Kennedy sucked in a few breaths until she got herself under control. “I’m listening.”
“I know I ragged on you pretty hard. Like everybody else, I had no idea why you left, and I was really angry with you for a long time. But I just want to say I’m sorry, and props to you for what you pulled off. I couldn’t have done what you did. None of us could. So kudos. And thank you for having the vision for turning the house into an inn. Mom really would’ve loved that.”
That almost set Kennedy off on a fresh bout of tears. The relief at finally being accepted by her family was sweeter than the honeysuckle just beginning to bloom outside. This was home, the family she’d been searching for through all her travels. This was love. “Thanks, y’all. I—well, I guess I’ve been carrying that around for a long time. It means a lot to know that you know and you get it. And that you like my idea.”
“We love your idea,” Pru said.
“I really look forward to working with you to finish fleshing out the details,” Maggie added. “I think this has the potential to really be something great, not only for us, but for the Ridge.”
Kennedy looked at her sisters and really felt connected to them for the first time in years. She took a deep breath as everything inside her began to settle. “I’d like that. But seriously, after some sleep.”
“Oh! Of course. Go to bed,” Pru ordered.
“And maybe when you get up, you could tell us about this book deal,” Maggie put in.
Kennedy froze. “How did you…?”
“The proposal was mixed in with everything else.”
Kennedy held still, feeling her soft underbelly exposed and waiting for more judgment.
“I was wrong. You did have direction and did have a career. It just wasn’t what I expected them to look like. I’m really proud of you. And I’m sorry we made you feel like you couldn’t tell us.”
“It wasn’t just that. In a lot of ways I saw myself the same way y’all did. It wasn’t until I came home and had to start taking stock and justifying how I’ve spent my time that I started recognizing everything I’ve done and learned. So I can’t really fault you for not having seen what I didn’t see myself.”
After another round of hugs and flurry of apologies, Kennedy finally climbed the stairs. Her feet felt leaden, but her heart was lighter than it had been for a decade. The curtains in her room were drawn, leaving the room bathed in shadow. She could just make out Xander sprawled in bed, breath slow and even. She undressed in the dark and slid beneath the covers beside him. His arms snaked out immediately to wrap around her and drag her back against him.
“Took so long?” he murmured.
“Just clearing the air with my sisters.”
“Everything okay?”
She and her sisters probably had a long way to go to figure out this whole adult family thing, but this, Kennedy decided, was a really great start. She snuggled into Xander’s embrace. “Everything’s fine. Everything’s really good. Go to back sleep, baby.”
~*~
“We’d like to thank all of you for coming out today to this Memorial Day celebration of our grand opening.”
Xander watched Kennedy where she stood on the front steps, flanked by all her sisters. A red ribbon stretched across the porch, from one rail to the other, and above them hung a sign, shrouded in fabric. The outside of the house looked much the same, with the azaleas in bloom and sunlight glinting off the freshly washed windows. But the inside had undergone a massive transformation over the past couple of months. He knew, as he’d helped with most of it. He was so proud to see how the sisters had come together in support of Kennedy’s vision to make it a reality.
“This house has a long and fascinating history. For many of you here, it was a home for some length of time.”
And indeed, the front lawn was covered in people, quite a few he remembered seeing at Joan’s funeral. They sat on blankets or stood in clusters amid the scores of other locals who’d turned out for the open house and opening day picnic. Eden’s Ridge had turned out en masse to check out its newest business.
“It’s a house that’s full of memories, a place where our mother still looms large, even though she’s no longer with us. Joan Reynolds believed in making people at home, and we think she’d be proud to see how we intend to honor that going forward. For a variety of entirely practical reasons related to marketing and search engine optimization, we were going to call the place Reynolds House Bed and Breakfast. But in the end, we decided we’d rather defer to Mom because she named this house a long time ago.”
Kennedy nodded and both Athena and Pru tugged on the strings they held. The fabric fell from the carved wooden sign announcing The Misfit Inn. A cheer went up from all the former fosters. Xander knew quite a few of them and their families had booked rooms over the course of the summer. After the pre-launch announcement Kennedy had made on her blog, the inn was already off to a solid start with bookings on into August .
The sisters crowded around an over-sized pair of scissors, lifting it to the ribbon. Cameras clicked. Grinning, one and all, they snipped it and shouted, “Welcome to The Misfit Inn!”
The crowd burst into applause and cheers. All four Reynolds sisters exchanged hugs. They’d made huge strides over the past weeks overcoming their misconceptions and working their way back to being a family. It had been good to see, good to know they were all finally healing.
Beside him, his mother laid a hand over her heart. “Oh, Joan would’ve loved this.”
“Yeah, I think she would have.”
Maggie lifted her voice above the din. “We invite you all to explore the house, see the guest rooms. There’s food in the kitchen. Please, come in and enjoy yourselves!”
Xander was at the head of the pack, snagging Kennedy around the waist and dragging her into one of the side rooms.
“What are you doing? We have visitors.”
“They can wait.” He swung her around, lacing his hands at the small of her back and beaming. “I’m so damned proud of you. You did this. You brought this place into being.”
