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‘Thank you, Judah, and Reid, and Bridie and Ari. Thank you so much for your hospitality and welcome.’ Her voice cracked on that last word. ‘I want it.’

EPILOGUE

IT WAS A wedding small and intimate, with red dirt at people’s feet and brilliant blue sky overhead. Gert was there as auntie of the bride, wearing a burnt-umber-coloured silk dress and hat that she and Ari had shopped for together. Bridie and Piper were matron of honour and young bridesmaid, stunning in deep ivory silk with red and orange accents. Ari’s stepbrother Jake was there, wearing his first ever suit that he’d begun saving for as soon as he’d received his invite. He’d turned into a startlingly handsome young man and he stood quietly beside Gert and winked as Ari passed them by. Judah had been pressed into service as Reid’s best man and stood strong and firm next to his brother.

And then there was Reid, his wild curls almost but not quite tamed and the eyepatch over his left eye giving him a rakish air that he did his very best to live up to. While the sight in one eye had faded, the other eye had strengthened. With that one bright hazel eye in play, he still saw more than most.

He thought her beautiful, even when she was up to her elbows and knees in dirt and surrounded by flies, and he told her so every day, using his words and his gaze and in a dozen other tiny ways.

It was in the cup of tea he placed at her elbow on the early mornings when he had to attend one of his numerous business meetings.

It was the way he closed his eyes and drew her into his embrace just to breathe in her scent.

It was in his touch when, finally, she stood in front of him in her wedding finery and he reached for her hand.

She’d chosen to wear a simple white sheath of a wedding dress with off-the-shoulder sleeves and a tiny waist. No veil, no gloves. She carried a wedding bouquet of all her favourite native flowers. Flowering gum and flannel flowers. Lamb’s ear and banksia cradles.

She wore her hair loose and her make-up was flawless courtesy of Bridie, who’d helped her dress.

On her bedside table this morning, Reid had left a long velvet box and in it was a diamond bracelet that matched her engagement ring. Something old, his note had said. Her something borrowed was a handful of delicate opal hairpins that Bridie expertly slid into place after twining several strands of Ari’s hair into an elaborate flower shape above one of Ari’s ears. Her something new and blue had come from Gert—a gossamer-thin wrap of sky-blue silk to drape across her back and over her arms and dance with the afternoon breeze.

Piper stepped forward to take her bouquet and Reid immediately reached out to capture that hand too, a smile breaking over his handsome face as he studied her.

‘Your eyes are telling me you love me,’ he murmured. ‘Best day ever.’

‘I’ve words of love for you too, so you can remember them in the dark.’

‘Perfect.’ He leaned forward and pressed his lips to her cheek. ‘You’re absolutely perfect for me. I have so many words of love for you too. Want to hear them?’

Happiness bloomed, strong and sure. This beautiful life and this brilliant, loving man were hers, and she would cherish them from this moment forward.

‘You know I do.’