Anne with an e- a new version of the story

Capítulo 65 - Heart's desires

ANNE

Family. Anne loved that word. She looked at all the people gathered around the dinner table on a Friday night, and smiled. This was her family, and although she was not born into it, it was as if she had always belonged to this group of people who loved her, just as she loved them.

Matthew and Marilla were the most generous people Anne knew, and they opened their doors to this redheaded girl, without even knowing where she came from, and raised her with love and discipline, with values and principles as if she were a daughter, and Anne could never thank them enough for the care she received in that house. She hadn't known her parents, but life had given her those two brothers who meant everything to her; they were her base, her support, and her foundation.
Her eyes drifted to Mary and Sebastian with little Shirley on their laps, and her expression deepened.

She also considered them part of that family, mainly because they were responsible for Gilbert having a happy, normal life again after her father was gone.

Anne knew about her fiancé's grief, and how her heart was hurt when he left. Losing his father had been a very hard blow for Gilbert, and one that had transformed his personality for a time. Anne remembered how hard those days had been, and how she had suffered with him too, without Gilbert knowing.

She had wanted to approach him and tell him she understood his pain, but Gilbert had shut himself in a painful silence, barely paying attention in class or talking to his friends. They were not close at the time, and were in competition for the best grades and the best speller in the class, but that did not stop Anne from feeling compassion for him and seeing each other as equals in that kind of situation.

Inside her there was more than sympathy for the annoyingly handsome boy who had once pulled her pigtails and made her feel like the strangest girl in the world. Gilbert had apologized a while later, and it was the first time Anne had noticed the beauty of his smile.

But when Gilbert's father had died, everything had changed, Gilbert had changed, and Anne regretted that she no longer had him around to be her adversary in discussions among students, or in experiments that Professor Stacy insisted on doing, in which she and Gilbert always differed in their opinions.

And when he had returned with Sebastian along for the ride, Anne could glimpse the old Gilbert again, with his easy, incredible smile, looks that seemed to want to unlock all his secrets, and the friendliness and intelligence that secretly always charmed her. Mary had been the second good part of Gilbert's return. She had found in Sebastian her companion for life, and so had given Gilbert her friendship and motherly care, and then a sister who was not by blood, but whom Gilbert loved with all his heart.

As Anne admired those three amazing people who made that small group so dear to her, her eyes were captured by Gilbert's, and she realized that he shared the same affection as she did for everyone there, and her heart sighed happily. Gilbert Blythe would be her husband, they would have their children, and they would build a family as strong and beautiful as that, and their lives would be rich and abundant with love.

Anne couldn't wait to experience it all. There was a hunger for life in her that not even the cruelty of the orphanage where she had lived had taken away. She had kept her spirit intact and full of curiosity for life beyond the gates of her enclosure. Deep in her heart she had always believed that she would leave that place and live an existence full of adventures, but she hadn't counted on the fact that she would also live a love so great that it wouldn't fit inside her chest.

Gilbert squeezed her hands lovingly and asked:

- Is everything all right, Anne? You were looking at me so seriously that for a moment I thought you wanted to tell me something. - Anne squeezed his hands back and replied: