Winsor, Linda (32 page)

Epilogue

"I
declare, I think our church bell sounds even clearer with our new roof!"

Esther
Lawson counted off twelve strikes and, with her characteristic schoolmarm nod
of approval, resumed her last minute check of the table decorations in the
community hall. The ladies circle had turned the homey but nondescript decor
into an extravaganza of wedding bells, doves, blue-and-silver ribbons, and
coordinating plates, napkins, and table linens.

Shep
and Deanna had planned to elope to Las Vegas, while the house was being
remodeled and rewired to accommodate twenty-first century life, including a
phone, fax, and internet for Deanna to work out of the house.

The
church ladies would not hear of it. Deanna had no immediate family? Just what
did she think they were? She would have a decent church wedding, just like her
mother would have wanted for her, not some drive-through paper-signing with the
price tag hanging over the door.

Deanna
teared up every time she thought about the love and acceptance of the little
community. She'd once thought it the backside of the world, but she couldn't
have been more wrong. Buffalo Butte was the heart of the world. Before she knew
it, the wedding was planned and all but a done deal. Four weeks had flown by.
Shep moved back to the ranch so that Esther's second bedroom could be filled
with shower gifts from sisters she hadn't even met.

Caught
in a whirlwind of plans and activities, Deanna discovered the slower pace her
city friends used to joke about was a choice. When the chips were down, these folks
made Wall Street look tame.

Hands
damp with perspiration, she wiped them on a tea towel rather than risk ruining
the beautiful brocade of her wedding dress. It and the veil of Spanish lace had
belonged to Maisy's grandmother. "I wore it forty pounds ago," the
diner owner told Deanna as she removed the special bag it had been preserved
in. "Last time I ever dressed up," she reflected with an unladylike
snort of humor. "Been wearin' an apron ever since, so that just goes to
show ya, don't it?"

Seeing
Deanna had no clue what she was getting at, unless she was trying to discourage
the bride, Maisy explained. "Love is love, no matter how you dress it up
or down. In fact, I might even love my Chuck more since I took up the apron
than I did when I wore that dress."

"More
blue flowers!" The minister's wife hurried in with a large white box.
"Juanita is putting the carnations on the men. Praise the Lord, they're
white with just a smidgeon of blue."

The
church ladies insisted the groom have some say in the wedding plans, even
though he deferred without exception to whatever Deanna wanted. Trapped at the
shower by a passel of mother hens, Shep picked the color blue, "To match
Deanna's eyes."

Deanna
thought Juanita Everett would swoon then and there in the hall kitchen, but the
mayor's wife was made of sterner stuff. The president of the flower club, which
she named the Buffalo Butte Bouquettes, managed to find more blue flowers than
Deanna ever knew existed. And if they weren't blue, she spray-painted them.

"Oh
my," Ruth said in a something-isn't-quite-right voice after opening the
box and pulling back the tissue.

"Hey,
Slick, is everything a go in here?" Shep called through the door.

The
ladies set upon the groom the instant he walked in.

"Shepard,"
Esther chided in a tone that had kept children in their places for years.
"It's bad luck to see the bride before the wedding."

"Now
how am I going to cart her down the aisle without seeing her?"

With
no one from her family to give her away they'd decided to break with tradition.
Shep was going to usher Deanna down the aisle and the entire congregation would
answer "I do" when the time came to give her away.

Shep
smiled over Esther's and Maisy's heads at Deanna.

"Besides,
ladies, if that's bad luck, I can't imagine what good is."

Neither
could Deanna. She'd heard of love light in songs and always thought it was some
silly metaphor... until now. Deanna basked in it, her body tingling in its warm
glow. It just didn't get any better than this.

"Well,
just in case..." Maisy emptied salt from a nearby table and tossed it over
Shep's shoulder.

"Maisy,"
Esther huffed, brushing it off his shoulders. "You'll mess up his
tux."

