“I’ve always wanted you to stay. I just didn’t know how to tell you. I’m...I’m not very good at expressing my emotions,” he explained, feeling almost as though he should apologize. “I never really learned how. But with you, I’ll try. I want you to know me in a way no one’s ever bothered to know me before.”
Her smile turned tremulous. Her dark eyes gleamed softly. “I want that, too,” she whispered.
“Mr. Tyler? Hey, Mr. Tyler?” The security guard approached them quickly, sounding harried and amused all at the same time. “You’re, er, going to have to move your vehicles, sir. You’re blocking traffic.”
Andrew nodded, unable to look away from Nicole’s beaming smile. “Nicole? Let’s go home.”
She slid out of his arms just as the first flakes of snow drifted down around them. She seemed wholly unaffected by the cold. “Yes,” she said happily. “Let’s go home.”
It was the first time that he could remember that the word “home” had ever sounded so utterly right to him.
Epilogue
“FIVE...FOUR...Three...Two...One. Midnight! Happy New Year, everyone!”
“Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Tyler. It’s a boy.” His grin crinkling his eyes above his paper mask, the doctor spoke moments after a nurse gaily announced the time. His words were followed immediately by the lusty wail of an indignant newborn.
Nicky fell exhausted against the pillows of the birthing bed, tears mingling with the perspiration on her cheeks. Her hand was gripped tightly in Andrew’s. He, too, had tears in his eyes.
He’d come a long way in learning to share his emotions during the past year, she thought happily.
“A New Year’s baby,” the nurse exclaimed, laying the hastily swaddled child in Nicky’s arms as the doctor finished his job. “Born at twelve-oh-one. Bet he’s the first baby of the year in Memphis.”
Nicky and Andrew were both huddled over their son. “He’s beautiful,” Nicky whispered. “Oh, Andrew, he looks like you.”
Andrew’s voice was husky. “He looks like both of us.”
She liked that even better.
Marcus Daniel Tyler squirmed in his mother’s arms for a moment, then drifted into a restless sleep. Against his father’s initial disapproval, Andrew had insisted that his son have a name of his own.
It was time, he had said, to break with some traditions. His child would be raised differently than Andrew had been, encouraged to be himself and not just a clone of his male predecessors. There would be plenty of love in their home, and laughter and honest emotions. And Santa Claus.
Nicky had heartily approved Andrew’s plans.
“You have a lot of family waiting out there to meet you, Marcus,” she murmured to her dozing son.
One by one, she named them. “Grandma Jane...”
Andrew had been startled to discover that Nicky’s mother was a beautiful brunette of only forty-five, who looked at least five years younger than that. It had taken Jane only minutes to win Andrew over with her infectious laughter and generous affection. Though he admitted that his mother-in-law made his head swim at times with her unconventional ways, he had quickly grown fond of her, as Nicky had known he would.
“Grandfather Andrew...”
Andrew Colton Tyler, Jr., had met his son’s mother-in-law last Easter at a family gathering. To Andrew’s barely concealed dismay, Andrew, Jr., and Jane had been carrying on a volatile affair ever since. Jane was confident that it would lead to her third, and final, marriage. Nicky expected an announcement at any time.
“Grandma Lucy and Grandpa Lowell...”
Andrew’s mother had accepted her ex-husband’s new love interest with an equanimity that was a relief to everyone, since the family connections were now so entangled. Delighted that she was finally going to have a grandchild to show off for her bridge dub, she’d made peace with her ex, assuring him and the others that they
would be able to mingle cordially at family gatherings. After all, she had finally admitted, she was much too happy with her Lowell to harbor old grudges.
“Aunt Amy and Cousin Nate. And Great-great-uncle Timbo.”
The entire Holiday family had accepted Andrew among them. All were self-supporting these days, but Andrew had promised Nicky that he would always be available for them if financial difficulties cropped up. Nicky had been pleased, though she knew her family wasn’t a bunch of spongers. But it was nice to know that she could continue to help them out when it was necessary.
“They’re an odd group,” Nicky murmured to her new son with a tremulously affectionate smile. “But you’re going to love them all.”
His face very close to hers, Andrew smiled. “It’s been a long night,” he murmured, stroking her damp, weary face.