Epilogue

© Copyright 2007 by Elizabeth Delayne



Gabriel drove through town, his window was down, his arm resting on the frame he let the cool breeze in. The number of cars in town was growing, but they still remained mostly familiar. His police radio was on, but silent. He saw a few ladies standing outside a storefront and he lifted his hand in a wave.

They waved back, and called out greetings.

The sky was overcast, the trees were full of color with leaves already beginning to fall in-mass to the ground. It was fall again. Another one. He seemed to mark his time now not by how long he’d been in South Carolina, but how long he’d known—really known—Nicole.

A little over two years had passed. It wasn’t really a long time. They’d had things to sort through in their minds, in their hearts. They’d had a lot of ... relaxing to do. Of just being. It was something he’d been able to help her with.

Their time together, more often than not, was peaceful. He’d taught her how to garden so they would spend long mornings together outside weeding and planting and nurturing the soil. Their talks were ... healing. She ... well, they both would, share their thoughts about God. Questions. Fears. She would talk about her father. Though theoretically in prison now, he was never far from her heart. Joe Rossi had been assigned to a psychiatric ward. Whatever had happened that day had finally broke him. He would often travel back in time, before Amelia’s death. Most of the major money—including Margaret Brown’s—had been located, deposited in accounts not to deep into the system.

Healing.

Nicole also liked to go fishing with him. Those were peaceful times as well. While she didn’t fish, she would read. She would dive into her books and all but disappear. Not physically. But he understood her need. According to Jason, she’d always been that way.

She was in school, finishing up her last semester. She was working part time at the library that was undergoing an expansion as a nearby junior college was opening up a branch in their town. She was promised more time and an actual position once classes started in January.

Gabriel found a spot down from Trish’s Place and parked. He glanced at his watch. He was running a little late, but he was never in much of a hurry. Life was slow. He liked it that way.

As he walked into the diner, he spotted Nicole at the far back booth sitting across from old Bob Lee. He smiled. The old man had taken Nicole under his proverbial wing. Like the Lewis’s and half the other people in town she had taken him into her extended family.

“You beating my time?” he asked Old Bob.

“You’re late,” Nicole said without glancing up as she studied the chess board.

Gabriel slid into the booth beside her, stretched his arm out along the booth behind her, and watched her hand as it hovered over the board, preparing to make a move. Her hand was steady, and despite the hovering, gave nothing away. She took her time, studied the field.

He smiled as she finally moved her knight, and Old Bob’s hand counted rather quickly back with a move of his own.

“For an old man, you still have some tricks,” he said with some appreciation.

“Age is in the mind,” Old Bob said with a grin. “And I keep mine young. Lots of youth around here nowadays to keep your spirits healthy. You and Nicole still courtin’ up a storm, Jason with his growin’ brood. And we’ve gotten three new families movin’ in thanks to the Junior College and Counselin’ center the Rev. pressed for. Lots of youth. Lots of life back in this old town.”

The old man sat back, watched as Nicole thought about her next move. He knows how to wait, Gabriel thought.

But then, so did he.

Gabriel tightened his hold on her and briefly drew her close. He watched her profile as she smiled. He’d been waiting over two years for her, much longer than that if you counted all the time he’d heard about her, known about her, through knowing Jason.

But nothing compared to the last two years. Her reluctance at first, the first twinges in her eyes of trust and love, the settling in that came more as she found a new place for herself.

He could laugh with her. She had a small smile. A gentle laugh that showed more in her dark eyes than it did in the sound. Nothing like his own. But she got him. And according to Julie that took a lot. It was one of his favorite qualities he shared with her.

And he could share his dark places with her.

The chess game didn’t last much longer. Old Bob leaned back with a contented sigh after he won the round.

“You think I could borrow your date for awhile?” Gabriel asked the old man.

“If you can handle her. Nearly beat me this time.”

Nicole smiled. “Not even close.”

Gabriel took her hand. “Come on.”

“I thought we were eating lunch.”

“We are. Just had a change of plans,” he stood and tugged on her hand until she followed. “I wanted to show you something.”

“Like what?” she asked cheekily as she stood.

“Like something ...”

“Like maybe a cheeseburger?”

Gabriel shook his head as he walked with her hand in hand out the door of Trish’s place. “Not a cheeseburger.”

“Mmm ... how ‘bout a plate of Gnocchi al Gogonzola?”

“Ah ... my guess is no. But what is that?”

“In English it translates I guess into cheese and dumplings ... but in Italian, it’s amazing.”

“Sounds much better in Italian.”

“Everything sounds better in Italian,” Nicole surmised. “I learned that from my mother.”

Her voice had softened, so Gabriel stopped at his SUV and turned her to face him. “So, you think you might could whip me up some of this amazing, Italian naughty cheese?”

Nicole laughed. “Gnocchi. I just might be able to do that. For the best you’ll have to stop by Tony’s. The original Tony’s. Nobody can make it better than him.”

“But you learned from him, I bet.”

“I learned a little bit from everyone.”

As she had, Gabriel thought, from Trisha’s father. As Trisha had finally been able to break away from the diner and return to accounting, Nicole had filled in and worked off and on for him, cooking, covering the counter. She could make a mean cheese burger, mixing things into the meat to give it an amazing flavor.

He drove her out of town, toward Jason’s. “I ah, couldn’t get Jason to sell me the land next to his house.”

“Still bartering with him?”

“Tried to. But I did work out a better deal, I guess,” he said as he drove passed Jason’s driveway. “Harriet Wilson sold me an acre of her land and Jason an acre of his that runs along Harriet’s property.”

