To Heal A Heart (Love Inspired) (16 page)

“Where else would I be today of all days?” he asked softly. She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, so happy she could burst.

Had he really doubted his welcome? he asked himself as her family gathered around them, all talking at once.

“Do you know how hard it is to keep somebody that big under wraps?” Thai was asking no one in particular. He was a good-looking kid, clean-cut, with his mother’s warm brown hair and eyes a little darker than Piper’s.

“Just think if you’d had to put him in a box,” Jeanette teased. A small, pretty brunette, she seemed to have a lively wit beneath that calm, unruffled exterior.

“That would be some bow!” Gordon quipped, his brassy hair a pleasing contrast to his wife’s more muted medium brown.

“It’s good to see you again, Mitch,” Mr. Wynne said warmly, offering his hand. He was a tall, raw-boned man whose build had nothing in common with that of either his daughter or son, both of whom possessed their mother’s more solid frame. Of course, they had gotten their hair from him, though age had dimmed and thinned Ransome’s thatch.

“The pleasure’s all mine, sir.”

Mitch shifted Piper to his side and clasped Mr. Wynne’s hand, one arm still about her waist. He hoped Wynne didn’t think he was forward, but he couldn’t quite seem to let her go just yet—and she didn’t seem inclined to be let go.

Mrs. Wynne offered her own hand, and Mitch had no choice then but to remove his arm from Piper’s waist in order to take the hands of both her parents. The older woman was the mold from which Piper had been made. Her thick white hair had been cut short and left to wave about her head, framing the face that Piper herself would wear in a few decades. It was a face he thought he could gladly spend the rest of his life with.

“Mrs. Wynne. You’re looking well, ma’am.”

She seemed amused, as if she knew that he was seeing Piper in her. “I’ll look a sight better after I’ve had some cake,” she proclaimed.

“And ice cream!” Thai added enthusiastically.

“Candles first,” Gordon insisted, adding playfully, “Somebody get the fire extinguisher.”

Everyone bustled into the dining room, leaving him and Piper to bring up the rear.

“I can’t believe you’re here!” she said again, keeping her voice low. “When you didn’t write or call, I thought—”

“We can talk about that later,” he said, wrapping his arm around her waist again. He just couldn’t help touching her. If he had his way, they’d be joined at the hip from now on. But it remained to be seen if he was going to have his way in this. He couldn’t help worrying that he hadn’t given her enough time, although it had been all he could do to stay away this long.

Jeanette was sticking candles into the top of the cake when they reached the dining room, but before he’d let her light them, Gordon insisted on counting them to be sure that she hadn’t left one off. Piper just laughed. Then as Jeanette patiently lit one candle after the other, Piper looked to her brother and said with jovial promise, “Wait until March.”

Mitch assumed that Gordon’s birthday was the next month, an assumption that Thai confirmed by crowing, “Ho, Dad! We’d better have the fire department on standby before we light that baby up!”

Everyone laughed, but then the candles were all lit, and it was time for the obligatory wish. Piper folded her hands and closed her eyes. It was her birthday, but Mitch found himself making a “wish” of his own.

Forgive me if I’m being selfish, Lord. I have tried to be patient, and I’ve tried to believe that I can give her up if You have a purpose for her that doesn’t include me. But, oh, how I want her!

Opening her eyes again, Piper drew a deep breath and blew out all the candles. Mitch applauded along with everyone else.

“Now,” Jeanette said, “if someone will just say a blessing over this cake, we’ll get to cutting and eating.”

To Mitch’s surprise, the three elder Wynnes looked straight at him. Wondering if he were being put to the test somehow, he nodded, accepting the commission gladly.

Linking arms around the table, they all bowed their heads.

“Gracious Lord God,” he began, feeling, as always, that he had moved into the very presence of holiness, “I thank You for this family and all that they have meant to Your kingdom. They’ve had some tough times, Lord, but they’ve clung to Your promises, and I know You honor and reward their faith. Go with Piper over this next year. Make this the best year yet for her and her loved ones and keep us all ever in the palm of Your hand. Amen.”

“Amen,” said the others. Then Ransome lifted a hand in a signal that he would speak.

