A/N I'm glad I finally put up a chapter in a reasonable period of time. It was starting to frustrate me, not to mention how you guys must feel since you're reading it. Anyway, this is the final chapter of the story. I hope you all liked it.

Chapter Twenty-six

Nancy's POV

Three months have passed since the day I drove back home from Chicago. My life turned into a whirlwind for that period of time.

That evening when I sat down for dinner with my dad, I took a deep breath before explaining to him that I wanted to move to Bayport. I gave him what I felt was a systematic list of reasons why this would be a good decision. I was still a little nervous about his response, but it turned out that I shouldn't have worried.

My dad slowly put his fork and knife down on his plate and wiped his mouth with the napkin that had been placed in his lap.

"Nancy, I know you're worried about what I'm going to say," he began. "Your mother was the love of my life and even though she died far too young, I still love her with all my heart. What I want you to understand is that sometimes you need to follow your heart because it will always lead you in the right direction. I followed my heart long ago and ended up married to your mother before having you. It was the best decision I ever made."

"So you're not upset that I want to move away?" I asked.

"I'm going to miss you, Nancy," Carson replied. "However, I do expect you to visit often."

I spent the next couple weeks following that conversation getting everything packed and ready to go for the biggest move of my life. I spent as much of my time as I could hanging out with Bess and George. Although they were both saddened by the fact I was going to be moving, they promised to visit and wished me well.

I think the actual move was the hardest part. I finally settled on a date to drive my car, which was crammed full of my things, up to Bayport. Frank and Joe helped with the unloading of the vehicle, but it was only into their spare bedroom in the house they lived in with their parents.

It was the first time that I had met Frank's mother and Aunt Gertrude since I had actually run across his father, Fenton, a couple of years earlier at a convention. I was brought back to feeling like a teen-aged girl, who desperately wanted her boyfriend's parents to approve of her. My girlish ways didn't last long because Frank's mother was quick to put me at ease in her home and Aunt Gertrude was immediately complaining about how skinny I looked and offering up treats to try to fatten me up a little.

While I'll be the first to admit that I love Frank's parents as well as have a fondness for Aunt Gertrude, there was no way that I could stay in their house on a permanent basis.

As much as they would tell me that they didn't mind my staying there with them, I still felt a bit intrusive. There was also the fact that Frank and I had little to no privacy whatsoever at the house. My other reason for wanting to find a place of my own was that this was really the first time that I'm taking that leap forward and trying to make my own place in society without the help of friends or family. In my mind, it would be a great achievement for me to finally be able to provide food, clothing, and shelter for myself just based off of my income and not anything additional that might be supplemented by others.

I gave myself a week to adjust to the town and life in general outside of River Heights before I started looking through the newspapers and local magazines for apartments and small houses. I found that I had enough saved up to easily be able to afford a nice apartment. A down payment on a small house might be stretching it a little, but I knew that purchasing a house was usually a good investment in the long run.

Since Frank and Joe were staying busy with their detective agency, Frank's mom would come along with me to look at the places I was interested in. I'm sure I could have done this on my own, but it was a bit of a relief to have someone else there whose opinion I trusted. Plus, I had the added benefit of her knowing a lot of the real estate agents in town.

I'm not sure how many places I looked at over the next couple of weeks. The images just seemed to fly by making it easy to forget what I saw and why I didn't like it in the first place. After two weeks, I finally stepped foot into a house with two bedrooms and two bathrooms that I fell in love with. The place had an open design to it that was simple and left a lot of leeway available in how to decorate it. There were lots of windows that let in plenty of light during the day. The yard was small, but I was okay with that since I would be the one taking care of it.

I took lots of pictures on my phone of the exterior as well as the interior and forwarded them to my dad. I knew that he wanted to see the place I was interested in. After taking the evening to discuss the house with both my dad as well as Frank and his family, I decided to make an offer the next morning for it.

Frank's mom helped me with the bargaining process of procuring a good price on the house. She really was a godsend for this whole event. I'm not sure what I would have done without her. It didn't take long before the real estate agent confirmed that my offer had been accepted and we moved forward into scheduling a closing date.

My dad kept in touch with me constantly during all of this. He also wore me down on making the down payment myself. I listened to him explain how he understood why I wanted my independence with this new step in my life, but he thought that I would be spending too much of my savings to make a down payment. I didn't like the fact that he was probably right, but I knew where he was coming from. That was why my dad flew into Bayport for the very first time on the day before my closing on the home.

The next day he took a quick tour of the home before we drove over to the bank where the paperwork would all be looked over and signed. It was a lot more paperwork than I expected to see, and it made me feel better to have my dad there. I read over everything carefully and signed my life away on all the dotted lines. My dad wrote the check required for the down payment on my new house and keys were handed over. I was officially a new home-owner.