“Not without a lot of help.”
“Your vision,” he insisted. “And now it’s a reality.”
She pressed her lips to his in a lightning kiss. “Thank you. But the reality is that we have most of town here, and I need to play hostess.”
“Kennedy this is—oh! I’m so sorry.”
Xander pivoted to see a tall brunette in the doorway.
“Elena! You made it!” Kennedy broke away to fling her arms around the other woman.
“Wouldn’t have missed it. This is an amazing turnout.”
“We’re pretty pumped.” She held out her hand to him. “Xander, this is Elena Beckhoff. My editor.”
Xander grinned. So this was the woman making Kennedy’s book a reality. “Pleased to meet you.”
Elena shook his hand, giving him a once over from head to toe before looking back to Kennedy. “You ever considered writing romance? Because, girl, you’ve got some excellent book fodder right here.”
Kennedy beamed at him. “I really do.
If only she knew.
“Xander’s the sheriff here in Stone County.”
“Interim,” he corrected. He’d stepped into the role right after his father’s heart attack.
“Just until the election.” Buck stepped into the room, a plate of appetizers in his hand. “Everybody knows you’re the right man for the job.”
He was almost back to himself, a fact which greatly relieved Xander. He didn’t ever want to see that gray cast to his father’s face again. This was the first major event in town since his doctor had cleared him to go back to normal life. Since Buck was officially retired now, he was still figuring out what that looked like, but he was throwing himself into campaigning on Xander’s behalf. It was an olive branch Xander had opted to take, both because he despised campaigning himself and because he’d realized Kennedy was right. Forgiveness wasn’t for his father. It was for him.
 
; “Dad, you’re not supposed to be eating bacon. Your doctor said.”
“No, it’s fine. I had Athena make a special stack for him with turkey bacon so he could be included,” Kennedy said. “Although…that doesn’t look like turkey bacon.”
“It’s not.” Athena charged into the room and plucked the plate right out of Buck’s hand and gave him another. “These are yours.”
His father eyed the bacon wrapped pears on his plate. “Turkey bacon? That’s a crime against food.”
“On that we agree, old man.”
Kennedy plucked one of the pears off the confiscated plate and bit in. “Mmm, this is good. What is that? Cinnamon?”
“And a pinch of ginger. It’ll be a super simple appetizer you can make once I head back to Chicago. I’ve been working on some menus.”
“Sounds awesome.” Kennedy turned and made a presenting gesture with one hand. “Elena, this is my sister the Michelin-starred chef, Athena. Athena, my editor.”
Elena shook Athena’s hand and tried one of the pears herself. “This is amazing.”
“You should try the rest of the spread.”
“Don’t mind if I do.” The two women headed for the kitchen. “Have you ever considered writing a cookbook? It’s not my area, but I’ve got a colleague…”
His father trailed after them, probably intent on finding something more interesting than turkey bacon.
Okay, Xander was going to have to wait at least a little while before enacting his plan. He kissed Kennedy again, then nudged her along. “Go, do your thing. I’ll catch up with you later.”
As Kennedy mingled, Xander wandered through himself, visiting with people, talking about the renovations. The tone was one of celebration. He wondered if the girls felt the difference from the last time the house was full of people.
“Xander, have you met Robert Barth?” Maggie gestured to an older guy with a receding hairline that he remembered seeing at the funeral.
“The attorney, right?”
“That’d be me. Nice to see you again, Sheriff.”
When was Xander going to get used to that?
“Robert has been helping us sort out Mom’s estate and what our options are with Ari.”
“Yeah?” They’d all been so busy with prepping the inn the last couple of months, he wasn’t sure where things stood with their youngest family member.
Ari herself popped up. “Apparently they get to go from being my sisters to my moms.”
“Looks like the next step will be formal certification as foster parents.” Maggie explained.
“There’s no question that Ari is better off staying here, so it shouldn’t be too difficult a process,” Robert said.
Xander draped an arm around the girl’s shoulders. “What do you think about that, squirt?”
She shrugged. “It’ll be a little weird I guess. But whatever. I get to stay.”
“That you do.” Maggie smiled.
Ari poked him in the ribs and whispered sotto voce, “Did you talk to Kennedy yet?”
“Not yet.” Xander made a throat slashing motion.
The girl hip checked him. “Well, hurry up. She’s in the office with Pru.”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m getting there.” Xander estimated that enough time had passed that the guests were mostly fed and had been greeted. He probably could manage to steal Kennedy away for a bit.
She and Pru were bent over the computer.
“We just got a reservation for a month,” Pru exclaimed. “One Flynn Bohannon, at the end of June.”
“Flynn!” Kennedy clapped her hands with glee. “He’s a good friend of mine from Ireland. An exceptionally talented musician. You’re gonna love him. Oh, it’ll be so good to see him.”
“I look forward to meeting him.” Xander grabbed her hand. “Pru, can I borrow Kennedy for a bit?”
Pru waved them off. “Go, go. Everything’s under control here.”
“Great.” He pulled Kennedy through the house, snaking through the crowd and out the back door.
Laughing, she hurried to keep up. “Where are we going?”
“For a little walk.”
