The Blossom Sisters

Epilogue


Two years later





THE SUN WASN’T UP YET, THE SKY JUST STARTING TO PINK UP when Gus and Barney, followed by Wilson, walked through the sliding doors and out to the deck for their first cup of coffee of the day.

Wilson wandered off to water the bushes as the two old friends sat down at the table.

“Today’s the day, Gus. You ready for it?”

Gus took so long to answer the question, Barney had to prod him.

“As hard as I try to stop them, Barney, my thoughts keep going back to the day I married Elaine. I was so excited, I actually threw up. I don’t feel like that today. I feel . . . anxious. I think I’m afraid to unleash my feelings. I don’t want to make another mistake. And yet I can’t wait to marry Jill. I feel like she’s my life partner. We don’t have secrets. We talk out everything. I see us growing old together, like the seniors, and loving every minute of it. I guess I’m ready, but I am scared; I won’t lie to you.”

“I think that’s normal, Gus, not that I’m any kind of authority.”

“Well, that’s for sure. You’re still dating Priscilla from the DMV. Two years is a long time not to make a commitment. What’s your game plan, Barney?”

“I don’t have a game plan, Gus. Priscilla loves me, I love her, but she can’t come to terms with who I am. My money scares her. She’d marry me in a heartbeat if I drove a bus. She said she would never fit in with the kind of people I hang out with. With the exception of you and the seniors. When I showed her my house, which is sitting empty, she started to cry and ran out to the car. She’s been on her own for a very long time. She deals with a mortgage payment, a car payment, and one credit card she pays off every month. She shops at discount stores and doesn’t recognize designer labels. She’s honest, she’s frugal, and she allocates a portion of her yearly salary to donate to various causes, what she can comfortably afford. In my eyes, she’s as perfect as you can get. I am not perfect in her eyes. Oh, and one other thing. She wants a man who comes home for a supper that she cooks. And a paycheck that goes into a joint bank account. I’ve asked her to marry me a hundred times and, each time, she says no. Let’s not talk about me; this is your day. For whatever it’s worth, Gus, you did it all the right way. You found your path, and you stayed on it. I’ll find mine, but it may take a little longer.”

“Jill really likes Priscilla; they turned out to be great friends. The seniors love her, too. She’s what Granny calls good people. We both know what that means.”

“I’m happy for you, Gus.”

“I know you are, and I have you to thank for it all.”

“Nah, you should thank Elaine in a crazy kind of way. If she hadn’t demanded a divorce, you never would have met Jill. By the way, have you heard from Elaine?”

“The last time I heard from her was more than a year ago, when I sent the divorce papers to a box number in Alabama. They came back in overnight mail. No note, no nothing. She must be moving around, because when she sent the Quit Claim deed to the house, it was mailed from North Carolina. That was almost two years ago. Elaine is nothing more than a bad memory these days.”

“Did the nibble you had on the house come to anything?”

“It was a lowball offer. I’m holding out because I want to return the money to Granny. The market is still bad, but I would at least like to get back the price Granny paid for it, so I’m going to wait as long as I can.”

Barney shrugged. “I’m glad you and Jill agreed to get married at Shady Pines. You guys made the seniors so happy. They’ve been working like beavers to make sure the garden is shipshape. And asking Albert to perform the ceremony put them all over the moon.”

“Well, Al is a notary, and he casually said he could marry us if we wanted him to. I talked it over with Jill, and it seemed perfect to us. I hope he remembers the words.”

“He’s been rehearsing by pretending to marry Iris and Oscar six times a day. I think he has it down pat.” Barney laughed.

Wilson trotted up to the deck, looked at Gus and Barney, and let loose with a bark that meant, Where’s my breakfast?

“Did you make the bed, Wilson? Did you take the trash out? You need to work in this house, or you don’t eat. Hop to it, buddy.”

Wilson dropped to the deck and put his head between his paws. Gus shrugged.

Barney grabbed his own coffee cup and reached across the table for Gus’s. He carried them into the house for refills. When he returned, he also had a Pop-Tart for Wilson.

“I closed on the house across the street yesterday, Gus. We’re going to be neighbors. I bought a John Deere tractor, and they’re going to deliver it later today.”

“On my wedding day!”

“Yeah. I told them to put it in the garage. No big deal. Next week, Priscilla and I are going to shop for furniture, and, no, she is not moving in. She just offered to help me, so I don’t get ripped off.”

“Barney, what are you going to do about your business?”

