Coming Home: (Contemporary Christian Romance Boxed Set): Three Stories of Love, Faith, Struggle & Hope

by Debra Ullrick

  “Hi, everyone,” Keith said, stepping into the dining room. Maggie was behind him, her hand firmly held by his so she couldn’t run. “I brought you a surprise.”

  Around the table all gazes came up to him. He pulled Maggie around him, and questions turned to chaos.

  “Maggie!” Peter exclaimed, jumping from his chair and running to her. She caught him in a hug that brought tears to Keith’s eyes.

  “Gie! Gie! Gie! Gie!” Isabella yelled, bouncing in her high chair until it practically tipped over.

  “Hang on.” Keith laughed as he tried to free the excited, kicking little girl. “You’re stuck.” His fingers worked the lever. “There we go.” He lifted her out, stood her on the floor, and she toddled to Maggie and Peter who were having a tear-filled reunion on the floor of the dining room.

  “Come here, you,” Maggie said as she gathered Isabella in too. “Oh, I missed you so much, baby girl.” She kissed the little girl soundly on the top of the head as she gathered her into her embrace.

  Keith’s gaze went from her to the head of the table, and he snagged his father’s attention. Keith nodded in answer to the question in his father’s eyes. It was all right. His father just didn’t know it yet.

  “Oh, Maggie,” Inez said, nearly tripping over her when she came in with dinner. “What’re you doing here?”

  Happiness radiated from Maggie’s face. “I couldn’t stay away.”

  Dinner was wonderful. It was almost like being a part of a real family, Maggie thought. The kids were so happy, it was hard not to be, but then there were the times she chanced a glance at Mr. Ayer, and she knew this was anything but easy for him. When dinner was over, Maggie was less than sure what came next. Was she here as a nanny again or as Keith’s date, and where did one end and the other begin?

  “Keith,” Mr. Ayer said as they exited the dining room, “I’d like to talk Ms. Montgomery… Maggie for a minute, if you don’t mind. Can you handle the kids?”

  “Handle them?” Keith asked wickedly. “I’ll handle them all right.” He swung Peter up and over his shoulder. Then he reached down and took Isabella’s hand. Bouncing so that Peter made uh, uh, uh sounds, Keith climbed the stairs. At the bend he stopped and looked right at Maggie. “We’ll be up here when you’re finished.”

  “Okay,” she said, wondering how she even got those two syllables out.

  “Come with me,” Mr. Ayer said.

  Maggie swallowed half of her trepidation, leaving the other half to suffocate whatever confidence she’d managed to acquire during the meal. She followed the man who held her future in his hands all the way to his office. If this could’ve been any more nerve-wracking, she wouldn’t have known how.

  Instead of sitting at the desk as she had expected him to, Mr. Ayer went all the way to the huge window behind it. He stood there, hands clasped behind his back, staring out into the twilight beyond for the longest minute of her life.

  By the time he started talking, she wasn’t even breathing anymore.

  “You know, Ms. Montgomery, I had pretty much given up on what I always thought were my dreams ever making me happy. I had managed to acquire everything I’d ever wanted—money, fame, prestige, a family, this house and estate. I had businesses and clients and employees. But I knew something was missing.”

  He glanced back at her. “A long time ago I made a huge mistake. One I’ve never forgotten about even for a single second. I knew it at the time, but I thought if I just covered it up good enough, no one would ever see me for what I knew I really was. So, instead of going away, it festered, and the harder I tried to pretend it wasn’t there, the worse it got. That night, all my behavior before it and after it just dug me in deeper and deeper until I didn’t think there was any way back out. And then you came along.”

  The words pushed Maggie backward. “Me, Sir?”

  He smiled at her sadly. “I didn’t just lose my wife the night you lost your parents. I lost my son and my self. I lost what it was to be happy, to love someone else.” He exhaled. “Keith took the brunt of my stupidity as I’m sure you well know, but I’m afraid it wasn’t just him who suffered. I believe you did as well.”