“Really?” Nicole said. “So this is ...”

Her voice died away as Gabriel slowed and turned off the highway into the woods. There was a narrow drive, still covered mostly in grass, that went into the trees.

“I think Harriet’s grandsons used this land to hunt back before Jason built his house. Maybe even since,” Gabriel said as he drove into the wooded area. “But not anymore.”

“Because ...”

Nicole’s voice faded away again as Gabriel pulled to a stop. Well into the woods, far back so they could not be seen from the road, were two large stone lions placed on either side of the drive. Just beyond them the trees gave way to a clearing.

Her hand fumbled on the door as she climbed out. Gabriel followed, a bit slower, watching as she walked to the lion on the right and placed her hand on it’s mane. The size of it came to her waist.

She just stood there, looking, her dark gaze simply taking it all in.

She was smart, he thought. She would get the meaning.

And it didn’t hurt that they had been dating for over two years, had talked about marriage, and had planned to build a house surrounded by nature’s skyscrapers.

That’s what Nicole called the trees.

“Patience and Fortitude,” he said, referring to the lions, and drew her gaze, “or as close as I could get. They’re not exactly the same, not nearly as big. But they seem have their own presence.”

“In the middle of the woods. Where did they come from?”

“A forklift brought them in this morning,” he said and watched her smile. “Seriously. Those lions are heavy. Once they’re set down they aren’t going to move. Ever.”

“Seriously.”

He shrugged. “I know a guy who knows a guy in landscaping who cut me a deal. I wanted to give you something of home. Thought it would be a little ostentatious to place them by the road, so I thought we could pave a lane from the road, through the two of them, to our quaint little house with its wraparound porch that we’ll build.”

For a moment she just looked at him, seeming to absorb the meaning of his words. Then she turned and ran her hand over the lion’s mane.

“Not of home. Of New York,” she corrected, “and the most important part to me.”

“I know.”

The lions were more than a symbol for her, more than a memory of her mother or a New York landmark, Gabriel knew. She’d linked them with her faith. He wanted to remind her, every time she drove through ... every time she came home, that God love is strong. That God’s love is patient.

And that God was all those things.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

He stepped beside her and watched as a ray of sunlight shifted through the trees and played with the natural highlights in her hair.

“I thought you might ... want to be close to your brother. It was as close as he would allow. He still wants woods surrounding his place.” Gabriel drew a nervous breath and laughed. “You know Jason.”

“I do,” Nicole said and lifted the hand that rested on the lion to touch his cheek, just for a moment. Then she smiled as her hand fell away. “I figured out how to get through the woods. He knows it won’t keep me away.”

Gabriel laughed. “He did pledge to cut a path this time. He wants you close, he just didn’t have enough land to preserve his own surroundings. Before he needed the isolation. Maybe we both did. When we came south, Jason and I, it was me that wanted the land to dig my fingers into. Jason provided that—for a time. Now I have my own ... but my dreams, my plans are a little bigger.

I don’t just want the land anymore. I don’t want solitude. I want the noise and problems of having a family. One with Italian roots that remind you and Jason of the joy of living side by side in an old apartment building.”

She looked out at the land. “Some apartment building. Gabriel.”

“So, Nicole ... Are you going to help me make my dreams come true?” he pulled a ring from the pocket of his jeans and held it up between them.

And waited for the recognition to dawn in her eyes.

The ruby glowed in the ray of sunlight that came through the trees. Nicole stared at the ruby, then lifted her eyes to Gabriel’s. “Mama’s rubies.”

“Jason helped me pick it out so it matches the set. He knows more about that then I do.”

“But you know me.”

“I’m getting to. I love you. I’ve been in love with you for awhile now. Maybe not since the first time I saw your picture, but close to the time I found you on Jason’s porch.”

Nicole took a step toward him, then stopped, watching him with those serious brown eyes of hers.

“When I came ... south,” she said, using his words, “I didn’t come for the rubies ... as my father thought ... or for the land as you and Jason did. Even though I knew my books, I didn’t know what to expect. Not the quiet. Not the land. Not this. It’s so different. I never expected ... this. I never would have thought I could deserve ...”

“A cop?”

“Certainly not that.” For a moment, she lowered her eyes, struggling with her words.

“The lions ...” she said at last, raising her eyes, “they were ah ... named during the Depression, a symbol of strength, what was needed to get through that time. You’ve needed that with me, I know. You’ve shown that to me. You’ve taught me ... the meaning and the importance of both patience and fortitude. You’ve helped me learn that my faith needs both. Before ... I didn’t know. And because you did ... I can say yes.”

“You’ll marry me then?”

She grinned, her eyes full of joy.

He thought of the first time he’d seen her, standing on Jason’s porch, looking so serious. Those dark eyes had been so serious, but there was more in them now. It was different.

There was joy.

“Yes,” she said at last, laughing as she held up her hand, “and I’ll love you for the rest of my life. With patience and fortitude.”

Gabriel ignored her hand and tugged her into his arms, lifting her off her feet to spin her around in the ray of sunlight. Their laughter danced through the trees.

“I promise,” he said after he’d set her down and as he slid the ring on her finger. “It’s not just going to be about patience and fortitude. I’m going for joy. Plenty of joy.”

Amore gioia, pace, pazienza. Nicole thought. Love, joy, peace ...

And so much more.

Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance [Greek: fortitude/patience]. But endurance [Greek: fortitude/patience] must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.


~James 1:2-4

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