“You know, God never promised us a life of ease and fun without hardship or grief of any sort, but He did promise always to be with us and to fulfill our every need. Sometimes in the midst of our pain it seems that He’s falling down on the job, but just look at us now. He’s used tragedy to bring us all closer to Him and to each other—and to bring Mitch into our lives. God always provides for the happiness of His children, even in the midst of sadness.” He looked at Piper and said, “This is a happy day. I want you all to enjoy it.”

“Thank you, Daddy,” Piper said softly, leaning in to kiss his cheek.

“Now give me some cake,” Ransome demanded gruffly, and everyone laughed again.

In due course the cake was cut and the ice cream was dished out. Thai ate two pieces of cake and about a half gallon of ice cream. Jeanette made a pot of coffee to warm them all after the cold treat, though the weather had turned mild and calm, mild enough that Mitch felt safe in suggesting that he and Piper drink their coffee outside.

“That sounds good,” she said, rising and leading him from the room. She reached into the coat closet for a bulky knit cardigan to protect her from the chill, shrugging into it while he held her cup.

He made do with his suit coat, figuring that as long as they stayed in the sunshine, they would be quite comfortable.

It was a breathtakingly beautiful day, with sunlight like golden crystal and air as soft as down. Overhead the sky made a deep blue bowl with only a few white wisps of cloud to mar it.

“I still can’t believe you came all this way for my birthday,” she said as they strolled toward a bench-type glider in a sunny corner of the backyard.

“I wanted to come sooner,” he said, “but I couldn’t let myself get in the way.”

“You could never be in the way, Mitch.”

He thanked her with a look, but then he said, “Yes, I could. I worry even now that I haven’t given you enough time to heal.”

She sighed as she sank onto the wooden seat, her coffee cup held carefully in front of her. “You of all people should know that it’s a lifelong process.”

“Yes, I do understand that,” he said, taking the seat next to her, his own cup balanced in his left hand. “But there is a point when coping is the most important thing, and it’s easy to get thrown off by other issues.”

She nodded, sipped from her cup and said, “I wasn’t coping very well when we met. I wasn’t coping with Asia’s death at all.”

“You were doing the best you could on your own,” he argued gently.

“But I wasn’t on my own,” she said, looking at him. “I had you from the very beginning.”

He looked into his cup as if searching for the future there. “I don’t believe that was an accident, Piper—the way we met, me finding that letter and feeling so convinced that I had to return it to its owner.”

“No accident,” she confirmed softly.

He leaned forward and set his coffee cup in the pale, brittle grass at his feet. Then he sat back again, lifting one arm to curve it around her shoulders.

“You can’t know how much I’ve missed you,” he said. “I didn’t call or write because I knew that if I did I wouldn’t be able to stay away as long as you needed me to.”

“I wasn’t sure what to think,” she confessed, laying her head on his shoulder, “but I understand now.”

“I’ve prayed about this daily, and I’ve been in touch with Gordon all along.”

“Oh?” She was understandably surprised, but he was obviously trying to make a point.

“Your brother says you still don’t know what to do with yourself, where you belong, what God intends for your life.”

She lifted her head and looked at him. “He’s wrong. I know exactly where I belong.”

He looked for an instant as if she’d hit him. “You do? H-have you told your family?”

She shook her head, uncertain what was bothering him.

“C-can you tell me?” He didn’t sound as if he really wanted to know.

She shifted slightly and reached right past him with the hand holding her coffee cup. She turned her wrist and poured the coffee on the ground before setting the cup on the flat armrest of the glider.

“I belong,” she said huskily, “wherever you are.”

He stared at her blankly for a moment, as if he hadn’t understood, and then he sucked in a sharp, deep breath. “Thank God! All this time I’ve been telling Him that I could give you up if that’s what He wanted. A-are you sure that you’re not called to the mission field or—?”

“Quite sure,” she interrupted, struggling with a smile.

“I—I want to give you time to r-really get to know me, to figure out exactly how you feel. If I’m rushing you, honey, just say the word and I’ll back off.”

“Mitch,” she said patiently, “do you know what I wished before I blew out the candles?”

He shook his head, grinning like an idiot. “What?”

“I wished you’d get a clue and kiss me before I get any older.”