  Maggie tried to wave it off. “I’m…”

  “No, Ms. Montgomery, you have shown grace and courage in the face of great difficulty. I find that awe-inspiring. You have held your own in this house, and let me just say, I know that hasn’t been easy.” With that he faced her. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that you, my dear, are my role model. I cannot tell you how impressed I’ve been with how you have guided Keith to something better than he ever was before. It reminds me very much of another young lady much like yourself who tried to get a head-strong young businessman to see how badly he was missing what’s really important.”

  “I wasn’t trying…”

  “No, you didn’t have to try because that’s who you were. That’s who you are.” He smiled. “I want my children to learn from that. In fact, I want to learn that as well.”

  “Sir…?”

  He stopped her with a raise of his hand. “Now, I want it made perfectly clear that when Keith asks you to marry him…”

  Maggie’s eyes went wide as her heart jerked forward. But he stopped her before she could protest.

  “Which he will. However, I do not want Peter and Isabella to grow up without your influence. I know after my track record, and I have no right to demand anything, so I’m asking you. Will you stay and teach my children what I cannot?”

  For as irrational as that sounded, Maggie’s heart went out to him. His humility in the face of everything that had happened overwhelmed the last traces of her anger toward him. She stepped around the desk and over to him. The hesitation lasted only a second before she put her arms around him. At first he was taken aback by her actions, but then he let her hug truly embrace him. Gently he patted her arm without returning the gesture. When she backed up, she looked at him squarely. “And just so you never have to wonder, I forgive you. God and I hashed that out a long time ago. I know you didn’t mean to hurt them.”

  “Oh, I didn’t. I really didn’t. If I could go back…”

  “No,” she said, stopping him firmly. “We can’t go back, but we can go forward.”

  His smile was slow and hopeful. “I’d like that.”

  “Are they asleep?” Maggie asked as she treaded down the hallway, lit only by the glow of the nightlight. She felt like she’d missed so many nights with them already.

  “They’re down,” Keith said as he closed Isabella’s door. “But I think Peter’s waiting for his angel to come and pray with him.”

  Maggie’s heart cracked open as joy surged through her. She stepped past Keith then turned. “You coming?”

  He put his hand over hers. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  She pushed into the room, and Peter looked over at her. “Maggie!”

  “Shh.” She put her finger to her lips although she really wasn’t mad. “Izzy’s sleeping.” Softly she crept over to the bed, and she was momentarily sad when Keith dropped her hand. However, in seconds he was on the other side of the bed, reaching out for her once again, and something in her sensed how his spirit had been doing that to hers from the very beginning.

  With no reservation she laid her hand in his and bent her head. “Dear Heavenly Father… Huh.” She had to shake her hair back away from her face at the amazement of it all. “Thank You so very much. Every good thing comes from You, and we thank You for all the blessings You have given us. For Peter and Isabella, for the Ayers, and Inez and Patty Ann, Tanner, Jamie, and Ike. We thank You Father for all of them. Thank You for keeping them safe for us. We ask that You keep those who You have already drawn back to Yourself in Your loving embrace until we can see them again.

  “Most of all, God, we thank You for the gift of love.” She squeezed Keith’s hand lest he not understand the depths of her gratefulness. “We know it is a gift from You, and we give thanks that You have chosen to share it with us.” The prayer was
winding to the end. “We ask that You keep all boys and girls in the world safe tonight. If they are lonely, give them comfort. If they are hungry, send someone to feed them. If they are in danger, protect them, O God. Keep us all safe in Your love this night and every night. Amen.” Her eyes stayed closed as she let the prayer and the peace settle into the deepest recesses of her being.

  “And please, dear God,” Keith said, startling Maggie out of her reverie, “let Maggie say, ‘Yes.’”

  Her gaze slid to his in incomprehension. He smiled at her. “Amen.”

  “Amen,” Peter echoed, and Maggie could hardly get her gaze off of Keith long enough to remember Peter was still in the room.

  She pushed herself to her feet, wobbling on the weight she found standing. Her two fingers knew what to do, which was a lucky thing because no rational signals were getting from her brain to her body. She kissed them and pressed them softly to Peter’s forehead. “Good night, sweet prince.” With that, she turned and headed for the door.

  “Night, slugger.”

  Her heart flipped over at how natural this all felt. In the hallway she waited for him, and she had to steel her breath when he joined her. Those arms, that presence—if anything it had gotten stronger since they’d last stood here.

