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Her family was coming and going, taking turns going down for food or out for a walk, when needed. They all seemed to have unflappable confidence she would simply wake when she was ready.
Billy raised his head and whimpered. Logan followed the dog’s eyes to the bed and saw Sam watching him, eyes open and calm.
“Sam!” Logan shot from his chair and was by her side in an instant. She simply smiled up at him.
“Can you talk, Sam? Are you okay?”
“Of course, I’m okay, silly man. Why wouldn’t I be? You took care of me, didn’t you?” she asked him with such confidence, much in the same way her family had believed she would wake up. As if it was simply so.
“Yeah,” he said, sitting in the chair by her bed and raising her hand to his lips. He kissed each finger. “Yeah.”
Then he laid his head on her chest and listened to her breathe and to the soft rumble of her laughter, until one of the nurses arrived to check her vital signs.
Yeah. He would take care of her for the rest of her life. For as long as she’d let him.
Epilogue
“Is she serious?” Logan whispered to Sam, his arms wrapped tightly around her waist, tugging her back to his front.
Sam nodded and murmured “mm hmm.”
“Wow.” Logan had never seen a woman on a mission quite like this. He’d also never seen a woman deny being in labor quite so vehemently.
“The baby isnotcoming.” A very pregnant Kelly waddled around the room, one hand on her lower back, the other hand pointing and giving orders to those around her.
Somehow, she gave the impression of whipping around, even though her pace was slow. Her pace also included the occasional clutching of her stomach as she bent and groaned, all the while denying she was in labor.
They were there with several of their friends and Kelly’s family members for a “nesting party” designed to help top off the nursery design and help the couple prepare for the baby’s arrival in three weeks.
From where Logan stood, it seemed like this baby wasn’t going to wait three weeks. Hell, to him it seemed as though the baby wasn’t going to wait three hours, but he could be wrong. He was no expert on babies.
Sam seemed to sink further back into him, snuggling in his arms and he tightened his grip. He’d never been so happy in his life. They planned to have the wedding the following summer because her mother and sisters wanted time to plan.
Sam didn’t see the need for a big wedding with a fancy dress and all the frills, but she was doing it for her mom and sisters. She and Logan had gone down to town hall and gotten married quietly. They simply didn’t want to wait.
They’d never tell anyone. As far as the world would know—with the exception of the city clerk and the witnesses they’d grabbed in the hallway of the building—they would marry the following June.
He didn’t care how they were married, just that they were. He had Sam by his side for the rest of his life.
He had resigned from Sutton Capital. Not because he didn’t love the people and the work there, but because he’d found something more important to do. Jack approached him and told him a friend of his was looking to donate a large chunk of money to fund a nonprofit. Jack was going to match the friend’s donation on the condition that the nonprofit was geared toward helping military service men and women with PTSI and Traumatic Brain Injury.
They wanted Logan to head it up, with Ernie as the head of the counseling side of things. It turned out, Jack’s mysterious friend who wanted to donate money was Samantha. She had more money than she knew what to do with sitting in the bank from Tangled Legacy and she knew Logan wouldn’t take her money if she offered it.
He’d been a little bowled over when he found out she had just over a billion dollars if you counted all her property and assets. He was still trying to convince her to let him split their bills, so letting her start a nonprofit for him was hard to swallow.
Still, in the end he did and he was glad she’d found a way to get him to accept it. Thanks to her, Logan would get to help other veterans. And he would start with his own father. They’d gone out to visit him, and his dad was struggling, but Logan and he talked—really talked—for the first time in a long time.
His dad checked himself into an alcohol treatment facility and Logan had lined up a place for his dad to come live in Connecticut when he got out. He’d help his dad get the long overdue help he needed.
They found a building to house the new nonprofit and they were working on staffing it. One of the first things Logan had done was to have a plaque made, dedicating the space to Nick “Dopey” James. Logan had chosen a quote from Henry Scott Holland for the plaque:
Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room … Call me by the old familiar name. Speak of me in the easy way which you always used. Put no difference in your tone. Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me … I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just round the corner. All is well.
“Kelly, I think we need to head on over to the hospital now,” Jack said, and Logan recognized the overly-easy, I-don’t-want-to-set-off-the-crazy-pregnant-lady tone of his friend’s voice.
Kelly’s dad tried to back Jack up. “Yeah, Kel, I think that’s probably a good idea. Head on over, let the doctor see how you’re doing. Get that baby on out of there.”
“Nonsense,” Kelly said with a wave of her hand, but Logan saw she was panting slightly now and he had to wonder how much pain she was in. “I’ve got three more weeks. Heck, Maddie was a week late. For heaven’s sake, I’ve most likely got another month with this one. These are Braxton-Hicks.”
