Page 31 of Christmas Past
Seth considered the question. Did he regret leaving 1926 behind?
Not for a second.
“No regrets,” he said at last, and realized he meant those words completely. “Not a single one. This is exactly where I want to be.”
“Good,” Devynn said, reaching up to straighten his tie, even though it really didn’t need straightening. “Because you’re stuck with me now. Officially.”
“I can think of worse fates,” Seth replied with a grin, then spun her around as the music swelled.
The evening wore on, and people began to quietly make their way out of the hotel, wanting to get down the hill before the snow grew any thicker. He couldn’t blame them, and it was fine.
“Ready to go home?” Devynn asked as they headed for the lobby. Bree and Bellamy had already spirited the gifts away, promising to keep them safe until Devynn and Seth returned from their honeymoon.
He glanced around the Asylum one more time — at the flickering candles, the flowers, the space where they’d just promised to love each other for the rest of their lives. Then he looked down at Devynn, beautiful and radiant and utterly perfect, and his heart swelled.
“With you?” he said, echoing the words he’d spoken earlier. “Always.”
Hand in hand, they walked out into the snowy Jerome night, ready to begin their married life together. Behind them, The Asylum grew quiet and dark, but ahead lay a future glittering with possibilities.
Epilogue
Home at last. Tomorrow, we’d make the four-hour drive down to Tucson, but for now, we could at last allow ourselves to rest a little. My feet ached from standing and dancing in heels all night, and the careful updo the stylist had created for me earlier that day had begun to escape its pins, but I couldn’t remember ever feeling more content. The reception had been everything I’d ever dreamed of…and maybe a little more, just because it was finally a reality and not merely a vision in my head.
“I can’t believe we’re actually married,” I said as I kicked off my shoes and sank onto the edge of our bed. Thank God those heels were finally a thing of the past. They were beautiful, beaded satin with sculpted little heels, but they might as well have been medieval torture devices, considering the damage they’d inflicted on my poor feet. Then I added, since the words had been dancing around in my head all evening, “I can’t believe I’m Mrs. McAllister. It still sounds a little strange.”
Seth smiled as he loosened his tie and took off his suit jacket. “Strange in a good way, I hope.”
“The best way,” I assured him, then reached up to start pulling pins from my hair, which began to fall over my shoulders in loose coils. As I placed the pins in a little box the stylist had provided, I went on, “Although I have to admit that I’m glad all the planning is finally over. Don’t get me wrong — today was perfect — but I’m ready to just be married instead of getting married, if that makes sense.”
“Perfect sense,” he replied, then sat down next to me on the bed. “In fact, that reminds me. I have something for you.”
I looked over at him, a little startled. “Seth, we already exchanged gifts at Christmas, and our rings today. You don’t need to — ”
“This is different,” he said, his tone quiet but intense as he reached into his pants pocket. “Something I’ve been saving for the right moment.”
He pulled out a small velvet box, obviously old and worn with age. The deep blue fabric had faded in places, and the edges were soft from years of handling. My breath caught as he opened it to reveal a delicate pendant nestled inside — white gold filigree set with several small but brilliant diamonds that caught the lamplight and threw tiny sparkles across the walls.
“Oh, Seth,” I whispered. “It’s beautiful.”
“It was my grandmother’s,” he said. “My mother’s mother. Molly gave it to me right before we left 1926, when you were getting our coats. She said….” He paused, and I could see the way he swallowed before he went on, “She said every McAllister bride should have something that connects her to the women who came before her.”
Tears stung my eyes as what he’d just told me began to settle in. The pendant was a link to the family I’d never get to fully know, a blessing from the woman who’d welcomed me as a daughter, if only for a short while.
“Molly wanted me to have this?” I asked, my voice catching a little on the final syllable.
Seth nodded. “She said you were family now.” He gently lifted the pendant from its box, and the diamonds glittered that much more as the piece swung on its fine white gold chain. “She also said she hoped it would remind you that you’ll always have a place in the McAllister family, no matter how far you travel or how much time passes.”
The tears I’d been holding back finally spilled over. Well, I supposed it didn’t matter now if I ruined my makeup. “I don’t know what to say,” I told him, then reached up to blot my eyes with the back of my hand.
“You don’t have to say anything,” Seth replied, his voice very soft. “Just let me put it on you.”
I turned so he could fasten the delicate chain around my neck, his fingers warm against my skin as he worked the tiny clasp. The pendant settled just below my collarbone, the weight of it somehow comforting, a link to a past — to a woman — I would never know. When I looked down, the little diamonds set in the white gold seemed to pulse with their own inner light.
“How does it look?” I asked, turning back to face him.
“Perfect,” he said. “Like you were always meant to wear it.”
I reached up to touch the pendant, thinking of all the history it represented — the McAllister women who had worn it before me, who had built lives and raised families and kept their magical heritage alive through generations of change and challenge. And now it was mine, a symbol of my place in their continuing story. Because even though I’d been born of two different clans, I knew the McAllister clan would be my true family going forward.
