The Sometime Bride

Epilogue

After a private ceremony and small family reception, featuring mint-chocolate wedding cake, Mike took Carrie on a long country drive, after which he surprised her by carting her over the threshold of a darling Cape Cod with a white picket fence. After crying several million tears and drinking the sweet Virginia wine Mike had stocked in the fridge, Carrie told him about his new investment opportunity in the Caymans.

Once they’d gotten over the initial shock of just how alike they truly were, the delighted couple arrived at a happy compromise. They would rent out the new house for a year while they lived on Grand Cayman and got Mike’s dive-shop business off the ground. Afterward, they would settle back in Virginia and begin fulfilling Carrie’s engagement-ring promise of creating four beautiful children.

So they could keep an eye on him, Mike’s father, Jack, would be invited to join them in the islands for that first year. They would rent him someplace scenic, not too far from their own home, where he could watch the saucy Caribbean sun stretching its long fingers over the morning waters—and enjoy the personal attentions of his own private nurse.

Once back in Virginia, they’d continue to vacation on Grand Cayman, and Mike would make occasional business trips, as needed, to check up on his shop. Then eventually, once Mike found the perfect piece of real estate, they’d build a breezy getaway on the island’s east end and summer there on a regular basis.

And while they plotted, planned, and worked out all these intimate details, the newlyweds, Mr. and Mrs. Michael John Davis, sat on the front steps of their perfect new home and ate a whole box of ice cream sandwiches—before they melted.