Sunrise Point

You’re way too proud and stubborn, for one thing. And you insist on doing things yourself—such a tough little broad. I’ve met plenty of the other kind, but I like women like you and Maxie, women who aren’t afraid of themselves, who set no limits on what they can accomplish. Did you know Maxie had a tough time when she was growing up? She did,” he finished, ignoring her nod. “And that didn’t keep her from being a great mother and grandmother—like you. And even though you’ve had a few hard knocks in the love department, it sure didn’t affect your ability to give love. You give love so good, a man could go blind.”
    “Tom!” she said. She leaned to look at her father, but he was gone. She gasped and ran to the front door. He was outside; he had the girls in that big stroller. “Dad, it’s cold out there!”
    “We have our coats on. We’ll be right on this block, don’t worry.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “Nora, take a few minutes to talk to your… To talk to Tom.”
    She came back in and closed the door and found herself instantly in Tom’s arms. He was smiling. “I’m telling you the truth—I started to want you the second I saw you and I started to love you by the time I’d known you for a week. I wasn’t sure that was such a good idea—you being an employee. But you just had me. Everything about you—the way you laughed when you had nothing to laugh about, the way you cried when you longed for the love and trust of family… Nora, you’re everything I want in my life. Nothing else much matters right now. If you need to think it over, I’ll make sure you have this house, no strings, while you think.”
    “Tom…”
    “I came empty-handed because I was in a panic—I had to tell you how I feel before you ran off to start a new life. But I promise if you give me a chance I’ll buy you a good ring, give you any kind of wedding you want, give you all my worldly goods and bring you flowers every day.”
    Her eyes flooded. “I love you, Tom. And not for what you can give me. For who you are.”
    He ran a knuckle down her jaw. “I’ll take anything you give me. Marry me or think about it awhile, but just don’t leave me. I love you with everything I am.”
    “If you take me, you have to take the whole family,” she told him. “You have to be a father to two little girls.”
    “I’ll do my best. I think I’m up to it. They like me.” He smiled. “You have to take my whole family, too. Maxie is determined to live to a hundred and twenty, and I like her chances.”
    “Then yes, I’ll marry you.”

Epilogue
    In early June, when the weather in the mountains was warm and sunny after a long winter, Nora sat on the porch at the orchard house. Maxie was in the kitchen making a very big dinner because Nora’s father and Susan were up for the weekend. Berry and Fay were playing on the porch; they were now Cavanaughs. Tom’s adoption of them had been completely uncontested.
    There had been a quiet wedding in Maxie’s living room right before Thanksgiving and they’d been an extended family ever since. Jed loved visiting the orchard and had become enamored of researching the apple tree species. He was helpless in the face of research—he just loved it. It was hard to keep him away during the spring planting.
    She rubbed a hand over the small mound in her middle that she and Tom had planted. They started it right around Christmas, it was another girl and she would arrive in September. Tom was thrilled and hoped that she, like her sisters, would look just like Nora.
    No one had ever loved Nora as selflessly as her man. Her children were thriving within his love and the attention Maxie showered on them.
    And just as he crossed her mind, he crossed the yard. She laughed as she saw that he carried a stem of apple blossoms. He put a booted foot up on the porch and held them out to her.
    “You have to stop doing this,” she said, taking the branch. “These are unborn apples.”
    “I promised you flowers every day.”
    “And love every day, which you shower on me.”
    “But that’s the easy part,” he told her.
    * * * * *

     
     
     
     
     
     
    The Virgin River series by New York Times bestselling author Robyn Carr
     
    Virgin River—in the redwood forests and quiet hamlets of northern California, where the men are handsome and honorable and the women are strong and beautiful, and everyone has a stake in seeing love thrive. Read them all!
     
    Virgin River
Shelter