“I know.”
She reached up, kissed him again.
They were both breathing raggedly when he pulled away. “Guess I need to get cleaned up before I finish this.” His hands trailed down inside her robe.
“I happen to have a bath waiting right here…”
It was all the invitation Will needed. Rather than slowing him down, the tub actually helped him in reaching his ultimate goal. The back supported Becca’s heavy body. The porcelain sides supported her legs and gave him something to lean on.
All in all, she figured she’d made the right decision to drown her tears in a bath that night.
While she’d been gazing into frothy bubbles and wishing on stars, her husband, her lover, had appeared to take her to a galaxy all their own. If this was a dream, Becca knew she never wanted to wake up.
The man she’d loved all her life was back where he belonged.
EPILOGUE
BETHANY TANYA PARSONS was born two weeks before classes started that fall. A healthy seven-pound baby girl, she had lusty lungs and no compunction about using them. Before her body was even fully free from her mother’s, she was greeting the world.
Her mother came through the birth just fine, with only four hours of labor and a relatively easy delivery. Smiling, a plastic cup of orange juice in her hand while the doctor finished up around her, Becca looked young and beautiful, her eyes glowing with dreams come true.
Her father, on the other hand, lost ten years of his life as he coached and breathed, sweated and prayed. He followed the nurse as Bethany was carried to the scale and weighed, as her mouth was swabbed and her skin wiped clean.
He left her to their expert care only when he heard Becca’s voice behind him.
“Sari?” she said into the phone she held to her ear. “You can come over now!”
A pause as Becca’s merry eyes glinted. “Yep, already.”
And then, “Piece of cake.”
“He’s right here,” she said next, obviously replying to Sari’s bombardment of questions. “Oh, he did okay,” she said, sending Will a naughty look that he intended to make her pay for the second she was able.
Becca’s eyes softened suddenly, filling with tears. “It’s a girl, Sar,” she said. “We named her after Tanya.”
Taking his daughter from the nurse, Will brought her over and placed her on Becca’s breast. It occurred to him that he’d lived most of his life for this moment, the moment he’d see Becca’s baby.
She was more beautiful than anything he’d ever imagined.
“Love truly does heal all pain,” Becca whispered into the phone, but her eyes were for Will alone.
“Thank you,” she mouthed to him.
Feeling his eyes fill with unfamiliar tears, Will knew that he was the one who owed all the thanks. He’d been given a second chance at the same life.
And this time around, he knew how much it was worth.