by Lois Richer
“Something old, Mother’s dress. Something new, my shoes. Something borrowed, my veil. Something blue, the garter.” She grinned at her friends. “I guess I’m ready,” she told them.
When the limo came to pick the bridal party up, Melanie was eager to go. Shawna and Sara spent a few moments preening before the mirror in billowy sea foam dresses that matched. Sara’s children were beautiful in their tiny wedding outfits. Ben wore a minuscule black tux, complete with cummerbund and bow tie that made him certain he was one of the big guys. Becky was the picture of daintiness. The women carried a parasol of golden mums and white daisies, while Ben gingerly held two gold wedding rings on a satin cushion.
“Mitch picked these,” Melanie told them proudly when Shawna commented on the flowers. Sara grinned.
“My ex! He is pretty special.” She giggled, enjoying Melanie’s grin.
The car was full, with Faith and Hope taking turns fussing over her dress while Charity tried to remain calm. When they drove up to the Sunset Retirement Home, Melanie’s mouth formed a perfect Oh of astonishment.
“We agreed that we should be married here,” she whispered to her mother. “But I never expected this.”
Pots of bronze, gold and pale yellow chrysanthemums nestled along the edges of a white carpet, which guided her to the privacy of the courtyard. Through the doors, Melanie could see the rest of the wedding party waiting.
Smiling gently, she kissed her mother’s cheek and watched Charity hobble down the aisle on the arm of Sara’s husband. When Charity was seated, Sara drifted forward slowly, followed by Shawna. The birds sang happily overhead as a wedding march played softly in the background. Then Melanie urged the children forward, surprised to see them scattering rose petals as they went.
“Thank you, God,” she whispered.
As Melanie moved forward, she felt an arm grasp hers. Glancing down, she stared into Nettie Rivers’s happy face. The delicate, petite figure was covered in gracefully elegant autumn hues that enhanced her parchment skin as it glowed in the afternoon sun.
“I am going to give you away, my dear,” she told Melanie shyly, her white-gloved hands slipping under Melanie’s arm. “After all,” she whispered, beaming from ear to ear, “it’s due to me, and John, that you two are together. With the Lord’s help.”
There was no time for Melanie to puzzle it out. It was time to go. Slowly, carefully, she walked beside the tiny woman, moving over the white carpet toward Mitch.
He looked elegant and heart-stoppingly handsome in his black tuxedo. Clear and deep, his blue eyes met hers and telegraphed a message that left her blushing. Melanie turned her head to identify an older man standing at Mitch’s side. Amazed, she recognized the features of Papa John, who was resplendent in a black suit and white bow tie. Well, he certainly was a best man, she supposed. Today, nothing surprised her.
At the front, Mrs. Rivers placed Melanie’s hand in Mitch’s and nodded to Judge Conroy, who stood in his official robes waiting to marry them. Then the two seniors moved to the side, to take their place beside Faith, Hope and Charity.
Melanie focused on Mitch. Even through the filmy clouds of her veil she could feel his love shining through. His big hand squeezed hers as they turned toward the minister to repeat their vows before the God they had entrusted their future to.
Oblivious to the crowd of residents watching from the chairs crowding the lawn, unmindful of the beautiful piano solo Sara was playing, Melanie and Mitch focused on each other. They repeated their vows, exchanged rings and smiled all through the hearty congratulations. They were far too busy enjoying the good wishes of their friends to hear Hope whisper to the man at her side.
“Bless you, Jean. That was a wonderful wedding present for them. Thank you for all you’ve done.” She patted Mrs. Rivers’s hand with a friendly touch. “I know the two of you will be very happy together.”
“God has given me the desire of my heart by giving me John,” Mrs. Rivers murmured softly, beaming at the man by her side. “Just as Melanie has hers.”
The fearsome threesome turned and stared openly at the tender kiss the handsome bridegroom placed on his pretty new wife’s smiling lips.
“That’s another success to our credit.” Faith giggled, her face wide with satisfaction.
