Sketch Artist

That evening, Hannah started to get in bed with her daughter when Alicia said, "Mom? What are you doing?"

"Oh. Right."

Alicia pointed to the other Queen-sized bed in the room and said, "You're supposed to sleep with the man you love, remember?"

Hannah ran her hands through her daughter's hair and told her again how much she loved her.

"I love you, too, Mom."

She looked over at Jude then said, "I love you, too...Daddy."

Jude was sitting on 'his' bed with his feet dangling over it when Alicia asked, "Is it okay if I call you that?"

He slid off the bed, got on his knees in front of her bed then told her, "Nothing would make me happier, sweetie. If it's okay with your mom."

"You have no idea how happy that would make me, and I know Alicia's father would be just as happy knowing there's someone else who loves this little girl as much as he did."

Hannah got on her knees beside Jude then said to her daughter, "So...best day ever?"

"Oh, yeah!" she told her mom, a huge, happy smile on her face.

"How about you, handsome?" she asked her fiancé.

"Oh, yeah!" he replied.

He smiled at Hannah then asked her.

"And you, wife of mine to be?"

"You better believe it," she told him as the three of them laughed and hugged and told each other again how much they loved each other.

*****

Jude moved out of his apartment and into Hannah's home the following month. They married that December and bought a place of their own right after the first of the new year.

Hannah Kensington continued working in the bank while Jude built his business and his reputation as a graphic designer. Within five years, he'd done well enough to be able to begin writing and selling graphic novels, and another five years after that, he was making a decent living doing what he loved, and that allowed his still-beautiful wife to be a stay-at-home mom.

Hannah worked for just over another year when she learned she was pregnant just before turning 42. Any concerns she had about having another baby at that age disappeared when, after telling Jude, he picked her up and spun her around and told her she'd just made him the happiest man alive.

Jeremy Connor Kensington was born some seven months later, and Alicia, who'd become even more popular than her mother had thought possible, loved spending time with her baby brother, and occasionally chose to stay home and play with him over hanging out with friends. But more often than not, her friends came to her house and doted on little Jeremy almost as much as his big sister.

Hannah had never dreamed she'd be a mother again that late in life, but she'd also never once thought about being widowed at such an early age. But that was the hand life had dealt her, and as she reflected on how things had worked out, she couldn't have been happier.

Yes, she'd been scared out of her mind the day the bank was held up, but looking back, it was quite possibly the best thing that ever happened to her. Had that crazed, would-be robber not held up the bank, she'd have never met the handsome sketch artist who fell in love with her and who loved her daughter as his own. Meeting Jude that cold winter morning had radically changed her life for the better and once again made it feel complete. Having a child with this younger man she so dearly loved was just...ice cream...on the cake.