Up at us.
She has her mother’s big brown eyes, with flecks of her father’s green.
Her head tilts slightly, as if she’s figuring out a puzzle . . . and then she smiles and waves.
Edward lifts his hand, waving back, and I place a kiss on my fingers, blowing it to her. With a laugh, Jane reaches her hand out to catch it, before pressing her palm over her heart.
Her mother, Sarah, walks up to her. I watch her lips move and though I can’t hear her, I know just what she’s saying.
“Who are you waving to, Jane?”
“Great-Granny and Granddad.”
Sarah adjusts her wire-rimmed glasses and searches the palace windows.
“Don’t you see them, Mummy?” Jane asks.
But Sarah doesn’t see. Shaking her head, she grins down at her daughter and holds out her hand.
“Come along now, darling. It’s time to go inside.”
Jane takes her mother’s hand and wraps the other around the pearl ring that hangs from her neck, as they skip away.
I turn to Edward, running my knuckle along the scruff of his fine jaw, then stroking my hands down his chest—feeling the steady, strong beat of his heart beneath my palm.
He’s warm and solid, gloriously alive . . . and all mine. Just as I am his.
Forever and always.
“I’m ready now.”
Side by side and hand in hand, we walk to the door. Edward opens it, and we step out of the room and into the bright, golden light on the other side.
Into our eternity, together.
The End