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“Thomas is here.”
“Mack, he’ll probably be shocked at first, but he has a family now. He’s no longer alone. He’s stronger than you think.”
“Am I interrupting something?” Thomas asked, coming into the kitchen.
She stood up, laughing, and walked over to Thomas. “We got engaged yesterday, Thomas. We want to be married here, at Rose Cottage, this weekend.”
“Oh, my.” He cleared his throat. “Congratulations to you both.” Thomas hugged Mack, and then shook Dean’s hand.
“Sit down, Thomas. That’s not all our news.”
He sat down and glanced from Mack to Dean. “Well, you can’t be pregnant yet. Can you?”
“No, I’m not pregnant, Thomas. This is my engagement ring.” Mack lifted her hand up so Thomas could see the ring.
“That’s lovely, Mack.” Then he turned to Dean. “Is it a family heirloom?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Thomas, there’s no easy way to say this.” She took a deep breath. “Yesterday, when we went to visit Dean’s grandparents, we discovered that Eliza, Jacob’s wife and Dean’s grandmother, is actually Rose, your sister.” Thomas’s eyes focused completely on Mack. “Rose didn’t die that night, Thomas. Rose and Jacob blackmailed Richard into telling your parents that he saw her go over the cliffs.”
Dean passed Thomas and Mack a glass of water and continued the story. “Rose came back to see you and tell you the truth in 1955, only to be told by your father that you’d died in Korea. All these years, Thomas, she thought that you were dead.”
Thomas leaned forward in his chair and dropped his face into his hands. Mack went over to him and wrapped her arm around him. She could feel him shake while his tears fell silently.
He lifted his head. “After all these years. Because of the both of you.” He shook his head. “I can’t take it all in. I never expected you both to come back from Boston telling me my sister’s alive.” He looked at Mack then Dean. “You’re my great-nephew?”
Dean smiled. “I certainly am . . . Uncle Thomas.”
Mack wiped her eyes. “Eliza and Jacob will be here this weekend for our wedding. She’s waiting for your call, Thomas.”
“I can talk to her, after all these years? What’s she like?”
“She looks about twenty years younger than she is. In fact, Jacob certainly doesn’t look his age, either. Thomas, she was just as shaken as you are when she learned you were alive. She said she has missed you so much over the years. She still wishes to go by Eliza, though.”
“I can understand that. After all, that’s what she’s used for a very long time . . . So she gave you her engagement ring,” Thomas said, looking at Dean.
“She did. She said she wanted the woman of my heart, who returned her brother to her to have her ring.”
“Then I guess if you want a wedding here this weekend, you better get a move on.” Thomas laughed.
She felt relief that Thomas was taking the news about Eliza so well. In a way, it was a dream come true for her because not only had she fallen in love with Dean, but Thomas as well. After she married Dean, they’d all be family. She also knew one little lad who would be thrilled to bits to discover Thomas was going to be part of the family.
He stood up. “I’ll take her number, if you will, then leave you to it.”
Mack handed him the number she had already written down for him. “Here you go. Are you okay?”
He pulled Mack into his arms and just held her close. “I’m more than okay. Thank you so much. You’re the daughter I never had,” he whispered, close to tears.
Epilogue
It was three hours before the wedding, and regardless of how many people had told Mack that it was bad luck to see the groom before the wedding, she insisted she was going to be there to see Thomas and Eliza meet for the first time in sixty-eight years.
She hadn’t dressed in her wedding finery just yet, so she headed downstairs in search of Dean, so she could watch the reunion in her shirt and jeans.
When they’d told Thomas that Rose had been happily married to Jacob for all these years, it was harder than they both had thought it would be, even Dean was all choked up.
Brother and sister had talked on the phone daily since the news had broken, and there had been a lot of tears, as well as laughter.