His
shoulders looked half again as wide, pronouncing the taper to his trim waist
and hips.

"It's
the man that makes the tux, not the other way around," Maisy argued.
"It'd take more'n salt to mess up a handsome dude like Shep."

His
embarrassed grin faded as Ruth pulled out the wedding bouquet. "You're not
going to carry that, are you?"

No
more impressed than Shep, the minister's wife just stared in disbelief at the
massive collection of blue flowers.

"I've
seen smaller sprays on casket lids!"

"The
mayor's wife said she wanted something different just for me. They came all the
way from Hawaii." Deanna felt compelled to come to Juanita's defense.
"Anthuriums, I think she said. She had to keep them overnight in the
bathtub."

Shep
scowled. "They look obscene to me."

"They're
used in large arrangements," Esther informed them, dubious as she fingered
the large waxy petal that made up the flower. "But I've never seen them in
blue."

Maisy
snorted. "Anything that's stood still long enough for Juanita to fetch her
can of paint is blue. She ain't been right since she got back from those
islands."

"What
are we going to do?" Ruth asked.

"Thoughtfulness
is thoughtfulness, no matter how you dress it up or down," Deanna
paraphrased Maisy
"I'm
going to carry the bouquet down the
aisle." She looked at her husband-to-be. "Unless you object."

"That's
one of the reasons I love you, Deanna Rose Manetti." Shep leaned through
the barrier of ladies and kissed Deanna on the cheek.

One
more blast of that love light and she'd be too weak to carry it.

"Oh
my goodness, look at the time," Ruth Lawrence exclaimed. "I have to
start playing the organ." She brushed past Shep in a rush.

Esther
and Maisy gave the hall one last perusal and then turned to Deanna.

"You're
pretty as a picture," Esther said, bussing Deanna on the cheek. "I'm
going to miss my favorite boarder."

Maisy
stepped up and gave Deanna a bear hug. "Just strut right up that aisle
with that hunk of man on your arm and remind us all what love is."

Deanna
groaned as a tear slipped out the corner of her eye. "Aw, sheesh, there go
the waterworks again."

With
the flourish of a magician, Shep produced a handkerchief. "Not
waterworks," he corrected. "Joy leaks."

Maisy
and Esther exchanged smiles and slipped out of the hall as he dabbed Deanna's
cheek with a tender touch.

"Everybody
has been so nice. I m—mean, I have as much family here as I had in Brooklyn
with Pop's Italians and Mama's clan." She sniffed. "I'm drowning in
love here. My m-makeup's gonna run, and it'll look like you're marrying a
raccoon."

"I
love raccoons with those little black rings around their eyes."

"Well,
that
really makes me feel better," Deanna wisecracked. "Now I
gotta worry about being stuffed and put on the mantel next to Old Bull."

Shep
laughed so hard that Deanna had to wipe the
joy
leaks
from the
corners of his eyes. Reverend Lawrence poked his head in to see the two of them
sharing tears, laughs, and a wet handkerchief.

"Are
you two ready? Mr. Deerfield said, and I quote, 'I'm sweatin' buckets in this
here monkey suit.'"

"Ready,
able, and willing." Grinning, Shep folded the handkerchief in his left
pocket so that Deanna could reach it. "Do you think you can get through
this without cracking me up?" He folded her hand over his arm.

Her
knight in denim. Her best friend. Her hero. Her love light. When all was lost,
he found her. When she was sinking, he lifted her up so that she could see.

"Only
if the reverend adds 'excluding taxidermy' after the 'for better or worse'
part."

"Never
mind," Shep said, at Reverend Lawrence's bewildered look. "We'll just
take our chances and jump in feet first."

As
Shep escorted Deanna across the small parking lot, the steeple of the church
gleamed white, a beacon of unity in one God afloat in an endless stretch of
Montana sky. It drew her back into the church family and to the man with whom
she would soon be one, in faith, hope, and love. Spirit dancing to the
time-tried herald of the organ, she stepped over the threshold of her future
with the Shepard God had sent her.