His jaw dropped, and then he closed his arms around her and pulled her to him, bending his head to hers.

More than their lips melded in that kiss. Their futures joined, inextricably woven together into a single pattern, what they thought their life together would be.

They would have love, that kiss said, and true joining in every sense of the word—the best of all this world had to offer and the next, as well. They would have common purpose and combined strength, enough to see them through the rough patches and make them fully appreciate the smooth ones. They would have love in all its guises, its fullest expression, its smallest duty, its eternal ramifications. They would have each other and the guidance of a mutually known Lord, in Whom they would be made complete, a single entity with two satisfied souls.

He poured out promise, and she soaked it all up, right into the very core of her being.

“I love you,” he said, finally breaking the kiss.

“I love you, too.”

“I know.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “I mean, I thought I knew. All this time I’ve been hoping that you meant that the way I wanted you to mean it.”

She drew back a little. “You heard me?”

“Absolutely, I heard you. Didn’t you mean for me to?”

“No. I mean, yes, but I didn’t think you would.”

“How do you think I’d have gotten through these months without you if I hadn’t had that to hang on to?” he asked. “To find you just when I felt God finally telling me that He had more in store for me than work and dealing with other people’s grief and then to let you go again! I had to use every scrap of faith I could pull together. I can’t tell you how many times I had to get down on my knees and beg God for the patience to get through this.”

And to think that she had felt abandoned!

But no, not really. Deep down in her heart of hearts she had always known that they would be together. In some ways she had known even before he had dropped into that seat beside her, a slip of paper with healing on it tucked into his pocket. She had tried to forget for a while, tried to believe that God was not in control of a world where bad things could happen to good people and pain must come at some point to all. Even then, in the secret places that she feared even to acknowledge, she had known she wasn’t alone, would never be alone. God did not abandon His own or fail to provide for their every need.

She had come through the valley the same way that Mitch had, on faith, and as God would have it, they’d both come out at the same place.

“Oh, Mitch,” she exclaimed, “I’m so thankful you were on that plane with me that day!”

“Sweetheart,” he said, grinning, “I’m just glad it’s still flying in both directions. I feel some frequent flyer miles coming on.”

She laughed, too happy to hold it in anymore, quite sure, finally, in a joy that even sorrow could not diminish so long as faith and love were given free rein.

M
ay was the perfect month for a wedding in Texas, and the candlelit church was packed, even if it was pouring rain outside. The wedding coordinator, who was keeping time with the music, stood poised in front of a pair of exquisitely carved double doors. At precisely the right moment she pulled them wide and stepped back. On her father’s arm, Piper moved into position. Pausing a moment, she took in the scene into which she was about to step.

Every pew was filled. Banks of candles flickered, spreading romantic light throughout the hall. Mitch stood at the head of the aisle, handsome in a sedate black double-breasted tuxedo and white bow tie, looking as relaxed as if he were in his own living room. He was flanked on one side by Thai, his cousin Jack, a spiffed-up Scott Ninever and a good friend from church, on the other by Melissa, Jeanette and two longtime friends of Piper’s dressed identically in evening gowns of spring green. Directly behind him stood Gordon in formal robes, a Bible in his hands.

Their eyes met and held across the crowded sanctuary bedecked with yellow roses as the string quartet paused in their playing. Piper smiled and felt the encouraging pat of her father’s hand on her arm. Then a lone violin began a slow, dreamy rendition of the wedding march. Piper lifted her left hand and turned her wrist. Asia’s tiny face smiled at her from the charm dangling from her bracelet. She shared her answering smile with her father, and together they stepped off. At the same moment Gordon signaled the crowd, and the throng of witnesses rose to their feet in a hushed, rippling wave of excitement.

She took her time, savoring every moment of that long walk to the altar. Along the way she smiled and nodded at good friends, old and new, many of whom had made the trip from Dallas for the wedding, including Ivan Sontag and his great-grandson Robin, who would have darted out into the aisle to hug her and crush her belled white chiffon skirts if Red hadn’t laid a patient, restraining hand on his shoulder. She gave him a bright smile, making a mental note to find him later at the reception.

