Small-Town Moms (16 page)

He looked relieved. “I am the most blessed man if you tell me that you'll be my wife. That we can have a life together.”

Olivia let all fear and worry go. There was no doubt in her mind that she was where she was supposed to be. “Yes. Yes, and double yes, I'll marry you.” She laughed. “I can't wait to marry you.”

Gabe hugged her tight and buried his face in the crook of her neck. She felt the tension ease from him, and she knew they were going to be all right. “Oh, Gabe. With God all things are possible, aren't they?”

“Yes. They are.” He looked at her, smiling. “Do you want to go wake up everyone and break the news?”

Olivia smiled. Only a few hours earlier she would
have been worried about Trudy, but now she felt Trudy was looking forward to this. “Yes. I would love to tell them.”

Gabe stood, pulled her to her feet and kissed her so tenderly. And then, hand in hand, they went to wake up their family.

Six months later

“R
un, Wes! Lilly is going to get you this time,” Trudy yelled, laughing as his sister Lilly swung a rope over her head and tossed it toward him.

Wes was having a blast pretending to be a steer while his big sisters attempted to rope him. “Girls can't rope!” he called, as the rope landed beside him and Duke knocked him down and rolled on top of him.

Lilly and Trudy ran to his rescue. The girls had bonded immediately upon meeting, and both girls were crazy about Wes. Once Trudy had overcome her fear of losing Olivia, she'd been like a different child and loved the idea of having a little brother.

Watching them playing in the arena, Olivia said a prayer of thanks to God for all of His blessings in their life. Things had been perfect since she and Gabe had fallen in love. But they'd understood that their love for each other had happened quickly, and they'd thought some time before the wedding would be good for everyone. They hadn't felt like there was a need to feel as if
they'd rushed into anything and had decided to wait six months before getting married. Olivia and Trudy had gone home then relocated into a Mule Hollow apartment, and it had been such a sweet time for all of them to spend hanging out together and for Gabe and Olivia to actually date…or court, as App and Stanley down at the diner called it. Olivia liked the idea that they'd courted. She'd also liked the idea of helping Gabe get more comfortable with putting distance between the bitterness he'd felt for her sister and the forgiveness that he'd given Dawn so that he could move forward.

“Can you believe how our lives turned out?” Maegan asked, drawing her attention. They were standing beside each other on the porch.

Olivia smiled at her sister, enjoying the time they'd spent together for the last few days since the wedding. “It is still so hard to believe that after all these years we are together again. And that we are now the mothers of Dawn's children.”

“God truly does work in mysterious ways,” Maegan said softly, her voice filled with as much awe as Olivia's.

“I wish we'd been able to know Dawn—things might have been different for her if we could have all been together as a family.” The ache in Olivia's heart for her younger sister would never go away. “I'll never know the answers to the many questions I have about the life she led after our parents died.” It bothered her still, but she'd accepted there was nothing she could have done to change their past.

“We won't have those answers,” Maegan agreed. “It is sad but true that we will never know if we could
have helped her…but we know that we can help her children.”

“Yes,” Olivia said, reaching to squeeze Maegan's hand. “We will be the best mothers we can be for her children.”

“Our children.”

“Yes, we will,” Olivia said, her voice cracking with emotion.

Maegan's gaze met hers in love and determination, two sisters locked together on a mission of love. Before they could say more, Clint and Gabe walked out of the house, each coming to stand beside his wife. Maegan and her family were heading home to Colorado the next morning, and so the guys had cooked steaks on the grill, then helped Georgetta prepare the rest of the meal. They'd wanted Maegan and Olivia to spend time together before leaving.

“You okay?” Gabe asked. Concern etched his eyes as he spotted the emotion bright in Olivia's.

Clint asked the same of Maegan, who looked at Olivia once more and smiled as she nodded and hugged her husband.

One look at these strong, loving men of God, and Olivia and Maegan understood even more clearly how good the Lord had been in bringing them all together. His love was amazing.

They'd started out the aunts of their long-lost sister's children, but they'd ended up mothers…. God, as only He can do, and as He promises in the Bible, took their bad situation and gave it a wonderful, beautiful happy ending….

“We're fine,” Maegan and Olivia said in unison.

“Just fine,” Olivia repeated, kissing Gabe on the
cheek as Wes, Lilly and Trudy came running up the path, their faces lit with smiles of joy. “Life doesn't get any better than this,” she said, sweeping Wes into her arms.

“Better than what, Momma?” he asked. He was hot and sweaty and smelled like the back end of a cattle truck from playing in the arena dirt.

“Better than having all my family around me and you kids as a part of our lives.”

“And me bein' your boy?” he asked, cocking his damp, dirt-streaked face to the side, his bright blue eyes beaming with love.

Olivia's heart swelled with love to match. “That's right, son. Having you as my boy is the best of it all.”

He giggled at her words. “Even if I smell like a turtle?”

Everyone laughed.

Olivia hugged him tight, her heart so full of love. “Even,” she said, “if you smell like a turtle.”

Dear Reader,

 

Both of us (Debra and Janet) are happy to bring you another set of connected novellas. We see these books as special gifts to our readers (sort of two-for-ones), so we hope you have enjoyed these novellas the way you did the ones in our
Small-Town Brides
(published in the spring of 2009). This time we're celebrating family ties rather than brides, but the love is just as strong. Our heroines are sisters who were separated as children when their parents died, and they have only recently found each other again.

We know that some of our readers are in a similar situation and may not know the whereabouts of one or more of their family members (and maybe don't know where any of their family is). We hope our novellas ease that pain a little. Like our heroines, we know that God is with you and that He has a big family of fellow believers for you—they may not be your biological family, but they can love you just the same. You'll find them in churches, Bible study groups and Sunday school classes.

For the rest of our readers, we hope you take a moment now and then to appreciate your family. Things may not always be easy between all of you, but God can work miracles of forgiveness and restoration. We pray He does, if that is what's needed in your life.

We both enjoy hearing from our readers so, if you get a chance, email us through our respective websites:
reach Janet at www.janettronstad.com (use contact button on website) and Debra at: [email protected] or her website: debraclopton.com.

 

Sincerely yours,

1. Olivia had a strong faith even though she'd been through some very hard times—her parents' death at a young age, being split up from her sisters and placed in foster care and the loss of her dear husband leaving her to raise her daughter on her own. Many people would blame God for the bad things that happen to them. What makes the difference between how people react to the blessings and the trials that happen to them?
   
2. Gabe was eaten up with bitterness at Olivia's sister. Olivia believed that this was bad for him and Wes's emotional well-being, and also for their future. Why? What do you think?
   
3. What does God say in the Bible about grace?
   
4. What did Olivia pray God would use her to do for Gabe?
   
5. The pastor's sermon was on grace. Grace is something we give even when the person or persons we are pardoning don't deserve it. God gave us grace when He let His son Jesus die on the cross for our sins. Do you know someone you need to bestow grace upon?
   
6. Because he had lost his dad at an early age, Gabe realized that he could help Trudy deal with the grief
   she was still experiencing from the loss of her dad. Do you believe you can use your good and hard life experiences to help others? How?