First Class Farewell (17 page)

“She’s in the library with Mark and Katy.”

“Oh, good,” Shelby smiled. “We were looking for them, too.”

Matt turned around and walked back to join the others, Adam
and Shelby at his heels. All eyes looked up as they entered the room. Matt sat
down next to his wife and waited, more interested in how his wife would react
than the actual news itself, as he was pretty sure he knew what they were about
to say…their faces said it all.

“We wanted to tell you guys first, and, uh, we’re glad that
you’re all together,” Adam said. “We can do this all at once.”

“Tell us what?” Janie asked.

“We…Shelby and I are getting married.”

Katy and Janie looked at each other and grinned. Matt and
Mark both breathed a sigh of relief.

“Ah, you want to say anything?” Shelby asked.

“Congratulations,” Janie smiled as she stood and hugged her
son and then took Shelby into an embrace.

Katy stood and grinned. “It’s about time.”

Matt and Janie collapsed on their bed after tucking in the
children after a long and eventful day.

“I’m beat!” sighed Janie. “But it was absolutely perfect,
wasn’t it?”

Matt rolled onto his side and kissed his wife, a long
lingering kiss. “It was perfect. You and Katy are master wedding planners,” he
chuckled.

“Only three more to go,” she grinned.

“Considering Christopher is just approaching his ninth
birthday, I’d say it’ll be a
long
while before they’re
all
married.”

Adam had married Shelby in a beautiful ceremony at St.
Luke’s that afternoon. Sadly, Father Todd who had performed the marriage
ceremony for Matt and Janie had retired, but the young priest, Father James,
had risen to the occasion, reading beautiful passages from the Bible and giving
sound advice to the young couple. As they newlyweds kissed for the first time
as husband and wife, both Janie and Katy looked at each other and smiled,
knowing they couldn’t have picked better spouses for their children.

The reception, a magical winter scene in the ballroom of The
Plaza, had been beyond perfect, and the bride looked stunning in her beaded
Vera Wang gown and Adam had rivaled Prince Charming in his black Armani tuxedo.
They only had eyes for each other and probably didn’t even notice the months of
planning and impeccable execution that had taken place to make their day one to
remember. But Janie didn’t mind. Just seeing them so happy and blissfully in
love with each other had made it all worth it. 

The whole family had been there, including the two newest
additions, Ben and Sophia’s little one, Raymond Aldo Lathem, and Paul and Nic’s
baby girl, born just four days later, Sarah Nicole. They’d both managed to
sleep through most of the day.

Beth had needed to leave the party early. The triplets were
due in just two months and the doctors were extremely concerned she could go
into labor at any time, so her appearance was short, but managed to stand for
all for the family pictures with Tim constantly at her side for emotional, and
physical, support.

Janie kicked off her shoes and slid into Matt’s arms. “I’ll
sleep well tonight,” she sighed.

“You most certainly will,” he chuckled as he pulled her
close and kissed her with a kiss that curled her toes.

*****

Adam and Shelby returned to the Lathem estate in the Bahamas
for their honeymoon. The first night was spent in the pool house, a quiet
night, full of firsts as husband and wife, just as it had been a few months
earlier.

“I love you, Mrs. Anderson,” he whispered in her ear.

“Mmm. I like the sound of that, Mr. Anderson,” she smiled.

“Me, too. But no more talking,” he said and kissed her.

*****

The delivery driver took the clipboard from Maureen’s hands
once she’d signed it and handed her the large package. Already knowing what it
was, she excitedly returned to the living room and yelled for Peter to join her
as she unwrapped the picture from the brown paper.

Sitting beside each other, they looked at the beautifully
framed photograph in front of them. It was the latest family picture, taken
just a few weeks earlier at Adam and Shelby’s wedding. Their entire family was
there; seven sons, six daughters-in-law, one son-in-law and seventeen
grandchildren. Since the photo had been taken, Beth had given birth to the
triplets, who were now home after spending two weeks in the NICU, bringing the
total of grandchildren to twenty.

Peter chuckled. “We made a fine looking family.”

“Didn’t we?” Maureen agreed with a big smile. “We’re very
blessed.”

“Yes…we are.”

THE END

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AJ Harmon was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia.
She currently resides in Oregon, USA, with her husband Brad. They have two
grown children, her pride and joy, and a dog named Max.

An avid reader of the Romance genre, the books in her
personal library range from historical to erotica and everything in between. “I
love reading a sweet romance set in the English Regency period where men were
gentlemen and the women pretended to be naïve. But sometimes you just need a
hot sexy romance to cap off a long week,” she smiled. The bookshelves in her
home are filled with a variety of authors and she is humbled to now be among
their ranks. 

AJ is a new author, finding her passion in writing after her
children had left home, leaving her and her husband empty-nesters. She says the
‘First Class’ series has been a pleasure for her to write and has been
absolutely delightful that readers have received them with such a warm
embrace.  “It will be hard to say goodbye to the Lathems,” she said. “They have
become a huge part of my life and I consider them my family.” The series has
nine volumes in total and AJ considers it to be one of her greatest achievements.
“This series has changed my life and the readers have brought me more love and
joy than I ever hoped for. My life is a fairytale.”

AJ is excited to begin work on her next project, a new
series coming in 2014.