Walking
with her husband-to-be down the aisle through a sea of familiar, loving faces,
Deanna's heart sang what her emotion-choked voice could not.
Look at me,
God. I'm stepping out on the water.

LINDA
WINDSOR is the award-winning author of nineteen historical and five
contemporary novels.
She
lives on the Eastern Shores of Maryland in a Waltons-like home brimming with
the love, laughter, and occasional heartache that she brings to life so
wonderfully in her romantic comedies. Linda finds that laughter is God's
prescription for the tears of life—the icing on the cake of faith.

Dear
Reader,

Along
Came Jones
reaches
beyond the heart and funny bone, not just to entertain, but also to illustrate
how God's Word speaks to every person's doubts and struggles. In my years of
affliction with chemical/biological depression, I have personally faced both
Deanna's and Shep's dilemmas—feeling abandoned by God and reluctant to offer
help to another depressed soul in need when I was barely recovered myself.
Through these experiences, I've learned that things of this world—depression
and dire circumstances—are temporal, while those of God—like His love and
grace—are everlasting.

By
that grace, I found the hope, the direction, and the strength to meet these
challenges head on in God's Word, just as my characters did within these pages.
With that hope in mind for others in similar situations, I've prepared a few
questions, to be used for either personal reflection or group discussion, in
the hope that you will be uplifted and reassured by the power of everlasting
love and grace in God's Word.

Blessings
always,

Questions for Reflection or Discussion

1. Have
you ever felt like Deanna—desperate with no one to turn to, abandoned even by
God? Describe how you felt then. Read Job 7:1-11 and Psalm 22:1-2. How was your
sense of despair like that of Job and David?

2. Has
stress or depression in a moment of desperation made you feel at odds with what
you knew to be true, just as it did for Deanna? Consider David's cry in Psalm
22:3-11. Read Matthew 5:38-45 and think about how our feelings and natural
impulses often conflict with God's way of doing things.

3. What
roadblocks sustained Deanna's sense of hopelessness and caused her to maintain
her distance from Shep—and from God and His love? Think of a time when you
created obstacles that kept you from becoming close with someone you cared for.
Read Psalm 127:1-2, Proverbs 3:7 and 28:26. What does the Bible say about
trusting in our own wisdom?

4. Read
Romans 5:8, Ephesians 2:5, and 1 John 1:9. How do Shep's efforts to reach out
to Deanna reflect God's attempts to reach out to us?

5. Read
Psalm 27, a favorite of mine in times of despair. Name some of the tangible and
spiritual means of reassurance and comfort Deanna received throughout the
story. Can you now offer comfort and encouragement to someone in your life who
is suffering from the same feelings?

6. Read
Matthew 25:35-40 and then Philippians 4:13. What personal reservations and
doubts did Shep have regarding helping Deanna? Think of a time when you were
reluctant to help someone in need. Why were you reticent, and what did you
finally do?

7. Read
Psalm 18:33 and 63:1. For Deanna, is the wilderness a refuge or a danger? What
example does Shep, as a hunter, use to explain his point of view on this? How
does the wilderness work as a metaphor in the story?

8. Why
is Shep so reluctant to help Jay Voorhees and the authorities? Read Matthew
18:21-35. Have you ever had to accept or work with someone who has betrayed or
hurt you? How did you handle it? Have you really forgiven him or her?

9. Stories
of obstacles in relationships may present solutions of the heart (romantic)
and/or solutions of the soul (spiritual). What are the similarities between the
two? What are the differences?

10.
Of the bonds between man and woman, which one or which combination do you think
is the most lasting: mutual physical attraction, social attraction, or
spiritual oneness (closeness to God)? Why?

The
publisher and author would love to hear your comments about this book.
Please
contact us at:
www. multnomah.net/alongcame