Part 2

"So tonight's the night, huh?" Nick looked at his brother with so much pride.

"Yeah." Alex grinned.

"I still can't believe that you're finally settling down. I thought it would never happen."

"Well, I just needed to find the perfect woman." Alex smiled. "Now that I found her and know that I wanna spend the rest of my life with her, I don't think there is any reason why this should wait. I mean we're already a family with Charlotte, so why not make it official?"

"Look at you all smitten and talking about family." Nick patted his brother on the shoulder. "But you do know that you can't sleep with other women when you''re married, right?"

"Oh so very funny!" Alex laughed.

"So where is the ring?"

"It's on Claire's bed. I figured she won't go in there until after the party and when she does, I can finally pop the question."

"Just don't chicken out." Nick continued to tease him.

"Never!" Alex said firmly and again whispered to himself. "Never."

"Speak of the devil." Nick smiled and his sight shifted towards Claire's ute pulling up. A while later Claire and Tess got out and Nick and Alex walked over to help them with the food.

"Finally." Alex grinned and pulled Claire for a quick kiss, which soon became more and more passionate.

"Get a room!" Nick elbowed his brother and everyone started laughing.

"What can I say, I missed my lady." Alex said with a smile and winked at Claire.

"So now I'm your lady now, huh?" Claire grinned as well.

"Now and forever." he replied and kissed her again. "You have no choice, you're stuck with me for the rest of your life."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." she answered and pulled Alex for a big hug. This time nobody was making any stupid comments, they were just looking at Alex and Claire, amazed at how much in love they were. It's not very often that a love like that blooms, especially if it needs that many years to bloom.

"OK, let's get all that stuff out of the car." Alex said as he walked over to the back of the ute. "Did you buy the whole store?" he said laughing as he realized that there is hardly no space left.

"There's nothing that you guys didn't ask for." Tess said with a smile. Alex and Nick helped her unpack the things and put everything on the tables.

"By the way, where is my other lady?" Alex asked after a while as he opened the back door and kissed BOM on the forehead. "There she is!" he smiled as he started to unbuckle her. "My beautiful beautiful baby girl." he took her out of the car and kissed her again. "I missed you two, you know? Both you and your mommy." he was so consumed by Charlotte and her efforts to tell him something that he didn't notice the way Claire was looking at him. Just when she thought she couldn't love him more... Nothing made her happier than seeing Alex and BOM like that. He might not be her biological father, but she knew this was the best father this girl could ever ask for.

"What are you grinning about?" Tess asked when she saw the expression on Claire's face, but it didn't take her long to realize what Claire was looking at. "He's so great with her."

"He is, isn't he?" Claire smiled. "It's amazing how the two of them bonded. It's like he really is her father."

"That's because he is." Tess insisted. "You said it yourself, he's gonna be her father in all the ways that count."

"Yeah, I know." Claire sighed happily as he saw Alex dancing with little Charlotte.

"You guys are gonna be so happy." Tess said excitedly. "I'm so glad everything worked out the way it did."

"Yeah, me too." Claire answered and added as she saw Nick already pouring the champagne into the glasses. "Come on, before they drink it all." she laughed and they headed towards the tables where everybody else was. Nick handed them their glasses.

"There you go ladies."

"Thank you." they replied almost simultaneously and took their glasses.

Suddenly everyone heard Jodi's voice. "Speech!" she shouted and looked meaningfully at Claire.

"Oh come on, Jodes. You want a speech, you make one yourself." Claire tried to get away with it, but it seemed like other people liked Jodi's idea.

"Just a couple words before we drink a toast." Meg insistead. "We all know you can do it."

"Oh man." Claire sighed as she turned around a bit so that she was now facing everyone. "Are you sure you wanna hear it?"

"Absolutely!" Alex agreed and looked at Charlotte. "Isn't that right, BOM?" Charlotte made a weird sound. "See? She wants to hear your speech too."

"OK, but can we not call it a speech? It makes me nervous." she said and they all laughed. "Well OK, I guess that since I'm hosting this party, I can say a few words." she tool a deep breath. "I gotta say that this cancer scare really terrified me. I hated the idea that my sister could be taken away from me so soon after I got her back. But fortunately everything turned out OK and she's here with us and will be for a long time." Claire smiled and looked at Tess, who was already getting all teary-eyed. "I cannot tell you how relieved and happy that makes me. Because honestly, I cannot imagine this place without her anymore." she added and realized that Tess was almost crying.

"Oh honey, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry." she said concerned.

"That's OK." Tess replied. "Those are happy tears."

"Good." Claire smiled and continued. "As you know, I have another reason to celebrate." she paused and looked at Alex holding little Charlotte. "I finally found the man of my dreams and he's gonna be with me day and night from now on. I don't know how he's gonna survive in this house full of women though."

"Oh I'll find a way." Alex interrupted her and said looking lovingly at her and BOM. For a second again everyone just stopped to admire the beautiful love between Claire and Alex.

"Well anyway." she said after a moment. "I'm really grateful to God that he let me realize how much I love Alex and that he feels the same way."

"You bet I do!" he shouted and everyone started laughing. Alex walked up to Claire and handed BOM to her, kissing the girl on the forehead and her mommy on the lips.

"Awwww!" that was just about the only sound that Jodi could make at that particular moment. She looked at her mother on her left. Meg was already teary-eyed and didn't even try to hide it.

"They look so beautiful together." she whispered with a huge grin on her face. "I'm so happy for both of them."

"I know, me too." Jodi replied and looked over to Alex, Claire and Charlotte again. That was definitely one happy family.

"OK, that definitely calls for a toast." Nick suddenly suggested and lifted his glass. "Cheers!" he said happily and everybody followed.

Soon the party was in full swing and Drovers really had not seen that many happy people in a long time. They all had so many reasons to celebrate and they were so excited to look around and see all their friends so content. This was definitely one of the happiest days on Drovers Run.