“I’m not giving it up. It’s what I do. I am cutting back on my travel, but I can’t give it up entirely. I’m good at what I do, and people depend on me. If I can’t get Priscilla to see my side, then she and I are not meant to be. I have to be true to myself. Granny taught us that, Gus.”

Barney looked at his watch. “Five more hours, pal.”

“Hold on, Barney. I have something for you. Groom has to give his best man a present. I got one for you.”

“No kidding? You didn’t give me one when you married Elaine.”

“That’s because I didn’t know I was supposed to give you a gift. Elaine handled all the details. Granny and the seniors are doing this one, so they explained it to me.” Gus got up and went into the house. He returned with a huge box and another Pop-Tart for Wilson.

Barney got up and stood over the box. He pried back the ends of the box and pulled out the slab of bark from the old sycamore tree. Gus watched as his fingers traced their names, then caressed the old bark. Tears rolled down his cheeks.

“Jesus, Gus, how the hell . . . ? I don’t know what . . . you couldn’t have given . . . this is . . . this is from our kid days. A memory I’ll never forget. I don’t know what to say,” he said, throwing his arms around Gus. Then they both blubbered like little boys as their memories took them both back in time.

“I don’t know what you’re going to do with it—a doorstop maybe,” Gus said, trying to lighten the intensely emotional moment. Barney just hugged him harder.

“I can’t believe you gave me this. I guess my question would be, why didn’t you keep it for yourself? And how did you get it, anyway?”

“Barney, I don’t have a whole hell of a lot to give to show you how much I value our friendship and all you’ve done for me over the years. I thought . . . I hoped this would say it for me. I told Granny about how I wanted it, and she asked Mr. Younger when he was cutting the tree down. He had to do some serious cutting, but I think he understood how important it was to me to save it. The lightning strike ran down the side, right next to where we gouged out our names. You can see a little dark streak of it there on the side. You know, Barney, you have to stop squeezing me, or you’re going to break my ribs on my wedding day.”

“Oh, sorry, Gus. I’m just so overwhelmed. Listen, I’m going to take this over to my new house so it’s the first thing I bring to my new life here in the neighborhood.”

“Go ahead. Do you want me to make some breakfast?”

“No. I’m too excited to eat. Well, okay, maybe some toast and juice.”

“Well, if that’s all you want, you can make it yourself. I’m going up to take my shower. Now, if you want to cook something, that’s okay with me.” Like that’s going to happen.

Gus made his way upstairs on wobbly legs, Wilson at his heels. He was getting married today, in less than five hours. He pinched himself to prove he wasn’t still asleep, dreaming. In the bathroom, he gripped the edge of the vanity to steady himself. He closed his eyes and thought about the past two years and about how a warm friendship had turned into a deep and abiding love for the young woman he’d once called a fireplug. He had to be the luckiest man alive. He bowed his head and thanked Elaine. Because, in the end, Barney was right; if she hadn’t kicked him out and filed for divorce, he wouldn’t be standing here right now and looking forward to marrying the love of his life. “Wherever you are, Elaine, I hope you’re as happy as I am right this moment,” he whispered.





Barney drove to Shady Pines because Gus was too nervous. Both were attired in dove gray tuxedos as per Granny’s suggestion. They told each other in jittery voices that they looked dashing.

As they drove down the long driveway to the main building, they took time to appreciate the seniors’ hard work at sprucing up the grounds for this important day. The lawn had been mowed, and the scent of the newly mown grass permeated the air. It was not an unpleasant scent. Flowers of all kinds bloomed in profusion. There wasn’t a weed to be seen. Lush, thick ferns moved gently from the rafters of the wide front porch, where the seniors congregated at night to talk or to play checkers or chess. The building itself looked clean and well kept. The shutters and trim sported a pristine white fresh coat of paint.

The wedding was being held at the back of the property, on the wide expanse of lawn, under a lattice arch. White roses and blooming Confederate jasmine climbed the trellis. Gus thought it looked beautiful.

Barney parked as close as he could to the south entrance to Shady Pines, the door Granny had told them to come to, where they could wait until it was time to see the bride.

“Did Granny tell you what’s on the buffet for the luncheon?” Barney asked.

“Everything under the sun. Each senior’s favorite, each of our favorites, and, of course, the wedding cake that Lewis Lippman made for the occasion, which Granny said was, as per the instructions, decorated with fortune cookies. One for each guest. Jill thought that the fortune cookie cake was the best idea she’d ever heard of and said she would have liked to have seen the look on Lewis’s face when the request for the fortune cookies had arrived.”

