Epilogue

“Guess what?” Ned asked Alice as he dropped his briefcase on the living room floor in their Sweet Valley home. He lifted his toddler son high into the air.

Alice smiled at little Steven’s giggles. “What?”

“I’ve been named a partner at the firm!”

“Oh, Ned!” Ned set Steven back on his feet. Alice gave her husband a big hug. “I’m so proud of you. That must make you the youngest partner.”

He nodded. “It’s a big honor. I never expected it to happen this soon.”

“Well, you deserve it.” She stood on tiptoe to kiss him. “No one works harder than you do.”

“How about you? How was your day?”

Alice worked part-time as a graphic designer for a company in Sweet Valley. “Actually, I didn’t go into the office today,” she told her husband. “I had a doctor’s appointment.”

“A doctor’s appointment?” Ned’s brow furrowed. “Honey, is anything wrong?”

Alice attempted to keep a straight face. She had thought she’d try to drag out the suspense. But she couldn’t help it. Her lips curved in a smile as bright as the sun. “Nothing’s wrong. I think it’s absolutely right that Steven should have a little brother or sister.”

“A little...?” The meaning of Alice’s words registered on Ned. Now it was his turn to grab her and hug her tightly. “Oh, Alice. Another baby! Nothing in the world could make me happier. Nothing.”

He sat down on the couch and pulled her onto his lap. Bending, Alice picked up Steven and settled him on her lap. “What a family!” Ned groaned, pretending to be crushed.

Alice laughed. “Are you really sure you can handle another child?”

“Sure. I could handle two!”

“I suppose you’d like another son,” Alice speculated.

Ned smoothed a hand over Steven’s dark, baby-fine hair. “I have one perfectly wonderful son. I wouldn’t mind a little girl this time around.”

“Imagine a baby girl.” Alice’s eyes grew dreamy. “I wonder what she’d be like.”

“She’d have blonde hair and blue-green eyes,” Ned predicted. “Just like you.”

“That’s right. The blonde hair and blue eyes go all the way back to my Swedish great-great-grandmother. I wonder if she’ll be a brave pioneer, like Alice Larson. Or a spunky tomboy, like my great-grandmother Jessamyn, who was a bareback rider in a circus and then ran a hotel in turn-of-the-century San Francisco. Maybe she’ll love poetry, like Great-Aunt Amanda. Or maybe—”

“Wait a minute!” Ned exclaimed. “We’ve had some pretty great women in my family, too. Starting with my mother, Hannah, and going all the way back to my great-great-grandmother, Dancing Wind.”

“I suppose it’s OK if our daughter takes after them,” Alice teased. “Or looks like them.”

Ned wrapped his arms around his wife and son. “Actually,” he said to Alice, “I’d be happiest of all if she—or he— takes after you.”

Alice nuzzled her husband’s nose with her own. “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.” She knew that, boy or girl, this new baby would make their little family complete. The future looked golden for the Wakefields of Sweet Valley.

http://ru.scribd.com/doc/136005533/Sweet-Valley-Saga-2-The-Wakefields-of-Sweet-Valley-The-Untold-Story-1992-Kate-William-Francine-Pascal