“Yes, it is.” Charity beamed with motherly satisfaction as the bride laughingly tossed her bouquet over her shoulder. “An inspiration to us all. Now, about that nurse you mentioned…”
Dear Reader,
Thank you for picking up book two of my FAITH, HOPE & CHARITY series. I hope you enjoy Melanie and Mitch’s love story. When I was writing A Hopeful Heart, my husband’s father had to move into a nursing home. Although so much of this proud man’s long-held freedom was lost, he still took great pleasure in the little things of life: the tart, greenish taste of a crabapple, the fresh, clean scent of a pine needle and the childish giggles of his grandchildren. He reminded me of my grandfather during his stay, years earlier. Both of them loved to go for a car ride with the sun beating down through the windshield as they studied the crops and named them one by one. It was a small thing, yes, but it gave so much pleasure.
The Bible says that if God only gives us a cup of cold water, then we are to use that to help another. We have so much in our lives and so little time, it seems. Will we regret, in ten, twenty or thirty years, that we didn’t exert that extra effort, go that second mile, take that extra time to make someone’s days on this earth a little bit better? I believe God has given each of us just one life to live and that He intends that life to count for something eternally worthwhile.
My wish for you is a generous life, lived to the max and brimming with His love.
A HOME, A HEART, A HUSBAND
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.
—Proverbs 3:5-6
To Connie,
who persists in following her own path despite
the barriers life and other stubborn people present.
Live long and prosper!
Chapter One
“She’s doing it again!” Katy McCarthy whistled.
“Who’s doing what?” Her nine-year-old twin sister refused to move her eyes from the computer screen.
“Mom. Getting all gussied up. That’s what Grandpa calls it.”
“Hmm.” Keeley kept her eyes glued to the monitor and refused to be drawn by her sister’s ramblings.
“I don’t know why anybody would wear such an outfit,” Katy muttered, peering through the grate once more. “Dresses are silly.”
With a sigh of resignation, Keeley left her computer and knelt on the floor beside her sister to peer through the old-fashioned floor grate into their mother’s bedroom below.
“It’s that Brian guy again,” Keeley whispered knowingly as she watched her mother spritz on a bit of perfume and fluff her hair around her shoulders. “She always dresses fancy whenever she goes out with him. She says she feels special then. They’re in love.”
Katy jumped to her feet. “Are not,” she yelled, her face red with anger. Her hands were clenched on her hips. “He’s…old. She wouldn’t be in love with somebody that old.”
“She is,” Keeley assured her with the knowledge that came from being born eight minutes earlier than her sister. “Our mother is looking for a husband, and Grandma and I think Brian is the one.” She flicked her blond curls behind her shoulders just like she’d seen the stars do on TV.
“But he lives in Calgary,” Katy protested, moving to sit on the bed. “He wouldn’t want to drive this far every day.”
“Well, duh!” Keeley grimaced at the dirt Katy had just deposited on her bedspread. “Get your feet off, Katy. You’re wrecking my bed!”
Obediently Katy swung her sneakers to the floor, her mouth puffed out as she considered her sister’s words. “Well, how could he live here then, Keeley, huh?” she demanded in a superior tone of voi
ce. “Married people live together, in case you didn’t know.”
She watched Keeley rearrange her “cosmetics” on the little table their grandfather had made for Christmas last year. Katy knew that Keeley was waiting for her to ask the question again. Well, she wasn’t going to do it! She’d sit here until her sister answered, and if that wasn’t pretty soon, she was going to mess up this bed really good.
“I think,” Keeley began quietly, twirling a shiny fat curl around one finger. “I think that if they got married, we would all live with Brian.”
“In the city?” Katy shrieked, pink gum dropping out of her mouth, which now hung open. “But what about the farm? We can’t leave it!” She stared out the window, aghast at this possibility.
“They’ll probably sell it,” Keeley said. She swallowed the lump in her throat. She didn’t want to leave, either, but not for anything would she let Katy see that. Someone had to be the grown-up around here and think of her mother’s feelings.
“No!” Katy’s wail and stamping feet penetrated to their mother’s room below and seconds later Keeley groaned as she heard the warning knock on the wall.