“They all love Jill. I told you that would happen, Gus. Jill loves having so many grandmothers and grandfathers. She adores each and every one of them. It turned out just the way we thought it would.”

Gus laughed. “With a little help from Barney Beezer, who keeps feeding the coffers. I appreciate the help, Barney. The seniors would, too, if they knew. The twenty extra seniors we added the last two years ate into our reserve, but with your help and my creative accounting and Jill’s expertise, it’s working perfectly. We might have to cut back on the bonus each one gets next year. I don’t think anyone will mind. I was also thinking of cutting back vacations from two weeks to one week. Again, I don’t think anyone will mind. If we do that, we can take in ten more seniors. You prepared to commit to that?”

“It’s done.”

“You’re a hell of a guy, Barney Beezer. I just wish you’d let me tell all of them how much you’ve done for them that they don’t even know about.”

“No. We agreed, Gus. I don’t even want Granny or the aunts to know.”

“It doesn’t seem fair somehow.”

“To me, it’s fair. So, you ready to get out of the car? Do you think you can stand up? You’re gonna be okay, aren’t you, Gus?”

“God, Barney, I don’t know. I feel like that night when we picked up our dates for our first prom. Remember that?”

“Jesus, is that how you feel?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, get over it right now. You are going to marry the most wonderful young woman in this world. You have a huge family here to cheer you on and to wish you well. You have to stand up to that. So, let’s put one foot in front of the other and head to the room that was assigned to just you, me, and Albert.”

Gus climbed out of the car and stood upright. He started to laugh then and couldn’t stop. “I’m getting married!” he bellowed.

“’Bout time you got here, young fella. Thought you might be late for your own wedding there for a minute,” Albert said, chuckling.

Gus gaped at the man standing in front of him. He knew it was Albert, yet it wasn’t the Albert he knew. The beard was gone, his hair was trimmed, and he wore a stunning blue-and-white seersucker suit that had to be sixty years old. A white sash was draped over his shoulder. Not only was Albert marrying him, he was also going to do all the photography. They all shook hands as Albert paced and recited the words he would say once the wedding was under way.

Granny poked her head in the door. “Ten minutes, Augustus. Violet will escort you and Barney to the waiting area. May I be the first to tell you how beautiful your bride-to-be looks?”

Gus gulped. He felt as nervous as a cat on a hot griddle, a favorite saying of his grandmother’s. Now he knew what that particular saying meant.

Violet swooped into the room, checked out Albert from head to toe, then she gave his tie a jerk to straighten it. “Okay, Albert, Iris is going to escort you to the trellis. You go first.” Albert smiled as he left the room just as soon as Iris knocked on the door.

“Now, it’s your turn, nephew.” Violet leaned forward, her gaze soft and gentle. “I want to tell you how proud of you I am, Augustus. You truly redeemed yourself in our eyes. I want to thank you for that. Having said that, neither I nor my two sisters will ever apologize for our actions prior to your first wife’s kicking you out of the house. We love you, dear, you’re our family, and we care about you, and perhaps, back then, we cared too much. Whatever, that’s all water under the bridge. This is now. I hope you will always be as happy as you are today.” Then Violet pulled Gus close and whispered in his ear. Gus blinked, then blinked again, as Violet moved forward to lead the two men out of the room, down the hall, and out to the velvety lawn, where they would wait for Jill to make her appearance.

Gus was shaking so bad, Barney had to grip his arm in a viselike hold. “What’d she say, Gus?” he hissed in his ear.

Gus struggled to speak. “She said if I screwed up again, she’d personally help Oscar drag me out to the barn to do me in.”

Barney let out a whoop of laughter. “That’s Aunt Vi for you. She means it, you know.”

“I do know that,” Gus mumbled. “God, do I know that.”

And then they were standing next to the trellis that smelled so sweet. Gus thought he was going to faint from the heady scent of the flowering jasmine.

“Three minutes and counting,” Albert said.

“Two minutes and counting.”

“One minute, and here comes the bride!”

The seniors burst into song as every male senior at Shady Pines escorted Jill to the trellis to give her away. They sang loudly, they sang off-key, they forgot some of the words, but their hearts were in the rendition. Jill smiled from ear to ear as Gus stared at his beloved. The gorgeous creature coming toward him loved him. Just him. (And the seniors, he added as an afterthought.) She was willing to spend the rest of her life with him. Just the two of them. Forever and ever.

Barney’s arm snaked up to hold Gus erect. He looked at Albert and said, “Hit it, Albert, you’re up!”

