She smiled, shaking her head. “I have no need to. All my wishes have been fulfilled.” A slight pause. “All but one.”
“And what wish is that?”
With aching tenderness, Nicole touched her locket, met her husband’s gaze. “To have your child.”
A look of profound emotion crossed Dustin’s face. “I love you, my beautiful stargazer,” he said huskily. “And there’s only one wish that means more to me than your having my child, and that wish is right here in my arms.”
“I’m no longer a wish,” she breathed, laying her palm against his jaw. “I’m very much a reality.”
“Not merely a reality.” He turned his lips into her palm, renewed desire shimmering to life. “A dream come true.”
This time, at last, was slow, tender … and very, very prolonged.
Afterward, they slept in each other’s arms, neither of them aware that, as a result of their last precious union, the wishing locket was blissfully empty, the fulfillment of Nicole’s ultimate wish nestled safely in her womb.
But the locket knew. That final wish soared forth, an unknown but nonetheless tangible dream come true, deemed by fate to join the miracles of twilight and stargazing.
There it twinkled in the darkness and sailed joyously on the wind.