Grandmama just tsked her tongue and turned her gaze over to Peter and Kelly with an unmistakable expression.
“Not yet,” Kelly said, trying not to grin at the way Peter had stiffened beside her. “One day, for sure, but not yet. We’ve got enough on our plates as it is.”
“You are still very young,” her grandmother said, with unexpected gentleness. Then her face changed as she slanted a cool look back over to Mitchell. “But not all of my grandsons-in-law are so young. They should be moving forward with their manly duties.”
Deanna giggled helplessly and gave her husband a little hug. Kelly was trying to hide a smile when Jill leaned over to whisper loudly in her father’s ear, “What are manly duties, Daddy?”
Peter made a choking sound as he turned his face away, trying to disguise his amusement as he murmured to Kelly, “At least someone else is in the firing line of her disapproval for a while. I’ll take what I can get.”
Kelly had to bury her face in his shoulder as she laughed silently at his wry tone, at poor Mitchell’s trapped expression, at the way her grandmother was always going to be the same.
Peter wrapped both of his arms around her, hugging her tightly for a moment, and Kelly came to the sudden, unexpected realization that some things had changed but some things never would.
And it was good—so good—that her family had grown so much larger than it had been two years ago, when she and her sisters had been hammering down loose boards on the stairs and worrying about how Deanna could escape whatever suitor their grandmother was throwing in her direction.
They were still her family. They always would be. Even if she and Peter would be driving back to Eden Manor that afternoon.
“John Archibald Beaufort was a brave hero of the Great War,” Grandmama said. “And he and his lovely wife had fourteen children. Have you heard his story before?”
Of course, they’d heard his story. All of them had—even little Julie and Jill. But they all listened again to part of the familiar Beaufort history—made up of laughter and sacrifice and commitment and failure and honor.
And Kelly loved it. It was part of what had made her who she was.
Peter was another part. And she loved him too.
**