“Now you’ve done it,” she rasped angrily. “And just when Mom is all set to go out, too.”
“Girls! I don’t want to hear any of that going on tonight. You know that Mrs. Pettigrew has very bad nerves. She simply can’t take all the bickering that the two of you indulge in,” Maggie McCarthy called as she left her room to climb the stairs to her daughter’s room.
Both girls knew their mother had put in a grueling day today, especially when Billy Wolf, their always-dependable farmhand, hadn’t shown up for work.
In fact, it had been a hard week. Seeding time was always tough when you lived on a farm. That was partly why Keeley wanted her mother to go out tonight. Maybe then she’d feel better, laugh more. Mom never laughed much anymore. And she never seemed to have time to dress up really pretty, not unless Brian was coming.
“Wow! You look beautiful, Mom.” Katy raced over, baseball glove dangling from one hand, to give their mother a hug. “Where are you going?”
“Brian has invited me to dinner and the opera,” Maggie told her daughter. “And for once I’m going to accept the invitation. That section by the bay is too wet to work tonight anyway. It needs a little longer to dry.”
“What’s the op-era?”
Keeley groaned. Katy was always full of questions.
“Singing. There’s a story and the singers tell it in music.” Maggie brushed the golden tumble of curls off Katy’s red face and shook her head at the pink bubble. “Get rid of the gum, Katy. You know it’s hard on your braces.”
“I hate braces,” Katy complained as she tossed the wad into a nearby garbage can. “But I like music. Still, it’s a funny name. Sounds like operate.” She considered that for a moment and then whirled around. “Hey, maybe I could go with you guys to this op-era?”
“Uh, I don’t think so, Katy.” Keeley grinned at her mother. “You wouldn’t like it. It sounds like screeching and screaming to me. Worse than cows bawling.”
“Yes, but I might like it.” Katy sniffed haughtily.
Keeley felt like bopping her sister on the head. Couldn’t the child see that her mother and Brian needed time together? Just then the doorbell rang. That would be Brian, and Keeley knew he hated waiting.
“Go and have a good time, Mom. Just relax and enjoy yourself.” Keeley could see the questions forming on Katy’s face and decided to get her mother out of there. Quick. Before her sister blew it. “Forget about the farm tonight and enjoy the opera. We’ll be fine, won’t we, Katy?” She hustled her mother toward the stairs.
“Yes, well, all right. Thank you, dear. Good night, girls.” Maggie looked a little puzzled but she paused just long enough to kiss each of them tenderly. “Get to sleep early, will you, Keeley? And you too, Twenty Questions. We’ve got lots to do tomorrow.”
“Aw, Mom. It’s Friday night!” Katy groaned.
“We’ll go straight to bed, Mom. Don’t worry. Just have fun.” Keeley motioned for her sister to be quiet as they waited for their mother to leave.
Shaking her head, Maggie finally slipped downstairs to greet her date. Keeley managed to keep Katy quiet until they heard Brian’s low voice reply and the sound of the front door closing.
“Come on,” Keeley ordered, heaving a sigh of relief. She dragged Katy over to the window and told her to wave as Maggie looked up. At last the couple drove away in Brian’s brand-new silver-gray Mercedes and Keeley could relax. Only then did she meet her sister’s frown with a smile.
“Maybe he’ll propose tonight,” Keeley whispered softly. “If they got married, Mom could take it easy for a while. Brian’s got lots of money and a nice place in Calgary.”
“So what?” Katy yelled, fists clenching by her side. “I don’t care what you say—I am not leaving this farm. Ever!” She hiccuped down a sob. “Somehow we’ve got to come up with a way for us all to stay here.” With an angry glare at everything in the frilly pink-and-white bedroom, Katy stomped out and raced across the hall to her own sanctuary, loud sobs punctuating her flight.
Keeley ignored it. She had to. There were important things to focus on right now. Later on, when her twin had calmed down, she’d collect Katy and go to the barn with her. A few minutes among the horses and her sister would listen to reason. They needed to stick together now more than ever if they were going to find a way to make her mother happy.
