Page 93 of The Forever Christmas Tree

“You have visitors.”

“Me? Who?” Wendy couldn’t recall the last time she’d had a visitor. Probably when her dad came out to see her more than five years ago, but, no, there had been that guy she’d met on a blind date last year, who practically stalked her when she’d declined any further dates. He’d been barred from the base, eventually.

Delphine just shrugged, but she had an odd look on her face.

Wendy passed Commander MacLean as he was exiting his office and motioning her inside. “I’ll give you a half hour,” he said and closed the door behind her, after she entered.

Wendy couldn’t have been more surprised.

Standing by the windows that overlooked the grinder were Ethan and Cassie. Turning at her entrance, they both had smiles on their faces . . . Ethan’s rather tentative, Cassie’s wide open and enthusiastic.

Stunned, she just stared at them for a long moment. Ethan, whose eyes were shaded by a pair of dark sunglasses, wore a tapered, blue dress shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, unbuttoned at the top, untucked, over jeans and sockless loafers. Cassie was in pink, of course. A pretty pink blouse over white shorts with white sneakers and pink socks.

“Ethan? Cassie? What are you doing here?”

“We’re Muhammads,” Cassie announced, limping over to hug Wendy around the waist.

Wendy hugged Cassie back and kissed the top of her blonde head.

“There was a fire, and my phone broke, and Nana told Dad to get his butt in gear because he was so grumpy, but then I had an operation, and Nana moved out, and Dad wouldn’t let me call you, but Nana said . . .” All this Cassie said in a long rush of words, none of which made sense to Wendy, and still went on while Wendy turned to Ethan for an explanation.

Over Cassie’s head, Wendy murmured, “Muhammads?” to Ethan, who still stood by the window, leaning against the wall, gazing at her with an enigmatic expression on his face.

But then he pushed away from the wall, removing his sunglasses as he walked, folding and tucking them into a shirt pocket. Blinking slowly, his wonderfully silky black lashes rose, fell, then settled at half mast, just the way he knew she liked, the way she at one time could not resist. Only then did he say, “We’re coming to the mountain.”

“I have no idea what that means.”

“Turns out I have a bit of my grandfather Samuel in me. You know how he moved to Bell Cove because he loved my grandmother so much, even though his work was elsewhere?”

“Yeah.” She still didn’t understand.

“Well, here I am.” He grinned at her.

“Are you trying to say that you would move here? For me?”

“If that’s what it takes.”

“But . . . but what kind of work would you do here?”

“Have no clue. Maybe I’ll grow palm trees.”

“You would uproot Cassie from the Outer Banks?”

“Kids adapt,” Cassie interjected, even though Wendy hadn’t been addressing her.

“Ethan,” she whispered, unable to believe that he would make this kind of sacrifice for her. This was huge. The logistics were up in the air. But what did it matter? The fact that he would be willing was the most important thing. She took his face in her hands and said, “I don’t know exactly what you mean, but I’m glad you’re here.”

“Thank God!”

“He was afraid you would tell us to go home,” Cassie remarked from where she was now sitting on the edge of the commander’s desk, her legs swinging. A definite no-no. “Dad’s nervous.”

Ethan gave his daughter a chastising look, and she pretended to zip her lips, a smug expression on her cute face.

This was all so confusing. “You traveled roughly three thousand miles, to see me, and you thought I’d kick you to the door?”

“That’s just what I told him,” Cassie contributed.

Wendy exchanged a “Men!” look with Cassie.