Uncovering the Truth of Love – Extended Epilogue

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November, 1888

Terry

“Woah, now!” Andy Coltrane hollered across the yard. He had both hands raised, motioning for the horse he was walking backward in front of to stop. 

From across the way, Winston Coltrane laughed, shaking his head as he pushed another beam up from the ground and set it in place. “I told you foolin’ with a horse wasn’t going to make your end go no faster,” he hollered, his amusement thick in his voice. 

Terry had to squash a grin at the both of them, sharing a glance with Jesse as he pulled on the rope to get the wall on their side up and in place. 

“I don’t see why we gotta go building it this big nohow,” Andy complained belatedly. “How big’a coop do these chickens need? Back in the day, they just had little lean-tos. Now you’re telling me they need a whole miniature house in place? Don’t make any kind of sense.” 

Jesse snorted, stopping where he was in fitting the wiring for the fence for it as he glanced toward the house. “Y’all let Belle hear any of that and I’m going to be the first to say I told y’all to stop.”

All three other men winced. Even Terry, despite how he hadn’t been saying anything. 

His eyes flashed to the porch of the small house a few yards off too, half-expecting his wife to wander out onto the porch with her hands on her hips. 

That seemed to be her default position these days. She’d become very exacting the last handful of months, wanting things to go just the right way. He didn’t reckon he was in any kind of place to go disagreeing with her, either. 

“Terry, it’s your wife,” Andy muttered. 

Terry laughed. “And that’s why I’ll be doing it just how she asked,” he answered dryly. “She could’a asked for the coop to be twice the size and I woulda done it.” 

“Smart man,” Dr. Coltrane chuckled. “I don’t know why anyone’s acting like it’s new. Back when Belle was head nurse, she was just as demanding of a perfectionist.” 

Terry glanced worriedly towards the house again. 

As willing as she’d been to step down from her job and hand it over into Lisa’s capable hands, she still got teary-eyed at times to be reminded. 

“You know, Lisa asked me the other day if she was being too bossy,” Jesse mused, shaking his head. “She said she didn’t want to give me any reminders of my time with Mac’s gang… and I realized I don’t remember much of anything there. Isn’t that funny? I remember darn near everything else now, but only a handful of moments from those two years…” 

“That’s a blessing,” Terry said seriously, pausing to lean against the next post and look Jesse’s way. “Why’d she ask if she was being too bossy, though?” 

“Because she’s a woman,” Andy muttered, only for Winston, as he passed, to cuff him upside the back of his head. 

“Because she was going over wedding plans,” Jesse laughed. “She wanted to be sure I knew she had a specific type of flower picked out.” 

“That doesn’t seem so bossy.” 

“What’s this about bossy?” A feminine voice asked suddenly. 

Terry near jumped out of his skin to see his wife waddling over towards them. No sound from the house warned them she’d finally made her way outside. 

Her blonde hair was clipped back from her face, her green eyes sparkling as she checked carefully every step she took over the uneven ground. She had to be careful with as large as her belly had gotten, her hand resting on the top of it like it was a verifiable shelf.

Even swollen and with an uneven temper, Terry thought Belle had never looked more beautiful. 

He was quick to set his post down, hurrying over to her side to help stabilize her as she came to survey the work they’d gotten done so far. 

“Jesse was just telling us about Lisa and her wedding planning,” Terry answered with a grin, leaning down to kiss Belle’s cheek warmly as he tucked her into his side. 

“Hey!” Jesse hollered, faux-glaring at Terry. “I see how loyal you are.” 

“And how loyal you are,” Belle answered back with a tsking noise. “Complaining about your future wife.” 

“I wasn’t complaining!” Jesse mumbled. “I was just mentioning a conversation we had.” 

“Nobody has time to complain,” Winston told his daughter warmly as he made his way across the yard to her. “Your uncle is doing more’n enough of it for everyone.” 

Everyone laughed at that, and Terry watched as Belle put her other hand over her belly too, staring at her father with awe. 

She’d been doing that a lot over the last year. 

Terry remembered that she’d told him in private it was on account of how similar he was to being back to his old self. 

He thought it was just because of how happy the last year had been. 

He moved his hand, resting it next to Belle’s, feeling his baby moving about, a contented grin spreading across his features as he looked over his family and his wife. Then beyond them to the little house that Andy had gifted as their wedding present. 

It wasn’t much, but it had a porch. And Belle and he sat every morning on that porch, talking about what they wanted out of life and praying for what it was they needed to. 

It was a small house on a small farm, and Terry was still only a deputy. But it was more than he’d ever thought he’d have. And he’d only gotten that much thanks to the love, faith, and forgiveness of the nurse who he’d woken up to after nearly dying.

It was funny how life had a way of working out like that. 

“What are you grinning about?” Belle asked him softly as Winston and Andy continued teasing one another in the background. 

Terry looked down, catching sight of her glass-green eyes and feeling his heart swell in his chest. “Just how lucky I am,” he admitted. “And how much I owe to you on that.” 

“I’ll be happier once this baby is out,” Belle griped, but it was said in jest. She stared lovingly back up at Terry and lifted onto her toes, kissing him sweetly before threading her fingers through his over her stomach. “And I didn’t do much. I just reminded you to have faith.” 

Terry snorted, looking out at his new life one last time with a fond grin. 

Just have faith, she said, like it hadn’t been the hardest thing in the world a year ago. 

But he knew she was right. 

And he was glad he’d taken that leap of faith, seeing how far he had come. 

Ash Hills was supposed to have been the place he went to die, but instead, it had become the place of his rebirth and his happily ever after. 

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