Safe Harbour

She did some quick thinking and spoke to Matt for a few minutes, and he was willing, if she thought it would be all right with Pip, which she was sure it would be. She asked him to move into her bedroom, since they were getting married anyway. And she gave Ted's den, where Matt had been sleeping, to the baby and the au pair. It worked for the time being. Chad's room was still considered sacred ground and offlimits. But she had to agree with Matt, they were going to need a new house soon. She wanted to have guest rooms too for Robert and Vanessa. As things were now, Vanessa would have to sleep with Pip when she came to visit, which delighted Pip, and was certainly possible. But they were beginning to burst at the seams. And the house at Safe Harbour, with its single bedroom and cozy living room, was only going to work for Matt and Ophélie as a romantic retreat, which didn't seem like such a bad idea.

By late that night, once the baby and au pair were settled, and Pip was asleep in bed with Mousse at her feet, Matt was in bed next to Ophélie, and he turned to her with a grin.

“Things are certainly changing around here quickly, aren't they, my love?”

“You can say that again. Imagine if I get pregnant!” She was only teasing him. With Willie's arrival, their family seemed big enough, and she had no intention of adding to it, now or later. Before they fell asleep, she thanked Matt for what a good sport he'd been about everything.

“You never know what's going to happen around here from one day to the next,” he said happily. “I'm beginning to enjoy it.”

“Me too.” She snuggled down next to him as she said it. And a few minutes later, all the residents of the house on Clay Street were sound asleep.

29

THEIR WEDDING DAY IN JUNE DAWNED BRILLIANTLY sunny. It was a perfect day, with bright sun and a gentle breeze. There were little fishing boats on the horizon, and the beach looked swept clean. Safe Harbour had never looked better.

The priest had arrived at eleven-thirty, and the wedding was set for noon. Ophélie was wearing a simple white lace dress, to her ankles, and carrying a bouquet of tuberoses, and Vanessa and Pip were wearing white linen dresses. Matt and Robert were wearing slacks and blazers. And Willie, in the nanny's arms, was wearing a little blue and white sailor suit. He had just started walking and was wearing his first pair of shoes. And Ophélie couldn't help noticing he looked just like his mother, which was something of a relief. The alternative would have been harder to explain, although he did look a little like Pip. There was a definite family air. And when people commented on it, Pip was pleased. She had no idea, and wouldn't for a long time, her mother hoped, that it was true, that Willie was in fact her family, although not Ophélie's.

They were all in good spirits, and they were leaving for France the next day. They were going to spend a week in Paris, and then two in Cap d'Antibes, at the Eden Roc. It was an extravagant honeymoon that Matt had insisted on treating them all to, but he said he had hardly spent a penny in years. And they were all looking forward to it. And as soon as they got back, Ophélie and Matt had agreed to look for a new house. The house on Clay Street was about to burst at the seams.

Robert was his father's best man, and Vanessa the maid of honor, Pip the official bridesmaid. They had thought of using Willie as a ring bearer, but he was teething again, and they were afraid he'd swallow the rings.

The priest spoke briefly and touchingly about bringing lives and families together, about the resurrection of the spirit, and the sorrows of past lives being healed. He spoke of hope and joy and sharing and family, and the kind of love and blessings that brought and kept families together. And as Ophélie listened to him, her eyes drifted down to the beach, to precisely the place where Matt had been working when Pip must have found him almost exactly a year before. It was impossible not to think of the serendipity and good fortune and blind luck that had brought them together. All because of one little girl walking down the beach with her dog.