I walked my own self down the aisle. Hey-what did you expect? I’ve been on my own most of my life, it wouldn’t make much sense to have somebody “give me away” at this late date, would it? Anyway, I did it, walked down the aisle-which by the way was an actual white carpet, Mirabella’s idea, which she says she learned the hard way after trying to walk on grass in high heels at her wedding!-and down there at the other end, there was Troy, waiting for me.

Oh boy. I’m not sure I can find the words to tell what I felt then. What I still and will always feel, for as long as I live. I remember that I couldn’t feel my feet touching the ground. I remember that I felt as if I were flying, and at the same time like I wanted very much to cry. I’m still not sure I deserve to be so happy. But you know what? Dobie said all those years ago that God had something important for me to do, and I know now that she was right. It was this and only this: to love and be loved by this man.

Troy says that I am his compass, his magnetic north. I understand, now, what he means by that, because today I found out that he is mine as well. It was at that moment when I put my hand in his that I knew I had found my way home.

Well, Dear Diary, I guess this is it. It’s time to say goodbye. Troy is waiting for me to finish this so we can begin our life together. (Yes, he, too, is a patient man!) We’re going to the South Pacific for our honeymoon, can you believe that? We are such a cliché! When we come back-and we are in no hurry, believe me!-we are going to be hanging out our shingles in downtown Atlanta (I forget the name of the street, something with Peachtree in it, probably) not far from the capitol building. That’s right, I said “shingles”-plural. Troy’s decided to go into the investigations business. He’s going to specialize in finding missing children and reuniting broken families, isn’t that cool? And one of his first clients is for sure going to be the law firm of Charlene Phelps-Starr, right next door.

We’re not going to live in the city, though. No way. We’ve bought a place north of town near a lake, about halfway between Troy’s folks and mine, with enough room for Bubba to swim and roam and chase all the squirrels he wants. Room for kids, too. Lots of them.

Funny how things happen, isn’t it, the twists and turns in life’s pathways that bring us full circle back to where we began? Maybe Dobie was right, and everything that’s happened is, if not the Will of God, at least just part of some complicated structure called My Life, each part necessary in bringing me here, to this:

Home.

Oh yeah-almost forgot-Thought for the Day: I was wrong about knights. Yes, there are still a few around. Well, at least one.

And you know what? He doesn’t look anything at all like…you know who.

KATHLEEN CREIGHTON

has roots deep in the California soil but has relocated to South Carolina. As a child, she enjoyed listening to old-timers’ tales, and her fascination with the past only deepened as she grew older. Today, she says she is interested in everything-art, music, gardening, zoology, anthropology and history, but people are at the top of her list. She also has a lifelong passion for writing, and now combines her two loves in romance novels.