“I told myself all we needed was time,” he said. “I knew I could gain your trust...your love if I just had the time to prove myself to you. After today I realized that I might never have any of those things.”
“No,” she whispered fervently, hating the haunted look that shadowed his rugged features. She pressed her lips to his warmly. “You have all those things—time, trust and love. My love, most of all.”
Epilogue
Ethan Kassim Itani’s first day at the new house on Sycamore Avenue was the family’s first day, as well. It felt like living a miracle to Faith to walk into their beautiful new home carrying her beautiful new son.
“I’ll take him, so you can look around better,” Ryan said quietly when they reached the landing at the top of the stairs of the house.
“Oh, Ryan,” Faith whispered as she looked at the newly polished floors and painted walls. The house on Sycamore Avenue had been beautiful when they’d viewed it four and a half months ago, but what Ryan had done to it in the meantime made it downright stunning.
“I can’t believe it, you painted the hallway and put in the wall sconces,” she breathed, glancing around in wonder. “You’ve been working too hard, doing this and everything with the business, too,” she admonished as she turned to hand him the bundle in her arms. She looked down into Ethan’s tiny face as Ryan took him. The baby wrinkled his nose and made a pursing movement with his mouth before he resumed sleeping again. Faith glanced up into Ryan’s face and they shared a smile.
“The most gorgeous baby in the world, the most beautiful house and the most wonderful husband,” Faith whispered. “How is it possible for one woman to feel so much happiness at once?”
“Does that mean you can’t take any more?”
She grinned and narrowed her gaze on him. “What do you mean?” she asked suspiciously. “Did you finish the nursery?”
His grin widened. He led her down the hallway. She gasped when she walked into the room. Faith had insisted on putting up the stenciling for the wall mural, even though she wouldn’t be able to actually paint it until after the baby was born, so that part remained unfinished. Ryan had completed every other possible conceivable detail of the nursery, however. The walls were painted in a rich cobalt-blue, the white furniture they’d chosen contrasting with it handsomely. She walked over to the finished, dark walnut shelving unit that Ryan had fashioned, admiring the gleaming wood and all the useful cabinets and shelves.
Tears smarted in her eyes when she turned to face her husband and son.
“It’s perfect. It’s absolutely perfect,” she said.
“Come here,” he said, his gaze on her warm. She hugged him around his waist, careful not to wake Ethan. She smiled at her beautiful boys.
“Should we see how Ethan likes his new cradle?” she asked. Ryan nodded and she watched, spellbound, as he laid the baby inside and gently covered him.
He turned and took Faith into his arms.
“To think,” she whispered. “You used to sleep in this room at night and dream about the next day’s summertime adventure.”
A smile tilted Ryan’s mouth. Warmth and love suffused every pore of her being when Ryan leaned down and fastened his mouth to hers.
“And one day,” he said quietly next to her upturned lips a moment later, “Ethan will scheme up his own dreams, and a whole new generation of adventures will take place in Harbor Town.“
* * * * *