Of course, staying on the farm would be nice, but it wasn’t necessary. Not if leaving meant that Mom could smile more often and worry less. She and Katy could manage—they’d have to!
“But, oh God, please don’t make us have him for our daddy,” Keeley prayed. “In fact, we don’t even really need a daddy. Maybe you could just get my mom a big strong man who could be our new farmhand? That would be good enough.”
Grady O’Toole steered carefully around the series of potholes that littered the gravel road. Two flats on the camper in one afternoon and now a cracked windshield. What next?
“Why did I ask that?” he groaned, slamming on his brakes as he rounded the bend. Big, friendly, black-and-white cows stood placidly here and there, munching on the fresh spring grass.
He tried to shoo them off the road, but evidently the juicy green shoots were just too good to give up because the animals completely ignored both him and the truck horn.
A rambling old farmhouse sat shining in the twilight of the evening. Grady figured that decrepit monstrosity was about a quarter of a mile away and since it looked like his only option, he decided to go for it. Grabbing his jacket and locking the truck, he headed off down the rough road, his snakeskin-booted feet protesting at yet another trek into the unknown.
A little girl answered the door. She was a bit of a thing with ruffled blond hair and the biggest blue eyes Grady had ever seen.
“Is your daddy home?” he asked, smiling even as he wondered who such a dirty kid belonged to. She didn’t look unkempt, just as if no one bothered to wash her face lately. Surely she couldn’t be alone.
Of course, Grady reminded himself dourly, he was in the boonies. It was likely that no one in this backwoods ever locked their door, and it would be easy to let a kid run free and wild instead of fencing everything in.
“My dad?” She shook her head decisively. “No. He’s gone.”
“Well, how about your mother?” Grady sincerely hoped the mother was one of those big, capable types who would take five minutes to corral the animals and let him get on his way to the nearest campsite. He was beat.
“Mom’s out. On a date with Brian.”
Grady jerked backward, staring at the child in stunned amazement. “I beg your pardon?”
“She went on a date,” the little girl enunciated. “In Calgary. Someplace where they do lots of singing—really loud singing. Mom had on her special clothes, you know?”
Grady grasped at straws, wondering vaguely if he should have stayed with the cow
s. “Uh, maybe I—I could talk to someone else at home?” he stammered.
“My sister’s home. Yeah, I guess you can talk to her. I have to get her though. She’s on the Internet. Again. Keeley!”
The sudden bellow nearly deafened him and Grady stepped backward only to find the little girl’s fingers clutching his sleeve.
“Come on,” she invited. “Don’t let the mosquitoes in. Hey, do you know where mosquitoes go when it rains?” She was studying him seriously.
Grady frowned and then shook his head stupidly. “Sorry.”
“I didn’t think so,” the little girl muttered in disgust. “Nobody knows that one.” She sighed heavily. “Wait here. I’ll have to go upstairs and get her. When she gets on that computer, Keeley doesn’t hear anything.”
She whirled away and was gone in a flash, leaving Grady standing there wishing he’d taken the four-lane highway back to Calgary instead of rambling down some back road. The whole scene reminded him too much of a future he’d never have, and memories of that loss were the last thing he needed today.
“Did you want to see me?”
He glanced down to find the little girl back in front of him, with a carbon copy standing curiously beside her. So much for the older sister. Grady glanced from one to the other in amazement.
“Boy, you two really look alike. Hi, Keeley, I’m Grady.” He held out his hand and engulfed hers in it. “And your name is?”
“Katy,” muttered the one who had opened the door. “But how could you tell us apart? No one ever can.”
“Really?” Grady said, raising his eyebrows. “It’s quite easy, actually. You’re not really alike at all.”
“Of course we are.” Katy frowned. “We’re identical twins.”
“Yes, of course.” He grinned. “But I meant that inside you’re different. For instance, Keeley likes computers but you like baseball, right?” Katy stared at him in amazement and Grady smiled. “And I’ll bet that Keeley likes blue ribbons in her hair and you don’t like any.”