A Love for Leah

by Amy Lillard

  Gracie was the sweetest and kindest person she knew.

  Lord, if this tradition is really true . . . if whoever catches my bouquet will be the next one married . . . Lord, please let it be Gracie. She deserves a man to love. A man of her own who will love her and cherish her as she will him. Amen.

  Leah closed her eyes and threw the bouquet over her shoulder.

  From behind her she heard the rustle of fabric and the dull splat of feet as the women scrambled to be the one to come up with the flowers.

  “You got it!”

  Leah turned back at Hannah’s exclamation. There was Gracie, still standing in the middle of all the women, clutching the bouquet in her hands. Her expression was one of mixed emotions. Should she dare hope? Who was she going to marry in this town? Was God giving her an opportunity that still had yet to show itself?

  There was no way of knowing for sure.

  Leah skipped down the porch steps and hugged her cousin. “You are the most worthy person I know. If anyone deserves to get married next, it’s you.”

  Gracie looked down at the flowers trembling in her hands. Not many knew, but Leah did. Gracie wanted to get married more than she wanted anything else from life. But in a settlement the size of Pontotoc, there weren’t many eligible bachelors. Would she have to travel to Adamsville or Ethridge, Tennessee, in order to find a husband? The thought broke Leah’s heart. If her cousin did that, she would miss her terribly.

  “If you believe, it will happen for you,” Leah whispered next to Gracie’s ear. She knew her cousin heard her. She shivered a bit, but continued to gaze down at the flowers she now held.

  “Comeon-comeon-comeon-comeon,” Peter chanted.

  “Are you coming?” Jamie asked.

  Leah glanced toward her husband. Husband. She liked the sound of that. “Yes,” she called in return. How had she gotten so blessed? Blessed with more than she would ever believe she deserved. And she was going to live every day remembering and appreciating those blessings.

  “Go on,” Gracie said, with a small sniff.

  “Believe,” she said again. She squeezed Gracie’s hand, then went to join her husband.

  Believe. It was as simple as that. There had been a time when she hadn’t thought she would ever get married. But had she believed? Only a little—yet love didn’t need an entire field to grow. All it needed was a crack, a small spot to take root and never let go.

  She should have seen that as it was coming, but she hadn’t. Not until she was so deep into it that there was no going back, even if she wanted to.

  Love was a hard lesson learned. Hannah had found love again. Leah had found it for the first time. She prayed that Gracie would be open to it when the time came. And it would. She just knew it.

  Leah slid into the car next to Jamie. From the back seat, Peter had already gotten out the map to track where they were as they drove south. She loved these two more than she had ever thought possible. Beside Peter, Duke was snoozing in the seat, no doubt let into the car by Brandon who took his best man duties very seriously.

  They headed down the road, and Leah thought about the painted rocks Jamie had left for her. One had been marked with Colossians 3:14. At the time she’d had to look it up in her Bible, but now she knew the verse by heart: And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

  Perfect unity. Her mismatched little family. They were all that and more.