The ceremony was flawless, everything going off without a hitch. Albert had the words down pat and didn’t miss a beat. The only time he screwed up was when he kissed the bride before the groom got to do it.

The seniors broke into another rendition of “Here Comes the Bride.” They sang at the top of their lungs. They sang off-key again, but no one cared. They threw popcorn instead of rice because one of the seniors had read somewhere that when wild birds ate rice, it swelled in their stomachs and they got sick. Balloons of all colors sailed high in the air.

Everyone clapped hands as they all made their way back inside to the community room, where the buffet and the champagne toast awaited.

There were only two gifts, one large, one small. The seniors clamored for Jill to open the gift that was from all of them. Tears in her eyes, Jill sat down and undid the wrapping. “Look, Gus, it’s an album of our two years with all the seniors. Look, you’re splitting wood in this one. Oh, my gosh, I’m cutting Annie’s hair in this one. This is a group shot of all of us!” And on and on she went as she flipped the pages. Gus could feel his eyes start to burn. Jill was openly crying.

“Oh, my gosh, I don’t know how to thank you. Look at Gus—he’s speechless. You guys are the most wonderful family I could ever hope to have. I know Gus agrees.” Gus was bobbing his head up and down.

“One more gift. Your turn, Augustus,” his grandmother said.

Gus reached for the small package, unwrapped it, and opened the box. A key rested on black velvet. Gus’s head jerked up as he looked at Barney. “This better not be a key to a new Porsche or even my old Porsche.”

“Not even close, Gus,” Barney replied, laughing.

The seniors were giggling and laughing and jostling each other, barely able to contain themselves.

Elroy Hitchens walked over to where Gus was, took his arm, and led him to one of the side windows of the community room. “Look!”

A big yellow bus stood right outside the window, with a big silver bow strapped to the top. “It’s from Barney,” the seniors shouted as one.

“My own bus!” Gus turned to Barney, who was laughing so hard he could hardly stand. “You son of a gun! How’d you know I wanted my own bus?”

“You talk in your sleep!”

It was chaos, then, as everyone started to talk, to kiss and hug the bride, and to offer congratulations. Gus received handshakes, accepted claps on the back, and listened to well-meaning advice.

Two hours later, Iris announced it was time for the bride to throw her bouquet. All the senior ladies and Jill’s friend and former secretary, Louise, lined up and waited for Jill to toss the bouquet over her shoulder. A senior named Sadie caught the bouquet, immediately marched over to Elroy Hitchens, and said, “What do you think about this, Elroy?”

“They smell nice,” Elroy said. It wasn’t the answer Sadie wanted, but she took it with good grace and moved on so the other ladies could ooh and aah over the flowers.

Rose, Violet, and Iris appeared out of nowhere. “It’s time!” they said in unison, the way they always spoke when they were together.

From somewhere, a whistle sounded. It was Albert, who then shouted as loud as he could, “Time to get ready, everyone! The bride and groom will be departing shortly.”

The room cleared, as if by magic. Lynus and Lewis walked over to where Jill was talking quietly with Barney and said their good-byes. Before he left, Lewis handed her a small, flat package. Inside, as she and Gus discovered later, were two framed pictures of their wedding cake, decorated all over with sixty fortune cookies.

Forty-five minutes later, everyone was dressed in casual, comfortable clothes. Barney led the parade out to the parking area. He put his arm around Rose and whispered, “This honeymoon is probably going to go down in history. The bride and groom are driving a big yellow bus to Las Vegas and taking along fifty-three seniors plus the best man and the maid of honor!”

“Are you sure, Barney, that the people you hired to clean up and put everything back in place are reliable? The seniors were a little worried about their personal belongings.”

“Not to worry, Granny; they’re bonded and licensed. There won’t be any problems. You guys ready?”

“We are. None of us have ever been to Las Vegas before. Can you imagine Jill and Augustus giving each of us a fifty-dollar bill to gamble? And the casino will give us another twenty-five. Jill said it’s customary to do that. I might be old, but I don’t think I ever saw that in any of the etiquette books.”

“You’re slipping, Granny. Even I knew that,” Barney said with a straight face.

“I guess I am getting old, but I’m glad I can learn something new each day. Thank you for enlightening us, Barney.”

Outside, Albert’s whistle blasted through the air. The seniors lined up, not sure which bus to get on. They waited for the bride and groom to make the decision. Gus looked at Barney and grinned. “We’re going in my new bus. All aboard!”

Gus, Jill, Priscilla, and Barney were the last to board. The workers Barney had hired to clean up after the wedding waved from the front porch of Shady Pines.

