She opened the box and let out a gasp. It wasn’t a traditional engagement ring—it had a sapphire in the center of six small diamonds—he knew it might not be to her taste. “Oh, Xavier. It’s beautiful. I love it.”

“It’ll probably have to be resized.” He slipped it on her finger, and thankfully, it was a little big. Resizing would be easy.

He returned to her side on the couch and held her as they gazed into the flames.

“Do you know what the first thing I ever heard you say was?”

“I asked Jae if I could use his shower.”

“Yes, but do you remember your actual words?”

“No.”

“You said you’d name your firstborn child after him if he let you use his shower.”

She laughed. “Oh my goodness! That’s right. And then you offered me yours and said I didn’t even have to name my baby after you.”

“Good thing too.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I think I know the perfect name for Apple, and it’s not after me.”

Epilogue

They married a month later in a small ceremony in the gazebo not far from the new dock in front of the lodge. They went to Hawai’i for a two-week honeymoon and returned in time to pack up Audrey’s small house for the bigger one they’d purchased down the road from Undine and Luke’s acreage.

Xavier retired from the Navy in early July and spent his time preparing the baby’s room while Audrey worked through the last week of the month.

When she reached her due date with no baby, she decided to start her maternity leave anyway. She was exhausted and cranky and had reached the point where she no longer was concerned about labor, she just wanted the baby out.

Early in the first week of August, she got her wish when her water broke with a rush all over their kitchen floor. Contractions started immediately, and they definitely weren’t the Braxton-Hicks kind she’d been having for weeks.

She practiced her breathing exercises on the car ride to the hospital, and by the time she arrived, she was convinced they were a hoax designed to make pregnant women believe they were prepared for something for which there was no preparation. But once she was able to walk around again and breathe, she decided perhaps they offered some merit.

Still, labor lasted twenty hours, some of which raced by and some of which dragged. But through it all, Xavier was there, holding her hand, feeding her ice chips, and providing indefatigable support.

Her rock.

Her husband.

Her life.

Their daughter was born in the early afternoon, and Audrey found she also wasn’t prepared for how beautiful her child would be, how amazing it would feel to have her tiny body, with umbilical cord still attached, placed on her chest.