Epilogue

EPILOGUE

NOVA

ONE YEAR LATER

The line to ride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood Studios was over an hour long, but that didn’t stop Ben or Dusty from wanting to ride it again as soon as we stepped off. Don’t get me wrong, the ride was fun, but these two were a different level of nerd. I kind of loved that about them, though. Now that we were married and Dusty joined all our family movie nights, I was outvoted more frequently. We’d watched all nine Star Wars movies just to prep for this family vacation.

Clearly, I loved my husband.

I drew the line at the offshoot cartoons. He and Ben could have their own movie nights for those.

“What if you two get in line, and I take Alice on something else?” I offered.

“I want to stay with Dusty,” she said. Peaches was fastened around her neck, its legs around her back so it would hold on tight. She’d insisted on bringing it to Disney World, and I said she only could if it stayed velcroed to her. I didn’t want to face the trauma of it falling off and being lost forever.

“I thought you wanted to find Leia a costume,” Dusty asked.

Alice’s face lit up. “Yes!”

Dusty raised his eyebrows. “You can always join us in line again later.”

“Okay, maybe.” I gave him a noncommittal smile that made him laugh. “I’ll call you once we’re finished cat-costume shopping.”

He leaned over and kissed me. “You know where to find us.”

I took Alice’s hand and watched the boys jog back toward the ride’s entrance, my heart in my throat. Marrying Dusty had been the easiest decision I’d ever made. Waiting long enough so the kids had eased into it had been the hard part. But, like I’d expected, they were thrilled when we told them we were getting married.

They were resilient little sprites. Our wedding was small but full of love. My parents came out to stay for a month during the summer, spending time with us and getting to know Dusty—whom they heartily approved of—and helping plan the wedding. Everyone had traveled to Arcadia Creek in the fall for the wedding, and by the end of the trip even Blair could understand why I’d want to stay in Texas. She helped me move my things over to Dusty’s house and fell in love with the view from the back porch, too.

Life wasn’t without its challenges, but together, Dusty and I had weathered all the storms—both literally and figuratively.

The first shop we stepped in was Star Wars themed—thanks to the proximity to the ride—but we couldn’t find cat costumes. I asked an attendant and she told me which shop to check out to find one, but it wasn’t in this park. I followed Alice as she looked through the Mandalorian helmets and lightsabers, when her gaze landed on a Chewbacca figurine .

“Mom,” she said, reaching for it.

I helped her pull it from the shelf. “It looks like Ben’s old one.”

She nodded, staring at it.

“He has Dusty’s old toy now, remember?”

“Yeah.” She still held it, looking at the figurine. “Can I get this for Ben?”

One could never have too many Chewie toys, I supposed. The boys would believe that, at least. “Are you sure?”

“It’s my fault his died,” she said quietly, looking up at me. Her round blue eyes were sorrowful, and it occurred to me this was just as much to heal her as it was to replace what Ben had lost.

“Okay, we can get it for him.”

Her little shoulders relaxed. Then she spotted the baby onesies with Grogu on them, and I steered her toward the register before she tried to buy something for everyone we knew. Things between the kids and Carter had been better recently. We had taken a family trip out to New York after Kristen had the baby so the kids could meet him, which was good for Ben. He liked being a big brother again. Hopefully Dusty and I would give them another little one soon.

“Should we go find the Toy Story rides?” I asked, putting the bagged toy into my backpack once we got outside.

“I want to ride the Star Wars one again,” she said.

“The drop didn’t scare you?”

Alice vehemently shook her head, even though I’d felt the squeeze of her hand and heard her scream during the ride. “Please?”

“Okay.” It took a minute to locate Dusty and Ben and reach them in the line. When I saw them, my heart did a little leap.

“Any luck?” Dusty murmured, taking my hand and pulling me to his side.

My arms went lightly around his waist. “No cat costumes, but I found out where we can look later. Alice got something else, instead.”

“I want to do it!” Alice said, bouncing on her toes.

I stepped back, sliding my backpack around and opening the zipper. I pulled out the bagged toy and gave it to her, which she promptly stuck behind her back. The bag showed easily, but Ben was too distracted by the animatronic BB-8 up on the platform to notice.

“Ben,” she said. “Ben!”

He turned. “What?”

“I got something for you.” She bounced on her toes.

Dusty took the backpack from my hands and slung it over his shoulder, then his arm went around my waist.

“What?” Ben asked again.

Alice took the bag from behind her back and thrust it at him. He took it, pulling the Chewbacca figurine out and gasping. His eyes went straight to me. “It’s just like my old one!”

“What do you say?” I prompted him.

“Thanks, Alice,” he said, but he was already trying to get it from the packaging.

She beamed.

“That was sweet,” Dusty said.

“It was all her idea.”

“Now I have two !” Ben shouted.

We nudged him to keep walking, since the line had started to move again. At least Alice knew better than to somersault here.

Dusty helped Ben get all the packaging off the toy and put it in the backpack to throw away later. Ben and Alice found a way to entertain themselves with Peaches and Chewie, so I leaned my head against Dusty’s shoulder and watched.

“I just thought up a new recipe,” I said.

“Oh, yeah? What’s that?”

“Happiness: take one family, tie them together with love and vows, and send them on a trip to geek out to science fiction and princesses.”

Dusty pressed a kiss to my forehead. “You forgot Peaches. She’s utterly essential.”

“Oh right. Don’t forget to mix in a little stuffed monkey, a plastic Chewbacca, a cat, a half-brother and, someday soon, another little baby.”

He grinned. “Very soon, I hope.”

“We can only hope,” I agreed.

“Alice needs someone to teach all those new gymnastics moves to,” Dusty said. “I tried to do the back walkover with her last week and thought I was going to put my back out.”

“Better leave those to the seven-year-olds.” I leaned up and kissed him, but I knew my words would go in one ear and out the other. Dusty would do anything for Alice. She had well and truly taken his heart. He was a prime example of what I’d tried to explain to Ben all those months ago—love doesn’t divide, it grows.

Our little family was proof of that.

“Love you,” I whispered, moving ahead with him in the line again.

We stopped with the crowd.

“Love you too,” he said, pressing a sweet kiss to my lips, which was promptly interrupted by Ben and Alice bickering over who got to stand in the front for our family.

Like all things, it had a way of working itself out.

And, because I love my husband, after a break to check out the Toy Story rides, we got in line for Rise of the Resistance a third time that day.