It's a Sweet Life

Epilogue

I wonder if the same superstition about rain on wedding days applies to fog?

Libbie looked outside the bathroom window. She’d barely made it to the toilet in time to empty her bladder. Now with that chore taken care of, she saw the fog, which had moved in late the night before, still clung to the ground, swirling around the trees in the wooded lot behind the bakery.

Yesterday had been a foggy Thanksgiving morning. Looked like today would follow suit.

“Did you fall in?” Ben called out.

Somewhere in the living room, Allan snickered. “She’s too big to fall in.”

“Bite me!” she called back, unable to suppress her smile.

“We will!” they both yelled back.

She washed her hands and waddled out into the living room. Ben was starting the coffee, while Allan had turned the TV on to the morning news. He leaned over and lifted her nightshirt to kiss her swollen belly. “Good morning, munchkins.”

“Yeah, you say that now,” she said as she stretched her back with a groan. “You just wait until you and Ben are doing midnight feedings. Mornings won’t look so good then. You didn’t spend the night with them trying to kick your bladder into a pulp.”

She heard the sound of feet pounding up the stairs before someone rapped on the door.

knockknockknock “Libbie.” knockknockknock “Libbie.”

knockknockknock “Libbie.”

266 Tymber

Dalton

“Ah, the bridesmaids are early.” Allan opened the door.

Mandaline and Sachi stood there, Mandaline holding a large, white garment bag, and Sachi carrying a duffel bag.

“What are you two still doing here?” Mandaline scolded. “Get out! You can’t see the bride before her wedding.”

“They did more than see her,” Sachi joked, pointing at Libbie’s belly.

“We’re going,” Ben said. “You didn’t want us leaving you with her without making her coffee first, did you?” He brought a steaming mug over to Libbie, who gratefully took it. He kissed her. “We’re going. We’re heading across the hall to get our showers, and we’ll see you at Grover’s at noon.” He kissed her one more time. “Love you.”

Allan kissed her as well. “Love you.”

She smiled. “Love you both.”

“Oh, for crap’s sake,” Sachi teased, “they knocked you right the hell up already. Quit with the mooney eyes for all of a few hours so we can make an honest woman out of you, cancha?”

The morning flew by, with her friends helping her get her hair and makeup done, helping her dress, and Libbie was ready to go when the limo pulled up, with Grover in the back, at a quarter ’til twelve to ferry them over.

Grover climbed the stairs to help her down. She didn’t miss the way his eyes suddenly looked too bright as he stared at her. “My, you’re beautiful, missy.”

“Dammit, Grover,” Sachi scolded as she fussed with Libbie’s train. “Don’t you dare cry and make her cry.”

Mandaline laughed. “Okay, let’s get moving.”

Grover hugged Libbie. “Your mom and dad would be so proud of you.”

She couldn’t help but think of her parents all morning. The men had immediately agreed to her request to stop by the cemetery after the wedding and reception were over, to lay some flowers at their graves.

It’s a Sweet Life

267

Then when they reached Miami, where they were spending their honeymoon, she wanted to visit the graves of their mom and dad, too.

She tightly held on to Grover’s arm as he helped her down the stairs. “How are those babies this morning?” he asked.

She laughed. “I know the doc said I’m not due for another few weeks, but I’ll be happy when they come.” Two boys, both healthy, as proclaimed by her ob-gyn, who’d performed the necessary tests to prove to Libbie that her babies were fine.

Grover let out a sad sigh. “I know your mom and dad never told you this, but twins run in your family, too.”

She stopped, shocked. “What?”

He nodded. “They had a set of boys before you were born.” He looked sad. “Stillborn. Your momma was heartbroken. Your dad told me they weren’t going to tell you until or unless you had kids of your own. That’s why they didn’t have any other kids after you. Your mom was too afraid to lose another baby.”

“That’s why,” she said, feeling a little numb, “when I asked her why they didn’t have any more kids, she told me that they got it right the first time and didn’t need to try again.”

“Hey!” Sachi yelled up the stairs. “Those kids are going to be in college by the time we get there if you don’t hurry up!”

They continued down the stairs. “She’s feisty, isn’t she?” Grover asked.

Libbie laughed. “That’s one word for it. But I love her.” In the months since returning to Brooksville following the showdown at the storage yard, and the subsequent hearings and depositions and trial, Libbie had become quite close with Sachi, and even closer with Mandaline. As well as several other regulars from Many Blessings.

Mandaline and Sachi had even made several trips with her from Brooksville to Miami when both Allan and Ben were stuck there during the trial.

Bianco had been arrested immediately, his bond revoked after two of his men at the showdown quickly cut a deal with the Feds to testify 268 Tymber Dalton

against him, as did Bianco’s in-house computer geek.

They also provided information tying the mob boss to the death of the witness found in Naranja, and to Leeza Maxwell’s murder.

Libbie didn’t know what she would have done without the women’s support and love throughout the long and arduous summer.

Today, however, Libbie didn’t want to think about any of that.

Bianco would never be free again. Today was about dreams coming true. Sachi would be her maid of honor, while Mandaline performed the ceremony.

And Grover would walk her down the aisle and give her away.

They’d decided she would legally marry Ben. Even though he’d already resigned from the department, she could get coverage through his health insurance.

And she’d already made peace with the fact that she didn’t care which man had fathered her children…or which one might father any future children. They were both the fathers, just as they were both her men.

She blinked as they stepped out the door and into the sunlight.

“Looks like the fog’s finally lifted,” she noticed.

Sachi, who’d grabbed Libbie’s train as she emerged from the building, waved her toward the car. “Fog, schmog. We’ve got a wedding to get to.”

Grover and the driver helped her in, followed by Mandaline and Sachi, before the driver closed the door and they departed for Grover’s house. Between the Johnson brood and her friends and customers, there were over a hundred expected to swarm the house and property.

Luckily, Sachi had suggested renting portable toilets to handle everyone.

It wasn’t until Grover and Libbie paused at the end of the aisle and she looked down to where Allan and Ben waited for her that she finally accepted her dream was coming true. With the wedding processional music softly playing, the crowd stood and turned to It’s a Sweet Life 269

watch her approach.

“Grover?”

“Yeah, sweetie?”

She smiled. “I think you don’t need to worry about needing your woodchipper anymore.”

He laughed and squeezed her arm. “No, baby doll, I’d say those boys have done more than right by you. You happy?”

She nodded. “Happier than I’ve ever been.”

“It’s a sweet life.”

Libbie happily sighed. “It sure is.”

THE END