Page 23 of The Paradise Plan

“Yes.”Cass couldn’t deny it, and she didn’t want to.“Everyone thinks you don’t want to talk about the person who’s died, but I like it.It makes him feel more real.Hewasreal, you know.”

“I know,” Bea said quietly.Her divorce had been very hard on her, but Norman still lived on the earth.She’d still see him at her children’s graduations and weddings.She could call him and talk to him if she wanted to.Cass couldn’t do either of those things.

“You’re on the Southern-most tip of the United States,” their boat captain-slash-tour guide said over the loudspeaker.“And the sun is going down.Stand by those you love, and enjoy God’s glory on the earth.”

He fell silent after that, and Cass gazed over the water as it got painted into golds, oranges, silvers, and whites.West would’ve loved this, she thought but didn’t say out loud.She didn’t want to stop talking about her husband, but as she watched the sun sink lower, lower, lower into the ocean, she felt like today’s chapter had ended in a beautiful, perfect display of God’s love.

And just like that, she had her answer to her last question.

She wasn’t being disloyal to West by going out with someone else.Her chapter with him had been wonderful.Glorious.So much fun, filled with excitement, highs, lows, heartaches, and joys.

Just like the sun had gone, so had West.Cass was still here, and both the Lord and West wanted her to keep living.

Tears pricked her eyes, but this time—for thefirsttime since the officers had shown up on her porch that fateful night—they weren’t over losing West.They were because Cass held hope in her heart that she could have a fantastic future tomorrow.

With Harrison?her mind whispered, but Cass didn’t know the answer to that question…yet.