Forever Her Hero. Belle Calhoune

and everything.”

      “I get to be a flower girl,” Dolly shouted. “And I have a pretty new dress to wear.”

      Casey stuck his lip out. “And I get to be the ring boy.”

      Dolly snorted with laughter and covered her mouth with her hand. “It’s ring bearer, Casey,” she sputtered. Casey shot her a dirty look and jabbed her in the side. Dolly retaliated, beginning a back-and-forth war that threatened to get out of control. Ava wondered if her face betrayed her exasperation. Lately, more times than not, Casey and Dolly couldn’t get through a meal without invading each other’s personal space and getting on one another’s nerves, as well as her own.

      “Who wants to hear a story about your mom when she was around your age?” Sawyer asked smoothly, diverting the kids’ attention from their squabble. Casey and Dolly jumped on the opportunity, and, in the process, forgot all about their feud. Ava was slightly in awe. Sawyer had serious skills. He’d thrown the question out there like a perfectly aimed pitch. The kids had never even seen it coming. They were sitting quietly, waiting expectantly for the story to begin.

      “Well, when I moved to Buzzards Bay, I didn’t have a single friend in my class.” He looked back and forth between the twins. “Rough, huh?”

      “Not a single one?” Dolly asked, her eyes wide with concern. “What about my daddy?”

      He shook his head. “Nope. Your dad was a few grades above me, so I was pretty much on my own.”

      “I would have been your friend,” Casey piped up, shooting Sawyer a doting smile.

      Sawyer reached out and patted Casey on the shoulder. “I’m sure you would have.”

      Even though Ava knew what was coming next, she found herself listening to Sawyer with rapt attention. It was entertaining to see the expectant looks on the children’s faces and to hear the details of their first meeting roll off Sawyer’s tongue like quicksilver.

      “On the first day of school I forgot my lunch at home,” Sawyer continued. He wiggled his eyebrows dramatically. “Can you imagine? There I was, in the lunchroom with no one to sit with and no homemade lunch to dig into. I didn’t even have a juice box.”

      Casey and Dolly turned toward each other, their eyes as wide as saucers. In their lives, juice boxes were as routine as the sun rising in the morning.

      “I looked all around the cafeteria until I found the perfect lunch table to sit at. Problem was, everyone else was eating their lunches. I was so embarrassed I could barely lift my head up to make eye contact as I slid onto the bench. For a few minutes I just sat there, wishing I could disappear. All of a sudden this little hand reached across the table and handed me half of her sandwich. Peanut butter and jelly never tasted quite so good.”

      “Was that you, Mama?” Dolly asked, her eyes full of wonder.

      “Yep. It was me,” Ava acknowledged. “And I also gave him a cookie and half of my pretzels.”

      The poignant memory washed over her like a light rain, and for a moment she was transported back in time to Buzzards Bay Elementary and sitting across the lunch table from a pint-size Sawyer. The grateful smile he’d given her after she’d offered him the sandwich had quickly wormed its way straight into her heart. And he’d been there ever since, engraved there like a permanent tattoo.

      Sawyer winked at her, almost as if he could read her mind. “And from that moment on we were best friends. We did everything together...we built forts in the woods, swam out to the buoys at Kalmus Beach, had water balloon fights, took ferry rides over to Woods Hole.”

      “We keep asking to take a boat ride in one of the boats by the harbor, but Mommy says we can’t,” Casey added, casting an unhappy look in her direction. “She thinks something might happen to us.” His eyes were hot with displeasure and a hint of rebelliousness.

      Ava felt the heat of Sawyer’s gaze, but she didn’t look over at him. As a man who made his living by enforcing maritime law, he might find it difficult to understand her fears. For Sawyer, being out on the water was as natural as breathing. Casey was right. The thought of her kids being out on the water scared her to death. Some might call it an irrational fear, but it was rooted in that awful night two years ago when her husband hadn’t come home.

      “Why don’t the two of you clear the table and feed Tully?” Ava asked. “Then I’ll slice up some apple pie for dessert.” The mention of dessert sweetened the deal, causing the kids to quickly get up from their seats and begin clearing the dinner plates.

      “It’ll be nice to have all the family together to celebrate a happy occasion,” Ava said as soon as the kids were out of earshot. “Too many times we’ve gathered for sad ones.” Truthfully, she had mixed feelings about attending a wedding in the same church where she’d married Billy. It would dredge up a lot of bittersweet memories, she realized. She felt a stab of guilt as she remembered all the times she’d seen happily-in-love couples over the past two years. Whether they were holding hands on the beach or grocery shopping at the market, she’d envied them their bliss. It had been that way between Billy and her, hadn’t it? Before all the drinking and the stormy fights, the recriminations and the promises. Hadn’t people looked at them and thought how blessed they were to have found each other? Hadn’t she once believed they were golden?

      “You’re right,” Sawyer said with a nod. “Our families have had our fair share of loss. It’s been a rough couple of years.” He crinkled his nose. “Even so, I’m a firm believer that we’re always surrounded by blessings. Sometimes we just have to look closely to find them.”

      Blessings. Sawyer was right. Despite everything, there was so much in her life to be thankful about. The twins. Her home by the sea. Her family. Sawyer. “How do you do it?” she asked with a grateful sigh. “You always manage to put things into such beautiful perspective.”

      He shrugged, his expression thoughtful. “I just spent a year watching kids kick empty soda cans around instead of soccer balls. And guess what? They were joyful about it. Amid poverty and destruction, those kids were able to see the good things in their world.”

      The soft shuffling of little feet and the noisy squeak of a floorboard heralded the arrival of the twins. Casey stood a few feet away from the table, a huge grin almost overtaking his small, round face. Dolly stood two steps behind him, none too subtly nudging him forward and whispering in his ear. Sawyer beckoned them closer with a wave of his hand. “Come on. I can see the two of you have something to say.”

      “Dolly and I thought maybe we could visit you at the Coast Guard Station one day. We promise to be on our best behavior.” The worshipful expression in Casey’s eyes as he looked up at Sawyer caused her to suck in a shallow breath. The raw need in his voice almost knocked the wind out of her. It sneaked up on her during quiet moments like this when she saw the hopes and dreams of her children put on full display. Her son so needed a father figure in his life, someone who could keep up with his rough-and-tumble ways. Someone he could model himself after. Gratitude toward Sawyer for being here with them flooded through her.

      “We promise not to get in the way,” Dolly piped up. Her hands were crossed tightly in front of her. Her hazel eyes radiated hopefulness. And pleading. Ava clucked to herself, knowing Sawyer was no match against the dynamic duo.

      “I think that can be arranged,” he said with a pearl-toothed smile. He shot a glance in her direction. “As long as it’s all right with your mom.”

      Dolly and Casey shifted their gaze toward her. She quickly nodded, signaling her approval. The twins began dancing around the room in celebratory fashion. Within seconds they were racing out of the room to feed the dog, their voices raised in triumph. She let out a chuckle and playfully looked at her watch. “Hmm. Less than two hours in their presence, and you’re already caving in to their wishes. At this rate they’re going to have you wrapped around their little fingers in no time.”

      “I want the twins to be happy,” he said with a poignant smile. “And I want that for you,