The Rancher and the Event Planner

Epilogue

Two months later, JC stood before a full length mirror, in a guest room of the Cotton Hills resort. Grace and Molly had helped her choose the off the shoulder elegant dress with lace decorating the bodice. The skirt flowed in a white silky curtain to her feet and her veil was simple with tiny pearls over the surface and lace around the edges. Grace stepped up behind her. “You look beautiful. I’m over the moon you’re going to be living in Salvation and I have something for you.”

Overcome with happiness, JC grasped Grace’s hand at a loss for words. Grace held a strand of creamy pearls. “I wore these on my wedding day. Would they do for something old and borrowed?”

JC smiled. “Thank you, they’re perfect.”

Grace clasped the strand at the back of JC’s neck. She brushed her fingers over them. Her engagement ring sparkled in the light serving as something new. She held something blue in the bunch of violets Molly had added to her bouquet.

Someone knocked at the door. Molly opened the door wide enough to stick her head out into the hallway. “No, Daddy, you can’t see JC yet. Grandma says it’s bad luck.” She closed the door, looked at JC and sighed. “You look beautiful, Mom.”

Mom. Molly had started calling her mom in front of the office building in Dallas, and JC relished hearing the word. She absorbed it like cracked earth thirsty for water, as love oozed from her pores.

A few minutes later, she walked slowly down a stone path adorned with flowers and greenery. Molly in a pale yellow dress and white Mary Jane shoes scattered petals in her path while starlight sprinkled down. The resort glowed with thousands of white twinkle lights. A harpist played Canon in D as she walked toward an arch covered with white roses. A crowd of family and friends had joined them on this happy night, but the only person she had eyes for was Rafe.

Her gaze rested like a sigh of hope on the man she loved. Rafe’s step-dad, Daniel held out his arm, and JC looped her hand in the crook of his elbow, and together they slowly walked toward Rafe.

He stood under the arch, a gorgeous male vision in his tuxedo with Linc, his best man beside him. Among her new family and friends, JC declared her love for the man who owned her heart. “You bet I do,” her new husband said, his eyes full of adoration, before sweeping JC into his arms. When they came up for air, applause filled the air. A ray of moonlight cascaded down and enclosed them in its shimmering white veil.

She had found home.