Epilogue

Anything worth doing is worth doing well …

Two weeks later, on a Saturday, Ian and Maddie were sleeping late in his bed, with Sam curled up at the bottom of their bare feet.

In that dream state, halfway between sleep and wakefulness, Ian smiled to himself. Today was going to be his wedding day. They’d obtained a license, thanks to a forged birth certificate for Maddie given to them by Slick. Ian didn’t want to know how Slick had gotten it. They had a noon appointment today at City Hall, where they would officially become husband and wife.

It would be a private affair. He and Maddie had both insisted on that, despite her family’s suggestion that they hold a fancy big-ass wedding and reception at Blue Dragon, and despite his fellow SEALs’ urging that they hold a wild big-ass party/wedding here near the base. Actually, they both felt as if they were already married, and the wedding rites were just a technicality.

He should have known it couldn’t be that easy.

Just as he was about to open his eyes and wake Maddie with a kiss, and something more, a loud explosion went off out on the beach.

He jackknifed to a sitting position and then stood. Sam almost hit the ceiling with a screeching meow. Maddie screamed. Another explosion went off, but now he realized it was more a rat-a-tat series of explosions.

Grabbing a pistol from the bedside table and a rifle from the closet, he rushed out to the deck, not bothering to dress. His jaw dropped practically to his chest. “Sonofabitch!”

It was Cage out on the beach, setting off firecrackers. And he was all decked out in dress whites. Up in the sky, some skywriter, probably Pretty Boy, was spelling out Ian Loves Maddie. Another plane followed the skywriter, and out dropped at least ten skydivers, all in dress uniforms. As they landed, he was able to identify them: his squad members, Ragnor, his commander, his XO and, unbelievably, his brothers and father. They shucked their chutes and harnesses, and the whole bunch of them joined Cage and started walking toward him. As one, they gave him a little wave.

He gave them the finger.

“Nice duds!” Cage called out with a laugh.

He looked down and saw that he was naked. Not that he cared. Oops! Maybe he did care. Glancing to the side of his house, he saw some women. His sister, Polly, the Magnusson and Ericsson women with their men, and lots of others.

Quickly he ducked inside the bedroom, where Maddie was staring with horror at the scene unfolding before them. At least she’d had the sense to don a robe.

There was a short rap on the open sliding door. It was Cage. “Don’t hit me,” he said, grinning. “I just wanted to explain.”

“There isn’t any explanation that would stop me from hitting you.” Ian pulled on a pair of sweatpants.

“Remember how you always said, ‘Anything worth doing is worth doing well.’ Well, we SEALs and your family and her family decided it would be a shame not to give you a suitable sendoff.”

“Do not dare throw my own words back at me. I am so pissed at you … all of you. I told you we wanted this to be private.”

Cage shrugged. “My MeeMaw, she allus said, some folks jist doan know whass good for ’em.”

“What are those people doing out there?” Maddie screeched in Ian’s ear. She was standing right behind them.

“I think they’re the caterers,” Cage said.

A dozen people outside were arranging chairs and tables and a freakin’ tent big enough to hold a circus. In another section of the beach, a rose-covered trellis or archway or something was being erected. And—oh, no!—a red carpet.

He and Maddie both glowered at Cage.

Throwing his hands up in the air, Cage said, “Don’t blame me. It was your father.” He was speaking to Maddie now. “Whew! When Magnus says he wants to do something, you don’t argue with him. Especially when he’s carrying that sword. He said, ‘There is going to be a Viking wedding. By Odin, I swear it will be so.’ What could we do?”

A Viking wedding?

A sword?

Ian groaned.

“My father! I should have known!” Maddie shrieked. “Let me go out there. I will tell him what I think of his highhanded methods. Yea, I will. How dare he! E’er did he treat me like a child, even when I was married.”

Just in time, Ian put his hands on her shoulders to hold her back. They needed to think this out and be calm … before they kicked ass.

“I don’t have my dress whites. They’re at the dry cleaners.” What a pitiful excuse for not having a wedding!

