Pepper asked as she ripped open a pack of caramel popcorn.
Lauren smiled at her cousins’ faces on her laptop screen.
“Don’t push the matter,” Molly advised. “Let it happen.”
“I’m raring to go!”
“Pepper,” Lauren said in the responsible tone of an eldest cousin. “Given what I now know from my own experiences, I have to tell you it’s possible you’re going to fall so hard in love with this man that you lose your appetite.”
“Isn’t going to happen!” Pepper laughed so hard, she choked.
“She’s got an unusual kind of loveliness, hasn’t she?” Molly said while Pepper attempted to get her breath back.
“Makes me wonder about the man who’ll come for her.”
“Makes me wonder whether he’ll turn around and head straight back to wherever he’s come from,” Molly said.
“I guess we’ll find out.”
“It’s going to be fun,” Molly said to Pepper when she’d gotten herself under control.
“What is?” Pepper asked, brushing popcorn off her shoulders before yanking out her hairband and shaking her head, making her riotous chestnut waves billow around her shoulders.
“Your love life,” Lauren said. “If not your entire marriage.”
“Marriage? Me? You two!” Pepper said, and started laughing so hard, she almost fell off her chair.
*
Lauren made her way up the stairs to the attic to let Mark know she was popping over to see Ava. She had a few lingering questions to ask her grandmother, and she wanted to see if she could pry some information about Pepper while she was there.
Mark must have heard her footsteps, because as soon as she stepped through the doorway, he caught her in his arms and swung her around.
She laughed as the dust swirled with them in little sparkles.
“Want to dance?”
“There’s no music.”
“Since when do we need music?”
His mouth hit hers as his arms tightened around her.
All their kisses were passionate, even the little ones. But she adored this kind of kiss. Where they were alone, touching, connecting, out of sight from the world. Only the two of them, showing the other how much they were needed and desired.
When they broke the kiss, it was reluctantly and softly, as though the earth stopped spinning and they had all the time in the world to just gaze at each other.
“We’d better make a decision on when we’re getting married,” he said, brushing his hand over her head. “And we need to decide where we’re going for our honeymoon. How about Paris?”
“Perfect. It’s the place we’re going to meet our memories.” And make more…
“I love you,” he mouthed silently.
“I love you, too,” she mouthed back.
There was no strange telepathic connection between them, only the real ability to know each other’s thoughts, just like every ordinary man and woman in love.
It was more thrilling than any spell.
“I’m just going to quickly visit Ava,” she told him.
“Something up?”
“Can’t say.”
She gave him one more kiss, and flew down the stairs.
*
“There’s lots I want to talk to you about,” she said as she settled in the Adirondack chair next to her grandmother. “But the first thing I want to try to understand is why I haven’t had any more visions of the future.”
“You’re getting to look more like your mother every day.”
Lauren smiled. “Is that a clue?”
“No. It’s a general observation.”
She reached over and kissed her grandmother’s cheek.
“You’re trying to get me to work it out for myself, aren’t you?” she said, relaxing back in her chair.
“And what are you thinking?”
She was reflecting on the cryptic things that her Mackillop women had said to her or told her when she’d first arrived home.
“There will be something nice waiting for you,” Molly had said at the airport, “after you’ve been through everything you need to go through.”
And the most telling of all. Everything has an end. But you won’t get there without going through it.
“It’s a beginning, isn’t it?” She watched for her grandmother’s reaction.
Ava smiled and reached across to take her hand.
“That’s why I’m no longer having visions of my future with Mark. Because I’m at the end of that stage.” She sat up in her chair, uplifted by the notion. “It’s because I’ve come to a beginning!” The start of the rest of her life with Mark. It was their beginning. A new story, encompassing everything they’d both been through, and everything that still awaited them.
“The force of the gift is great when it first arrives,” Ava said. “It needs to settle, so you learn about it and it learns about you.”
“I get a feeling all my senses are growing and expanding. I feel I should know things about some people’s future, but those things are not quite in my reach yet.”
“Maybe the answers will come to you once others approach you with a question.”
She had plenty questions of her own. “Why did I always think Mark was somehow integral to ending the curse, when it was me who had to do it?”
“Without him being here, none of what happened that night on the stairs would have occurred.”
As simple as that…
“The great-grandfathers couldn’t harm him because you were in love with him,” Ava said. “Even though you didn’t realize. Love protects people. So they turned on you.”
And her own love for everyone around her had protected her. “Did this happen to Molly?”
Ava shook her head. “Not in the same way, although they were angry with her.”
“If only I hadn’t been so confused by everything at the start.” Not to mention the middle.
Ava smiled. “Confusion is what makes the world spin out of control. Sometimes we look for the big reasons, when those skimming the surface are the real reasons. Don’t forget that as you go forward with your gift.”
Would she ever be as insightful, and somewhat exasperating, as the grandmothers? “Why did you all decide to renovate the houses six years ago? It wasn’t just because you knew the developers were going to come snooping, was it?”
“Let’s just say there were interesting future scenarios for each of you. But things didn’t go to plan, thanks to the great-grandfathers. You girls left, so we boarded up the houses and waited until the time was right again.”
“You were trying to shove fate around.”
“It’s easy to shove fate. It’s getting it to work the way it’s supposed to work that takes patience.”
Lauren found a smile.
She thought about Molly and her happiness with Saul, and her own joy with Mark, and the many trials they’d been through to get to the end, and the start of their new beginnings.
“True love is invigorating, that’s a fact.” Not to mention tiring. She’d never imagined making love would be the first thing she thought about when she woke or that the man she was going to marry would be so happy to oblige.
“I’m worried about Pepper though, and how she’s going to handle all this when her turn comes.”
Ava chuckled. “I understand she thinks she’s forewarned, and therefore thinks she’s forearmed.”
Lauren inched closer. “Who?” she asked in a whisper. “Who’s coming for her?”
Ava whispered back, “Can’t say.”
“Oh, come on. Give me a clue. When is it going to happen? Has Aurora already set things in motion?”
“You’ll have to ask her—but she won’t say.”
“Is he going to have a terrible time with Pepper?”
“Can’t say.”
Lauren slapped the arm of the chair in frustration. “What can you say?”
Ava pulled at the brim of her Longhorns cap. “Hang onto your bootstraps. It’s going to be a helluva ride.”
The End