“Well, Joshua West?”
“It's official. Formalized. We're courting.”
“After the past week and after today, they would never have turned you down.” Kate walked slowly toward him, smiling.
“You're not limping. You're ankle must be feeling better.”
“Yes, but you could help in that regard.” She took his hands in hers. “You know, there's no real reason we have to wait, Josh.”
“Are you proposing to me, Kate? Weren't you supposed to get down on one knee, orâ”
“Josh, I was only hinting for youâ”
“You can be pretty demanding when you hint. âKiss me. Do it now, Josh.' You were even doing that after they drugged you.”
“Forget that I mentioned the subject, then.” Kate's smile faded.
“Maybe I don't want to forget it. What did you mean by âthere's no real reason to wait?'”
“I've been making some money on my contract work with the government. Recent events are only going to sweeten that pot.” She slipped her arms around him and pressed her cheek into his chest. “You could teach a couple of lower-division classes and we'd have enough to afford an apartment.”
“Before you change your mind⦔ Josh slipped out of her arms and dropped down to one knee, “⦠Kate Brandt, would you marry me ASAP.”
“ASAP? How romantic. That came from the man who picked me up when I was helpless and carried me to safety?”
“May I try again?”
“No. You may not.”
“Why, Kate?”
“Because I acceptâ¦on one condition.”
He stood and cupped her cheeks, peering into her eyes. “You love keeping me in suspense don't you, Miss Brandt?”
“You wouldn't want our lives to be boring, would you?”
“The condition, Kate?”
“We finish our dissertations first. For all practical purposes, our research is done, especially after what we just accomplished. How fast can you write?”
“I'll set a new UW record for writing a dissertation. How does four weeks sound?”
“But if we're both writing for four solid weeks, we won't get to see each otherâ”
“OK. Eight weeks.”
“That leaves me half of the time to spend with you and plan our wedding. It works. And, Joshâ¦don't worry about defending your dissertation. Your committee will be too busy trying to pump information from you about the conspiracy. You'll breeze through it.”
“I'm not worried about my dissertation or defending it. I'm more worried about where to take you on our honeymoon.”
“Here we are talking about a honeymoon and we haven't even had one decent date. On our first real date, two terrorists tried to assassinate us.”
He pulled her close in his arms, peering into her eyes. “You are so beautiful, Kate.”
“I love you, sweetheart.”
“And I love you, too. But there's one condition that needs to be met before we do any more planning.”
“Is there something you haven't told me?”
“Yeah. But I just found out about it myself. You see⦔ he held her shoulders and studied her face, “â¦Granddad wants this to be a short courtship. He said to give him his great-great-grandchildren. ASAP.”
Kate's cheeks turned pink, then they glowed orange in the yellow aura of the sunset. She buried her face in his chest. Slowly she turned her face until she looked up into his eyes. “In this family, Granddad's will usually prevails. Tell Granddad we will give him what he wants.”
“Kate, we're both getting PhDs soon. You had planned to work for the FBI, the Seattle Division Cyber Task Force.”
“Mom and Dad had to make a similar decision. It worked out for them and Mom's extremely happy. I will be, too.”
“Then shouldn't we do something to formally accept allâ”
Her lips stopped his words, as she poured all the sweetness of Kate and the passion of the woman she had become into a few moments, moments that Josh would carry with him for the rest of his life. And then on into eternity.
“Kate, where did you learn to kiss like that?”
“In Whistler. You taught me.”
“And where would you like to go for our honeymoon?”
Kate pressed her cheek against his chest. “You can take me anywhere you want, sweetheart. Or we don't have to go anywhere at all.”
Two sets of little feet pitter-pattered across the deck. Two tugs on his shirt sleeve.
Grace and Grady's brown eyes looked up into his, filled with excitement. “We know where you can take Kaykay on your honeymoon,” Grady said.
“Where's that, little man?”
“Take Kaykay to Maui. Like Mom and Dad.”
“Maui, like Mom and Dad?” Kate's eyes widened. “Nooooooo!”
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Epilogue
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Kate West sat in the window seat of the Hawaiian Air 767 looking between the puffy trade-wind cumulus clouds. “There it is, Josh. Maui.” She pulled her husband of less than seven hours closer to the window.
“Look at that water, Kate. Near the shore it matches the color of your eyes.”
She turned her head to look at Josh's face, but it was too close to focus, so close her lips brushed his.
Kate put her cheek against Josh's. “This is where our life together begins.”
Josh softly kissed her cheek. “My life seems almost like a dream since I met you.”
“But I brought you a few nightmares, didn't I?”
“That's not what I meant, but I knew that was part of the package. I guess you'll always be trying to save the world and taking some risks to do it.”
“But you weren't a risk, Josh. You were a sure thing. Steady, reliable. So handsome sometimes it hurts to look at you.”
“That's how I feel when I look at you, Kate.”
Kate fell back in her seat as highlights of the past six years of her life played through her mind. God had blessed her beyond measure. From the moment He brought Jenn and Lee into her life in that shack on the Olympic Peninsula, she had been given protection, love, a home, a loving Savior, and now a husband whom she loved more than she thought it was possible to love another human being. From Katie Lloyd, foster child, she had become Katie Brandt and now Dr. Kate West.
Tears filled her eyes and spilled out, tickling her cheeks. Though she tried to hold back the flood of emotions, she found herself softly sobbing.
Josh swiveled in his seat and his twin frown lines appeared. “You're crying, Kate. What's wrong?”
She tried to smile at him through her tears. “Nothing's wrong. Everything's good. Too good. I don't deserve any of it. My family. You⦔
With a soft touch, he brushed tears from her cheek. “Isn't that what makes Christianity wonderful? We don't get what we deserve. We get something far better.”
She peered into the tenderness expressed in Josh's deep brown eyes. “Guess I need to listen to my baby-believer husband. You're pretty smart for a two-month-old.” She wiped her cheeks and leaned against his shoulder. “After the rehearsal last night, you and Lee talked for quite a while. What did you two talk about?”
Josh looked out the window. “He was, uhâ¦giving me some advice.”
She sat up in her seat. “Josh, he wouldn't do that. Not the father-to-son stuffâ¦about me, about us⦔
Josh's smile looked more like a smirk.
“OK. Spill it, Josh. All of it.”
“Are you sure you want to hear this, Kate?”
She gave him her most piercing stare. “We'll be landing in about five minutes. I want to hear it all before then.”
Josh sighed sharply. “OK. He said when we land on the island to get our bags, throw them in the rental car, and then do not pass go, do not collect two-hundred dollars, but go straight to our room. Then he said I shouldn't take my eyes off of you for even one second for the two weeks that we're here.”
“Oh. I guess he wouldâ¦I mean after Jenn was abductedâ¦I⦔
“We won't have to worry about any bad guys.” His voice softened. “Lee said Peterson got assurance that the Maui Police Department and their intelligence organization will be giving us special attention. The government wouldn't want Dr. Kate Brandt falling into the wrong hands.”
“It's Kate
West
, Josh. And she's in the right hands. First God's, then yours.”
Josh leaned close to her, lifted her chin, and then stopped and looked at the passengers seated around them. He released a long sigh.
She cupped his cheek. “Save it for later, Josh. And remember, we're not passing go on the way.”
“I remember. And I've got my eyes on youâ¦I love you so much, Kate.”
“I know. And I love you too, sweetheart,” Kate whispered as the plane touched down on the island paradise, the place where her life with the only man she had ever loved would truly begin.
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