“Now?”
“Yep, now.” Because he couldn’t wait anymore to get her away from all the people.
He headed down the trail toward their spot, only slowing once the sounds of revelry faded.
“Feeling a little claustrophobic?” she asked.
“Little bit. I just wanted some one-on-one time with you.”
“Couldn’t wait until tonight?” Her lips curved into a teasing smile.
“Not why I pulled you away, but I’ll never say no to that.” A mental image of making love to her outside, in the daylight, her golden hair tumbled, those green eyes full of passion and secrets had him going hard.
“Well, they probably won’t miss me for half an hour or so.”
“Temptress. Maybe later.”
The trail began to rise and the trees began to thin, opening up to a wide vista of mountain, covered in gorgeous swaths of color. Purples and whites and happy golds highlighted rich, verdant slopes. Pulling her to a stop at the edge of their overlook, he wrapped his arms around her and took in the view.
Sighing, she relaxed back against him. “It’s beautiful here. Of all the places I went, all the sights I saw, nowhere was ever quite like this.”
Heart drumming, Xander pressed a kiss to the shoulder bared by her sundress. “Do you know why I nicknamed you Lark all those years ago?”
She tipped her head back to look at him, curiosity flickering over her face. “I assumed because I was spontaneous and always game to go on one. Or maybe because of the singing.”
He smiled. “There’s that, but no. It was because of this.” Xander bent to pluck one of the deep purple flowers. “This is purple larkspur.”
Her nose wrinkled in a way that made him want to kiss it. “You nicknamed me after a flower? That seems like something more suited to Pru.”
“It’s a wildflower that grows here in the Smokies. Wildflowers are pretty amazing things, actually. They look all soft and delicate, but they’re actually surprisingly tough. They grow and bloom where they’re planted, no matter the conditions. You’ve done that all your life, wherever you landed. And I picked this one because it symbolizes an open heart, because it grows here, where you gave me yours.”
He’d stunned her. Kennedy’s pretty, painted mouth opened and closed a little like a fish, her eyes taking on a bit of a sheen.
“Xander.”
Reaching out, he stroked her cheek, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear. “I never expected to get it back. Never expected to stand here with you again, and I can’t tell you how grateful I am to be wrong.”
“You’re going to make me cry.”
His lips curved. “Hold off on that a minute. I’m not done.”
“I had no idea there was going to be a speech.”
“Not a speech. Just a question.” Skimming a hand down her arm, Xander laced his fingers with hers and brought them to his lips. “I love you—more than anything—and I want to know, Kennedy Elaine Reynolds, if you’ll stay here with me and put down the forever kind of roots.” He pulled the ring from his pocket and sank to one knee. “Will you marry me?”
Kennedy gave a hiccupping sort of noise, somewhere between a sob and a laugh, and dropped to her knees, throwing her arms around his shoulders and raining kisses over his face.
Laughing, he did the same. “Can I take that as a yes?”
“Yes! Yes. Yes. A thousand times, yes.”
He captured her hand and slid the ring on, watching the diamond wink in the May sunshine.
Tipping her head to his, she gave a happy sigh. “How do you feel about a June wedding?”
“Beautiful time of year up here,” he said. He didn’t care when they got married, so long as she was his in the end.
“It’s not a lot of time, but I’ll put Maggie on it. She can plan anything fast.”
“Wait, like next month?”
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Kennedy pulled back. “Too soon?”
Grinning, Xander reeled her back in. “No such thing.” And amid the larkspur and columbine and mountain laurel, he kissed his future wife.
A Note From Kait
I hope you’ve enjoyed this first visit to Eden’s Ridge. I had a lot of fun branching out to tell the story of the Reynolds family, and Kennedy and Xander are personal favorites of mine. But they are, certainly, only the beginning. You can look for Pru and Flynn’s story, Those Sweet Words, at the end of October. Pre-order your copy today!
Meanwhile, you don’t have to miss out on what’s going on in Eden’s Ridge! Bar owner Denver is finally gonna get his shot with Misty—thanks to a little creative matchmaking on the part of Kennedy and her wedding planner. Check out Once Upon A Wedding!
You can also like my page on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/kaitnolanwriter
Anyway, thanks for reading! And if you loved the book, please consider leaving a review or telling a friend. These days, it's harder than ever to get a new book noticed. Many of the promotional opportunities out there require a minimum number of reviews—10 at the low end, 50+ at the high. If you enjoyed this book, taking just a minute of your time to click the star rating and write a few words would help me tremendously, and allow me to continue to bring you the stories you enjoy.
Other Books By Kait Nolan
Contemporary Romance
The Misfit Inn Series
When You Got A Good Thing (Kennedy and Xander)
Once Upon A Wedding (Misty and Denver)
Those Sweet Words (Pru and Flynn)
Wishful Series
Once Upon A Coffee (Avery and Dillon): Available for FREE!
To Get Me To You (Cam and Norah): Available for FREE!
Be Careful, It’s My Heart (Brody and Tyler)
Know Me Well (Liam and Riley)
Once Upon A Setup (A Meet Cute Romance with Piper and Myles!): Available for FREE