“No problem,” Cage said with a wide smile. “Geek picked them up yesterday.”

“The city will never let us have a wedding on the beach.”

“Slick knows somebody who knows somebody. It’s all taken care of.”

“How long have you been planning this?”

“A week.”

“How many of you were involved in planning this … nightmare?”

Cage pretended to be counting on his fingers, then announced, “Twenty-five.”

“Twe-twenty-five?” Ian sputtered out.

Maddie had seemed to be in shock, but now she spoke up. “I cannot get married here. I have naught to wear.”

What a pitiful excuse for not having a wedding!

“Well, actually,” a feminine voice said from the doorway, where Maddie’s sister Kirsten stood. She and Dagny brought in a very unusual dress … in fact, it appeared to be identical to the one she was wearing in the portrait at Blue Dragon.

Maddie started to weep. For a woman who never cried, she was doing an awful lot of that lately.

“It’s out of our hands now, honey,” Ian said, squeezing her shoulder. But into her ear, he whispered, “We have our own special secret that we are not sharing with anyone. Let them have their fun. We have this.”

She put a hand over her belly and smiled at him, gloriously.

With a final laugh, Ian walked off to help plan the biggest blowout wedding he and Maddie never wanted.

A SEAL farmer? I … don’t … think … so! …

In the end, Madrene and Ian had to admit it was the best wedding any couple could have ever asked for.

When Madrene walked down the red carpet, through an archway of swords held by the SEALs and the men of her Viking family, everyone sighed at the romantic picture she made. The way she carried herself, some said she looked like an ancient princess. She said the only prince she wanted was standing beside her.

Ian’s father came up to Ian at one point and said, “I am proud of you, son.” Before a stunned Ian could say a word, his father pulled him into a fierce bear hug.

JAM, who had somehow renewed his license, married them … again.

Torolf gave Madrene an extra hug near the end of the day. He would be taking a leave from the SEALs shortly and departing for Norway and the site of long-ago Norstead in hopes of returning to the past and ousting Steinolf. Madrene understood his need to do so, but in some ways she hoped he failed. Sometimes it was best to put the past to rest, she thought.

When they had all eaten their fill, and danced till they dropped, and the musicians had gone home, Magnus came up to his daughter and his new son-by-marriage. “I have a little gift for you, child,” he told Madrene and handed her a document. Madrene gave it to Ian to read.

“A farm? In the Imperial Valley? It’s a deed to a five-hundred-acre farm.” Ian was clearly confused and turned to Madrene to say, “What would we do with a farm?”

But then he saw her face.

“A farm!” she cried with glee, clapping her hands together. “With horses, and cows, and pigs, and chickens?”

Her father nodded.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Ian said. “Be reasonable, Maddie. What would we do with a farm?”

“It’s not for now,” her father explained. “It will be taken care of till the time you tire of the military and want to please your wife.”

After her father walked away, Ian asked Madrene, “A farm? With cow manure? And mean ol’ bulls? And milking? And all that hard work? You want to live on a freakin’ farm?”

“Yea, but we don’t have to. I will be happy wherever you are. We can give it back to my father. Whatever you want.”

Yeah, right! When a woman says that, it means she’ll get her way eventually. But a farm? Holy shit! A farm?

When they were finally alone, in bed, with Sam, Ian said, “I didn’t have time to buy you a wedding gift, honey.”

She rolled over in his arms, kissing him softly on the lips. Then she put his palm on her bare belly. “This is the greatest gift you could have given me.”

Ian had trouble speaking over the lump in his throat. But finally he said, “No, sweetheart, it is a gift you are giving me.”

A little later, when Ian was almost asleep, Madrene leaned over and whispered in his ear, “I forgot. I have a gift for you, dearling.”

Uh-oh! It better not have anything to do with farms.

“Have you ever heard of the Viking S-Spot?”

Some claimed that forever after, Ian was said to remark on many an occasion, “God bless Vikings!”