Then her gaze fell on her mother’s face. From the foremost pew, Charlotte smiled, her innate strength and calm faith radiating outward. Across the aisle from her, Vernon Sayer literally beamed while Marian dabbed at her happy tears with a lace-edged handkerchief. By prearrangement, Piper paused and tugged two orange-gold roses from her otherwise white bridal bouquet. Being careful of the long chiffon veil streaming down her back, she gave each with a kiss to the moms, the first to her own mother, the second to Mitch’s. Then two more steps brought her to her future.

Mitch moved forward, his gaze meeting hers, his smile serene. Gordon lifted his voice.

“Who gives this woman in marriage?”

“Her mother and I.” Ransome placed her hand in Mitch’s and backed away.

Gordon seated the audience and beckoned the beaming couple forward. Not quite forty minutes later he pronounced them husband and wife. Mitch smiled down at her, gathered her into his arms and kissed her until everyone started to laugh, including the two of them.

Gordon made the formal announcement. “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell Sayer.”

The applause and the music swelled simultaneously. Still laughing, Piper snagged her bouquet from a teary-eyed Melissa as she and Mitch rushed down the aisle, hand in hand. They hit the foyer at a near run. He swung her back into his arms, kissed her hard, hugged her tight.

“You are stunning today! Stunning! I’ve never seen a more beautiful bride!”

“I’m so glad you think so.”

“I know so.”

“Thank you. Husband.”

He cupped her face in his hands, bending close just as Melissa and Thai burst through the swinging doors. Taking his role as honorary best man very seriously, Thai immediately began shooing them toward a small room where they could wait, out of sight, while the remaining bridal party and their parents reversed the processional and the guests dispersed. Before joining their friends and extended families for dinner and celebration at the reception, they would pose for a few—a very few, at Mitch’s insistence—formal photos.

They closed the door behind them, instructing Thai to let them know the moment that the sanctuary was empty and the photographer and wedding coordinator were ready for them. In the meantime, they had a few precious moments to themselves.

“I’m married!” Mitch exclaimed, wrapping his arms around her.

“That makes two of us,” she teased.

He laughed and kissed her again before checking his watch. “Remember, we’re out of the reception by nine o’clock.”

She saluted smartly, barely controlling her smile. “Aye, aye, husband sir.”

“My wife,” he said dreamily, squeezing her hands.

Thai tapped on the door. “You two ready?”

“Almost,” Mitch called, reaching for the shoes he’d stashed under a chair in the corner. “Make sure everyone’s in place, Thai, and that the limo’s waiting under the canopy.”

“Sure thing.”

Mitch stepped out of the shoes he was wearing and into the others, which were very nearly identical, as Piper quickly sat and traded her soft cloth slippers for white leather. He pulled her up and helped straighten her skirts, then gave her a wink. She laughed, remembering the tube she’d given him to hold for her the day before.

“I’d better check my lipstick.”

He plucked it from his coat pocket, his gold-and-silver wedding band glinting in the overhead light.

She admired the reflection of her own matching band and the extravagant engagement ring as she quickly repaired her lipstick. Was that happy, sophisticated-looking woman really her? With her shoulders bared and most of her hair coiled atop her head inside a crown of pearls that anchored the flowing chiffon veil, she looked like a princess in a fairy tale.

“Ready?” he asked, taking her hand in his.

“Ready.”

They hurried back to the sanctuary to pose. The photographer would have dawdled over every photo, but Mitch wouldn’t allow it. He was a man with a purpose. Piper didn’t mind in the least. She couldn’t wait to be alone with him, either.

“That’s it,” the photographer finally announced.

Piper shared a conspiratorial smile with her husband and said, “One more.”

“Stay where you are,” Mitch instructed the puzzled photographer.

Piper gave him her hand, and he led her to the altar. A wink and a smile, then Piper lifted her skirts and they knelt together.

“Mitchell Sayer!” Marian scolded, her voice rich with laughter.

“And no retouch,” he insisted around a grin.

Piper bowed her head, but her shoulders were shaking.

The photographer snapped the picture.

It would always be their favorite wedding photo—the two of them kneeling at the altar of their Lord, hands clasped. Printed on the soles of their shoes in their own hands were the clearly readable words “Love is no accident.”

For two children of God, no truer words had ever been written.