But then Lucas Wilcox approached her. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, of course, but it almost looked like he was asking her to dance. How many glasses of champagne had it taken him to work up the courage for that, realizing he was only going to get shot down?
I didn’t know, of course.
The crazy thing was, it didn’t look like she was shooting him down. She tilted her head back slightly to look at him, her hair, free at last from its eternal ponytail, slipping back over the shoulders of her turquoise sheath dress. Then she stood up, and even allowed him to take her by the hand and lead her to the dance floor. It was a slow dance, “The Way You Look Tonight,” and yet she was allowing him to put his arm around her waist, hadn’t tried to blast him into next week.
“Okay, now I truly believe world peace is possible,” I said at last.
“After everything we’ve been through, I believe just about anything is possible,” Connor told me, picking up my hand and pressing it to his lips.
The touch of his mouth against my skin made a delicious shiver run through me, and I halfway wished we could slip out now and start the wedding night early, spice cake or no. But I knew I would stay. I could do no less for my family…all of them, McAllister and Wilcox alike.
What a wonderful thought that was. So many wounds beginning to heal, so many old prejudices starting to fade away. It would take time, and I knew, people being who they were, that it wouldn’t always be easy. But it would be worth it. For Connor, for me, for our children, and the children who were to come after them.
At long last, the unquiet ghosts of our past had been laid to rest.
The End