“Tristan!” Kim said, then she too started running. “He looks like my cousin Tristan!” she called over her shoulder. “Russell found my cousins!”
Her enthusiasm was contagious, and Travis, Joe, and Lucy hurried after her.
The little boy was already halfway up the side of the truck, all the firefighters helping him up. The happiness on the child’s face made everyone smile.
Behind the little boy, wearing a look of pure bliss, came Russell, and he was holding hands with a pretty young woman.
“I like the ring,” Kim said to Travis.
He looked at her in question.
She nodded toward the woman’s left hand. “It’s the four-carat pink diamond from the tray you showed me. It was my second choice. She has taste.”
Smiling, Travis nodded. As he’d hoped, Russell had used one of the rings he’d offered Kim for their engagement.
Russell stopped in front of his brother. “Dad said he wanted to meet me at the Old Mill this morning. Seems that Clarissa goes there to work every Sunday morning.”
“If Russell hadn’t shown up I’d be dead now or at least broken into bits,” Clarissa said and everyone looked at her.
“You two have to tell us everything,” Kim said, “and I think we’re cousins.”
“Second cousins once removed,” Travis said.
“I need to see to my son,” Clarissa said. “Jamie will—”
“He has a grandmother now,” Russell said softly, and they all turned to look. Penny was on the ground, but her arms were extended over her head. As they watched, two big firefighters lifted her to the top of the truck to sit beside Jamie. He smiled at her, and when the engine started, Penny put her arm around the child.
“I think he’s going to be fine,” Russell said as he smiled at Clarissa. “Shall we all sit down?”
“And eat,” Clarissa said. “I’m sure you’re hungry again.”
Like the lovebirds they were, that inside joke seemed to amuse them greatly.
It was three hours later before they were all sated with food and drink and news. The fire engine had returned and they’d all listened to Jamie’s excited description of everything he’d seen and done. He’d been given a hat and a bright yellow coat, both of which he wouldn’t take off.
After he’d eaten he wore down and snuggled on his mother’s lap. When he fell asleep, Russell took him and stretched him out, his head on Russell’s lap, his feet in Penny’s.
Everyone had listened in silence as Russell and Clarissa tripped over each other as they told of their meeting. Travis looked at Penny, and communication based on years of working together passed between them. Randall Maxwell had found the Aldredge descendant they were looking for and he’d set his son up to meet her.
When Clarissa told of her brush with death from trying to renovate the Old Mill, Travis again looked at Penny, and she nodded. Randall Maxwell was going to give his son a wedding gift of a renovated building.
But what everyone was most interested in was the first encounter between Russell and Clarissa. They were both shy and reticent when telling that part of the story, but the looks on their faces told it all.
Several times Travis looked at his mother, and her expression showed that she was as fascinated as they all were by the story. Twice Travis caught her looking at Russell in wonder. He really did look like her son.
At about four they were all winding down from the excitement of the day. Travis and Kim were looking at each other as though they wanted to be alone, as were Lucy and Joe, and Russell and Clarissa.
The odd man out, the only one unattached, was Penny.
“Maybe we should go back to the hotel,” Kim said. “We could all meet later for—” She broke off because a long black limo had pulled into the area beside their cars. The back door opened but no one got out and the engine wasn’t turned off. Inside they could vaguely see the shadow of a person, but he or she didn’t get out.
“That’s Randall,” Lucy said and she sounded like the party was over, but then her face lightened and she looked at Penny directly. Not with the sideways looks she’d been giving her all afternoon, but full into her eyes. “He’s here for you.”
Penny shrugged. “He probably wants me to pick up his dry cleaning.”
Everyone continued to look at her.
“Mother,” Russell said, “you have been in love with that man for nearly thirty years. Don’t you think it’s time you showed it?”