His mother had been true to her word and the threat of a custody battle between him and his father had vaporized on the hot wind of all of his blustering. Patrick still chuckled when he thought of his mom’s threat to move to Atlantic City and get herself a gigolo. As maternal and family-oriented as she was, the mental image was just too comical.
His father hadn’t been publicly accepting of his lifestyle choice but he no longer made unkind remarks whenever he was around. Evidently Patrick’s mom had given him a good wakeup call and opened his eyes to the fact that he was getting older and had regrets of his own, foremost being his lack of a relationship with Patrick. Time would tell if that bridge could be built.
Speaking of fathers, Lucy’s father had paid him and Beck a visit, shortly after hearing of the engagement. The grilling had been excruciatingly embarrassing until Lucy’s mother had intervened and told them that her father had been looking forward to that event since the day she’d been born and that they had Lucy’s family’s approval. Lucy’s father had given him a steely glare, and then smiled and nodded for his wife, and then glared at them again, just to let them know he expected them to take good care of his baby girl.
They’d heard that Ralph Baxter had been found guilty of all the charges leveled against him, including the murder of Neil Jackson, whose body had been discovered beneath one of the numerous sheds on Baxter’s property. The investigation had revealed that the other sheds located out at Baxter’s place were all completely empty but all locked up tight as a drum.
A shout came from down at the creek. “Cannon ball!” A big splash followed and a second later PJ cleared the surface. “Woohoo! Hey! Did you see me?”
Beck sat up and hollered, “Yeah, and I think all of Divine heard you!”
PJ giggled devilishly. “Watch me do it again!”
As their son played—Patrick now thought of PJ as theirs, all three of them—Beck turned to him and said, “I think you and I need to climb that tree and hang the kid a rope for swinging over the water.”
Patrick grinned. “I’ve been thinking the same thing, since we plan to stay.”
They’d decided to put Patrick’s house in Divine on the market. Lucy had already notified her landlord of her soon-to-be change in status and he’d let her out of the lease without a penalty.
Beck had contacted his landlord and had decided to take him up on the option to buy the twenty acres that encompassed his farmhouse and the creek where his bee colonies were thriving. It would’ve been exceedingly difficult to move them, and all four of them loved the creek and the land he lived on already. The house wasn’t big enough but they’d already begun making plans for building a new home on the highest point of the acreage a little closer to the creek and leasing out the farmhouse once they moved.
Beck grinned and said, “I’m glad we’re making this place our home. I’ve loved it since first moving here.”
Lucy took both of their hands and laced her fingers through his and Beck’s and said, “It made sense to stay because of your business, Beck. I love the creek and the big trees all over the property. I love this creek and the town, even though it has its share of troublemakers. I could find happiness no matter where we lived but this truly is divine.” She kissed the top of his hand and then the top of his best friend’s hand and then looked down at the Divine Creek. “More than anything else, I just want to be with the men I love. All of them.”
THE END