I look back to see my mother standing there with his gun in her hand. “I gave you everything,” she says, walking to him, and he groans, holding his shoulder. “Everything. I stood by you when I caught you with my best friend on our wedding day.” She points the gun at him. “When you chased the staff around. When I had to spend my birthday alone because you were with one of your whores!” she screams, and you see that she is broken. “I did everything for you.” She sobs. “Everything.” I get up now and walk over to my mother who stands over my father, and her hands are shaking. “Everything!” she yells, and I call her name.
“Mom,” I say, and she turns her face to look at me.
“He ruined everything,” she says.
“I know he did, Mom,” I say, “but this is not going to help anyone. Give me the gun. Let him stand there in the courtroom and let everyone know what he did. Just give me the gun,” I tell her, holding out my hand. “Just give me the gun.”
Her hands shake as she holds the gun, and a sob rips through her. “I’m so sorry,” she says, handing me the gun. The front door swings open, and I hear boots running down the hallway.
“Beau!” I hear Jacob scream my name.
“In here,” Savannah says, her own sob coming out of her. “We’re in here.”
The door swings open, and Jacob runs in and sees my father on the floor. “Shit,” he says.
“I shot him,” my mother says. “I shot him.”
It takes an hour for them to take my father out on a stretcher, and my mother is sitting down on the couch, her composure is just like it always is. She sits there with her feet crossed at her ankles and her hands on her knees. “Is she going to be arrested?” I ask Jacob.
“Not unless your father presses charges,” Jacob says. “Right now, he’s not saying anything.”
“How are you doing?” Savannah says, coming over to me and hugging me around the waist.
“I’m doing okay, baby,” I say, kissing her head.
She looks up, and the clouds suddenly start to roll in. “Looks like a storm is coming.”
I look up and see the black clouds start to roll in just as fast as the white clouds chase it away. “Looks like the storm passed us,” I say, kissing her. “And we are still standing.”
Epilogue One
Savannah
One year later
“This is silly,” I say, looking around the room at Olivia and Kallie. “We are already married.”
“But this time,” Kallie says, coming to me, “you got to pick your own wedding dress.”
“Even if we had to have it altered since your baby bump kept growing,” Olivia says, and I put my hand on my lace wedding dress over my little baby bump. We were not trying to get pregnant, but when it was time to renew my pills, Beau told me to maybe not take them, and let’s see what would happen. Well, it took one month, one month of trying or not being careful, and I was carrying our baby.
“She looks like she has a basketball under there,” Kallie says, smiling. A lot has changed in a year. After Mary Ellen shot Clint, he was sentenced to twenty-five years in jail, but after a month, he had a heart attack in his cell. I felt sorry that Beau lost his father, but I didn’t shed a tear for that bastard. When the truth came out, I found out that my own mother had to have two abortions at two different times. She also decided that she wasn’t going to let any man dictate her life, so two months later, she married her landlord. I shake my head, hoping that she lives a happy life. Chase got off with doing five years and hopefully moves far away from us.
“The baby just kicked me.” I laugh. Taking Kallie’s hand, I put it on my stomach so she can feel it. “She likes you.” Kallie just smiles at me, and that, too, has changed quite a bit. This rivalry that we had when she first got to town is now gone. I know that she would do whatever she could for my son, and to me, that means everything.
“I don’t know if I could have done this without you,” I say. My eyes fill with tears, but I am going to blame them on the baby. “You didn’t have to do anything for me.” I put my hand on hers on top of my stomach. “I made you lose eight years of your life. I can never give those years back to you.”
“It was meant to happen this way,” she says. “Besides, who knows if I would have ended up with Jacob had I stayed.” She winks at me, and I roll my eyes. “You never know.”
“You were his missing piece,” I say. “I know it’s silly and all that, but I wanted to know if you would be my maid of honor.” I dab the tears that are running down my face. “It’s fine if you don’t want to.”
“It would be my honor,” she tells me, grabbing me and bringing me in for a hug.
“If you guys continue with the waterworks, there will be no more makeup left, and your pictures will have to be edited,” Olivia says. “God, I can’t wait until you both stop with the hormones.”
“Is it still a secret?” I ask her of her own little bump, and she nods her head.
“We are still waiting for the twelve-week mark.” She puts her hand to her stomach. “So yes, it’s still a secret.”
“Mum’s the word,” I say with a smile. I’m about to say something else when a knock comes on the door, and it’s pushed open by my tall boy.
“Mom, Uncle Beau said if you don’t get out there now …” He smirks just like his father and uncle. “He’s throwing you over his shoulder and dragging you out there.” He laughs, and I look at him. He has grown so much in one year that the suit he had the last time had to be replaced.
“Tell your uncle to hold his horses,” Olivia says as she walks to the door. She walks out with Ethan, no doubt to scold Beau.
“I see she got her country down.” I shake my head.
“It’s like she was born with it,” Kallie says, picking up the flowers. “Now let’s go and get you remarried.”
I grab the small bouquet and walk out to meet my husband. I walk with Ethan who just smiles and high-fives all the guys once he hands me over to Beau, who kisses me right away. “I think that is supposed to be for after,” the officiant says.
“She’s already mine.” He winks at him, then he bends and kisses my stomach, something that he does all the time, which makes him even more special and makes the women swoon even more.
“I can go on.” The officiant smiles at him, and Beau just nods. “Since the two of you are already wed in holy matrimony, I’m going to go straight to the vows,” he says. “I believe that you two have your own vows.”
“We do,” Beau says. “I’ll go first.” Making everyone laugh and just like our first one, the wedding is our closest friends and family. “Savannah, I was sitting down the other day, and I tried to think back to when we were younger to try to pinpoint when I fell in love with you.” When he starts talking, my tears just don’t stop, and I don’t even try to stop them. “My whole life I’ve loved you from afar. I waited for the right moment to tell you how I felt, and I prayed that when I did this, you would feel the same.” He turns to the crowd. “She did.” Making everyone laugh. “Walking hand in hand with you through this life is so much more than I knew it would be. Thank you for making my dreams come true each and every single day by holding my hand and being the best friend and mother to our children.” He grabs my face in his hands now and kisses me. “I love you.”