“Isn’t this great, Priscilla?” Barney asked the woman he hoped to marry. “Getting married, then taking your family along on your honeymoon. In a big yellow bus. I don’t think it gets any better than that, do you?”

“You can’t wait to drive this bus, right?” Priscilla asked.

“I take over for the second half of the trip. Got my license right here with me.”

“Well, in that case, I’ll marry you.”

Unaware of what had just happened, Gus settled himself behind the wheel and turned the key in the ignition. The seniors clapped and whooped when the engine of the new yellow bus growled to life.

Before Gus shifted gears, he took a moment to look around at his big family, two of whom had their arms wrapped around each other and were oblivious to the rest of the world. Then he looked at his new bride, who was grinning from ear to ear. In that moment, he knew that if he lived to be a hundred, he would never ever be as happy as he was then. His fist shot in the air. The seniors clapped once again.

“Next stop, Las Vegas!” Gus shouted.





FERN MICHAELS is the USA Today and New York Times

bestselling author of the Sisterhood and Godmother

series, Tuesday’s Child, Southern Comfort, Betrayal, Return

to Sender, and dozens of other novels and novellas. There

are over seventy million copies of her books in print. Fern

Michaels has built and funded several large day-care

centers in her hometown, and is a passionate animal lover

who has out-fitted police dogs across the country with

special bulletproof vests. She shares her home in

South Carolina with her four dogs and a resident

ghost named Mary Margaret.

Visit her website at fernmichaels.com.





GOTCHA!

They’re back . . . !





The long-awaited return of the sensational Sisterhood!





REVENGE IS NEVER OUTDATED





Sometimes, justice is a long time coming. That’s the case

with Julie Wyatt, whose story strikes close to home for the

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best friend—and fellow Sister—Annie. Julie is convinced

her greedy daughter-in-law Darlene had something to do

with the mysterious circumstances surrounding her son

Larry’s death. She desperately wants to get a confession out

of Darlene—and to ensure the safety of Larry’s daughter,

Olivia. As Myra, Annie, and their cohorts dig deeper into

Darlene’s shady dealings, events unfurl in a way that no one

could have predicted, bringing to light the true meaning of

loyalty and courage—and the kind of friendship that can

create miracles . . .





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BALANCING ACT

One of the most acclaimed storytellers of her time, #1 New York

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of love, family, friendship, and self-discovery. Together in one vol-

ume for the first time, here are two classic stories about following

your heart—wherever it leads . . .





ALL SHE CAN BE


Rita Bellamy has had enviable success as an author, but it

came at the expense of her marriage. Now she’s starting

over in a small lakeside cottage, slowly rebuilding the confi-

dence that was shattered. But is the younger man next door

a fun, frivolous diversion or something much more?





FREE SPIRIT


Moving to Washington, D.C. to be with Griff should be the

beginning of an exciting new chapter in Dory’s life. Yet

there are adjustments too, and sacrifices she never

expected. And soon Dory must weigh the price of love

against everything she hoped to gain . . .



FANCY DANCER

On his thirty-fifth birthday, Jake St. Cloud inherits a

fortune—and learns the whereabouts of his mysterious

half-brother. On her deathbed, Selma St. Cloud revealed

that Jake had a sibling, a product of his father’s affair. At

last, Jake is in a position to track down Alex Rosario and

make amends for their father’s past neglect.





At least, that’s the plan. When their initial meeting goes

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Fancy, at the Dancer Foundation for neglected children.

Fancy, scarred within and without by the accident that

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he unravels the painful truths of his past, Jake realizes that

his mother’s greatest gift to him lies not in his inheritance,

but in the future, and the family, he’s slowly piecing

together . . .



RETURN TO SENDER

At seventeen, Rosalind “Lin” Townsend found herself pregnant

and alone. Her deeply religious father threw her out of the house,

and Nick Pemberton, her baby’s father, refused to marry her. Yet

even at the lowest point in her life, Lin vowed to succeed on her

own terms, and to give her son, Will, all the love and happiness

she’d been denied.



Nineteen years later, Lin has made good on her promises, and

Will is about to start his freshman year at NYU. But when Lin visits

New York with Will, she crosses paths with the one man she

thought she’d never see again—Nick Pemberton, now a million-

aire CEO, and the man who sent back all her letters unopened.

Seeing him fills Lin with anger, and she resolves to right the

wrong he did to Will. If she succeeds, like she has with everything

else, the cost of revenge may be the loss of a bright new future . . .