EpilogueDiscover 1001 Dark Nights Collection Eleven

Years later

Dallas, TX

"I'm going to run to the store, love."

Avery glanced up from her work. Casseroles. She'd already made three. One breakfast and two for lunches or dinners. Her daughter's freezer was going to be well stocked for the coming weeks.

Damn, but she loved Liam O'Donnell. He'd aged some, but she still saw him in the prime of his life. So gorgeous she could barely stand to look at him. Sometimes she still felt the moment her eyes had locked with his and she'd known she wanted to be with him forever.

Or maybe it had been more complex and the years had softened the actual history. Maybe it had been harder, but there was nothing hard about loving Liam O'Donnell now.

"Do you need anything?" he asked.

Anything she'd needed, she'd been given.

"Hey, love, what's this about?" Liam moved into her space, cupping her cheek, and when he looked down at her she was young again. He used his thumbs to gently wipe away the tears clinging to her. "I don't have to go to the store, but you know Brody and Steph are on their way from the airport right now, and Brody's been on a plane for twenty-four hours. He's going to be hungry. Besides, our Daisy asked for chicken salad."

Their Daisy. Their smart, funny girl who'd recently given them even more joy. She laughed. "I'm baking a couple of weeks' worth of food for her, but she needs chicken salad. Her postpartum cravings are worse than her pregnancy ones."

A brilliant smile crossed her husband's face. "Well, you have to admit she deserves it. Our little granddaughter is perfect. "

Their first grandbaby. Wilhelmina Avery Carter. Billie.

Their first but not their last since they'd gotten good news the night before.

How new the world felt. She'd loved raising her family, but there was something so sweet about watching them go out into the world and find their places. Nate had moved up to an investigative team at McKay-Taggart, and he seemed to love solving mysteries with his partner, an intellectual guy who reminded Avery so much of Brody's friend Walter. Daisy had graduated with her master's, and she hadn't even burned down Kai's clinic yet. She was helping kids, and now she had one of her own.

"She is indeed." Avery went on her toes and kissed her husband. "Are they sleeping?"

Liam nodded. "They were up all night with Billie. Are you sure we should go home tomorrow?"

The birth had been hard, but Daisy had come through it like a champ. Like all new moms she needed help, so Avery and Liam had stayed for the first week ensuring all Nate and Daisy had to do was take care of themselves and the baby. They'd cooked and cleaned, and Liam had tried to hog the baby as much as possible, rocking her and singing her Irish lullabies. But it was time to let her other grandparents help.

"It's Steph and Brody's turn," she said firmly. "You know how much it killed them that they couldn't get here until today."

Steph's clinic in Sierra Leone had grown. She ran it with Faith Smith, and they'd recently opened a women's wing. Steph had been caught in a bureaucratic tangle when Daisy had gone into labor two weeks early. They'd only been able to arrange their travel in the last few days. They lived a block away when they were in Dallas, but Steph liked to be hands-on at the clinic several months out of the year.

He gave her one last kiss and stepped back. "Well, I suppose I can share. I'll be back as soon as I can. Billie's asleep in the bed in the nursery. Nate snores, and I won't have him waking my sweet granddaughter."

He winked and walked out.

The man never learned. Billie was already a saint of a girl. Just like her mother. She was fairly certain her granddaughter would end up as wild as Daisy. As troublesome as her grandfather. Trouble in the best way.

She heard him drive away, and then there was a chiming sound. Avery rushed to the front door because her husband was right. Daisy and Nate needed sleep.

She threw open the door and Steph stood there.

For a moment she saw another Stephanie. A teenaged Stephanie Gibson who'd shown up at Avery's hospital bed, skinny because she hadn't eaten, wracked with guilt. She'd only met with the girl because Steph's mother had begged her. Stephanie had been driving the other car, the one that had plowed into hers. The one that had taken her first husband, Brandon, and her little baby, Madison, away from her. She'd been planning on telling Stephanie Gibson to go to hell.

She was transported to the moment when she'd looked at the girl who'd wronged her and known she had to make a choice.

A choice that brought her here. A life-changing choice.

"Hello, old friend," Avery said, her heart filled with love for this woman.

Tears streamed down Steph's cheeks. "I sent Brody to pick up some stuff from our place because I needed this moment with you. You feel it, too. I knew you would."

Avery held out a hand. "Of course I do."

They'd made a bargain once. Avery had told Steph she owed her a life. Two, really. Avery had used her inheritance money to get Steph through medical school, and Steph had tried to save the world. Over the years, she'd come to realize the life she'd demanded had been more than some singular debt. It hadn't been a debt at all. It had been a decision. To live. For Avery. For Steph.

For them all.

Steph moved inside, taking her hand. "Sometimes I still feel like this is a dream and I'm going to wake up and you don't forgive me."

She shut the door and pulled her friend in. "Never."

Steph hugged her close. "You are a miracle, Avery O'Donnell."

Avery stepped back and wiped away her tears. "Nope. Just me. But let me show you a real miracle."

Steph set down her bag and followed her through Daisy's house. Over the years she and Nate had fixed it up, laying hardwood floors and painting and building a home together. Her daughter was happy.

Because she'd made the choice to forgive so long ago. When she'd chosen to forgive Stephanie Gibson, she'd chosen to live, too. What she hadn't known at the time was she was choosing Liam. And Aidan and Daisy. She'd been choosing her friends. She'd been choosing an amazing career working with a woman she admired. She'd been choosing Billie.

She led Steph to the sweetly decorated nursery. Kangaroos were the theme, a nod to her father's homeland. "Meet your grandchild, Stephanie."

Steph put a hand to her heart, the tears flowing freely now. "She's so beautiful."

"She's got her mom's eyes and her father's smile." Billie was a unique mix of her parents. Like Aidan and Daisy were of her and Liam. Like Nate and Elodie of Steph and Brody.

A whole new generation. Beloved. They would grow in the shadow of their parents' love, learning from the generations before. They would make their own mistakes. Live their own magnificent lives.

Steph turned to her. "You said I owed you a life. I owe you so much more, Avery. This…this doesn't happen without you."

"We don't know that," Avery replied.

Steph nodded. "I do. I know what I was going to do. I had planned it. It seems so far away most of the time. Like it happened in a different life, but I feel it so strongly today because Nate wouldn't have been born. Billie wouldn't have been born."

"And Liam would have died without you," Avery pointed out. "Our lives entangled one night in a terrible way, and look at what we made. Look at her, Steph. I said you owed me a life, but what you gave us all was a future."

Billie opened her eyes, little mouth yawning.

"Hey, sweetheart. Meet your grandma Steph." Avery reached down, picking up the baby. "How many have you delivered?"

"Too many to count." Steph practically glowed as she stared at the baby and held her arms out.

"You made the world a better place for all of us." Avery handed over the baby and let Steph settle into the rocker. Emotion welled as she watched her friend fall madly in love with their grandbaby. "Thank you for our family."

Steph reached for her. "Thank you for our family."

They sat together in the warm light of day, rocking the baby and talking about the future. Avery couldn't wait to see what would happen next.

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