"Then I think it's time for us to go home, Griffin Rourke. We have a long adventure ahead of us and I want it to begin right now."
Epilogue
Meredith sat in the middle of the living room floor in the gray-shingled cottage on Ocracoke Island. A brisk autumn breeze blew in through the screened porch, teasing at her hair. Piles of books surrounded her as she packed the stacks in large cardboard boxes. Beside her, two-year-old Thomas Griffin Rourke, named after his paternal grandfather, played with a large ball and babbled to himself.
"Is there a reason we bring all these books to the island every summer?"
Meredith turned around to see her husband standing in the doorway that overlooked the Sound. He looked much the same as he had that first night, only now he was dressed in twentieth-century clothes. "Yes, there is," she said with a wide smile. "It's so you can carry them back and forth to the car and I can admire your incredible physique."
Griffin chuckled and knelt beside her. He placed his hand on her swollen abdomen. "The last time you admired my incredible body, sweetheart, we made another baby."
"But it was fun, wasn't it?" She covered his fingers with hers.
Griffin nibbled at her neck playfully. "Yes, 'twas fun, Merrie-girl. But I would have been well satisfied with just one child. I would not have risked you again."
Meredith wrapped her arms around her husband's neck and kissed him on the mouth. "When are you going to realize that having your children is the most precious gift I can give you?" she asked, pressing her forehead against his.
"And 'tis the most precious gift I can give you, as well," he murmured.
They both turned to gaze at their son. He now stood beside the boxes, methodically pulling out books and tossing them onto the floor with unabashed glee.
"If your son doesn't stop, we'll never get out of here," Griffin said.
Meredith leaned over and grabbed Thomas around the waist, then pulled him, giggling, into her lap. She kissed his cheek and he screeched in delight. "Why don't you take yourson outside," she said. "I've just got these two boxes to pack up. One goes with us and the other goes to the island library. Trina's going to pick out the books she wants and donate the rest to charity."
Griffin grabbed his son and hoisted him up on his shoulders. "Take your time, sweetheart. We'll be down on the beach."
Meredith watched as the two most important people in her life walked through the door and headed out to the water. "Time," she murmured, distractedly repacking the boxes. "Once I thought we'd never have enough time together. But now, we have all the time in the world, don't we, my love."
She smiled winsomely and picked up an old volume from the floor. As she stared at it, she ran her fingers across the worn leather-bound cover and over the gold inlaid letters.
"Rogues Across Time," Meredith read. Wistfully she recalled the first time she had picked up the book. If the hurricane hadn't driven her into the closet that night so long ago, she may never have found her pirate. The book had changed her life.
She moved to put the book in her keeper box, then at the last moment, she gently placed it inside the other box-the box meant for the library. "Maybe someone else will be lucky enough to find their soul mate somewhere in time," she said softly. "And maybe someday, they'll find the happiness that I have."
Satisfied with her decision, Meredith taped up both boxes and called her husband and son back in from the beach. No, she didn't need the book anymore. All her fantasies had become reality and she was living her dreams every day of her life.
Kate Hoffmann