Shortly after I began working with Frank and Joe at their detective agency. Most of the cases I worked on were people coming in wanting to check out their spouses to see if they were being cheated on. It wasn't exactly the most exciting work, but it didn't require too much time to take care of those sort of cases. We charged an hourly rate for cases like that and it did help pay the bills. Every once in a while, something truly interesting would come up that all three of us would work on, but I soon found myself getting restless.

I had a long chat over dinner one evening with Frank about my restlessness at work. Frank suggested that I might should look around for something else to help fill up some of my time. It took me a little while before I found the perfect opportunity available for me.

The local newspaper just happened to be looking for a new columnist. I applied for the position and was given the job. I was lucky enough that they didn't have any particular type of column in mind because they apparently just needed to fill some space up in the paper.

That's how I began writing a small article in the paper. The subject matter would change depending on the day of the week, but it was all based off of topics that I had a good bit of knowledge about. Some of the articles that were written were about self-defense, how to avoid being scammed, and the latest technology made available.

Having a daily column on top of working at the detective agency seemed to be just what I needed to lift my spirits and keep me busy. Frank was happy to see my success paying off when I began getting great reviews on the column.

That brings us to today. I'm on my first official trip back to River Heights with Frank tagging along as my date because today Ned is getting married.

Not only has my life taken quite a turn in past few months, but I feel like I've also been on an emotional rollercoaster. I can remember a time that I was saddened by the thought of Ned marrying someone other than me, but those days have long been over. Today, I can't help but to keep a bright smile on my face as I watch the wedding take place.

I'm so happy that Ned found the girl he was meant to be with because I'm pretty sure that I'm sitting right next to the guy that I will be marrying one day.

After the ceremony was over, we followed everyone to the reception. I guess Frank and I took our time getting there because we seemed to be toward the back of the greeting line that had formed. We just stood side by side holding hands with silly grins on our faces as we inched up slowly. I'm not sure how much time had passed, but soon we were next in line to greet the newlyweds.

"Congratulations!" I cheered as I took Ned's hand in mine.

"Nancy!" Ned shouted. "It's so great to see you. I didn't think you would make it."

"How could I not come to your wedding?" I chided.

"Well, I knew that you had recently moved to Bayport and were working," Ned said shrugging. "I just thought you might have too much going on right now."

"You should know by now that I would put aside whatever I was working on to come to something as important as your wedding," I stated.

"I really am glad you made it," he said giving me a quick hug. "Have you met my wife, Jessica?"

I turned to Jessica with a smile on my face, "It's a pleasure to meet you. Congratulations on marrying a good guy."

Jessica smiled brightly at me, "Thank you for coming. I know that it means a lot to Ned that you came today."

"I'm glad to be here," I told her before excusing myself and allowing the people behind me their time.

Frank and I mingled for a bit before I found Bess and George. Frank excused himself to allow the three of us to catch up on everything that had been going on in our lives. It really didn't take us too long to update each other because we had been in constant contact via phone and computer since my move.

I looked up from our conversation at one point to see Frank and Ned talking to one another in the far corner of the room. I couldn't tell what they might be talking about with one another, but it seemed to be a serious conversation. Just as I was contemplating moving closer to them, they broke apart. While Ned made his way back to his bride, Frank walked back toward where I was standing with the girls.

"What was that about?" I asked quietly when he reached my side.

"I'll tell you later," Frank replied.

Music began playing and we halted our conversation to watch Ned and Jessica dance their first dance together on the dance floor. When the dance was over they danced a dance with their parents and then everyone was invited to join the dance floor.

Frank turned to me and asked, "Will you dance with me?" as he held out his hand.

"Of course," I answered taking his hand and following him onto the dance floor.

They were playing a slow song and danced together in time with the music.

"Ned was congratulating me earlier," Frank told me.

"Congratulating you for what?" I asked slightly confused.

Frank smiled at me. "For finally manning up and asking you out officially."

"He approves?" I asked a bit surprised. I wouldn't have thought Ned would ever really like Frank and I being together.

"Yes, he does," Frank answered. "Even though I've experienced some animosity from him over the years when it comes to you, I think he finally understands how good we are for each other."

"Is that what you think?" I asked coyly.

"Yes, Miss Drew, that is exactly what I think," Frank said. "And now I think you need to kiss me."

With those words, I wrapped my arms tighter around his neck and brought his lips down to meet mine in a searing kiss that made everyone around us disappear in the moment. I knew that wherever Frank was, I would be home. He was where my heart is.