  When the door was closed, Keith turned to her. He narrowed his eyes at her and shook his head. “Man, I hope God was listening.” He stopped for only one moment, and then he knelt on a single knee. “Maggie…”

  Astonishment swept over her, and she put her hand to her mouth. Gently he reached up, took it from her mouth, and pulled it down into his. “Maggie Montgomery, I don’t ever want to spend another day away from you. Please make me the happiest man in the world. Say you’ll marry me.”

  Breath was her only answer for a long moment. “I… Yes. I’ll marry you.”

  He stood, swept her into his arms, and kissed her like she’d never been kissed before. Then holding her in the safety of his embrace, he backed up and smiled at her. “I’m sure glad God was listening.”

  Epilogue

  “I thought you said you wanted a simple ceremony,” Keith’s father said as he picked his way down the rocky path. “Haven’t you ever heard of an aisle?”

  “It gets better over there,” Keith said, pointing to the tree as he helped his dad and Vivian down the steep slope. However, even the happiness in him snagged when he caught sight of Maggie, standing with the children under the tree waiting for them. The falls beyond sang with the fresh rain that had fallen the night before. Washed clean the scene was so perfect the fact that God had created it was the only logical conclusion anyone could have surmised.

  The ground leveled out, and Keith let them go to travel on their own.

  “Oh, Conrad. This is beautiful,” Vivian exclaimed. “I didn’t even know this was here.”

  His father was equally stunned. “I’d forgotten that it was.”

  Stepping from their presence, Keith walked over to Maggie. With Peter and Isabella gazing up at them from her side, he put his arms around her. “I didn’t know it was possible to feel like this,” he whispered to her. His smile shone from the depths of his heart as he took in the soft gaze, the gentle face, yes, even the new gold-toned glasses that he’d accepted so reluctantly—he loved them all because he loved her.

  “You ready?” she asked, gazing up at him.

  “More than.”

  Maggie’s hand stayed in Keith’s as they turned to the preacher. If there was an ounce more joy in her, she felt like she would burst right open.

  “Keith and Maggie, have you come here freely and without reservation to declare your love before God and man?”

  “We have.” Her voice mingled right into his, harmony personified.

  The preacher motioned for them to look at each other, and Maggie had the feeling that she was falling more in love with each passing second as he held her with his gaze. As the preacher said the words, Keith said them to her, and his voice blended with the melody of the falls.

  “I, Keith, take you, Maggie to be my lawful wedded wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.”

  Her smile drifted through her heart to her eyes and right to him. “I, Maggie, take you, Keith to be my lawful wedded husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.”

  “The rings please.”

  Keith let her hand go to reach into his pocket. He gave the rings to the preacher and took not a second more to have her hands in his once again. The preacher blessed the rings and gave Keith the simple gold band.

  “Maggie, take and wear my ring as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

  Her hands were shaking so badly, Maggie was afraid she would drop his. But she managed to get it from the preacher’s hand onto Keith’s finger. However, even when it was on, the emotion gripped her, and she wasn’t at all sure she could get the words out. However, she looked at him, and his smile flowed through her spirit.

  “Keith, take and wear my ring as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” She slid the ring to his knuckle, and he slid it all the way on without ever dropping her gaze from his. A breath and his hands were once again supporting hers.

  “Now, by the powers vested in me by the State of Texas,” the preacher said. “I now pronounce you man and wife. Keith, you may kiss your bride.”

  Maggie’s heart filled to overflowing as he took her in his arms and brushed his lips to hers. One kiss and then one more. He backed up and then with a laugh swept her up once more and kissed her soundly. One thing was for sure, being with him would never be boring. When he finally let her go enough to put air between them, wonder was in his eyes.

  “May I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Keith Ayer.”

  With his arm securely around her, Keith hugged the moment to them. The others clapped, and then his father stepped up to them.

  “Maggie, Keith, I probably should wait until the reception later, but…” He looked out to the falls, and when he looked back to them there were tears in his eyes. “I want you to know I have taken the liberty of setting up two foundations to be run by the two of you. One, run by Maggie for the benefit of the foster care system, is to be called the James and Christina Montgomery Foundation. It will be seeded with ten million dollars and will no doubt benefit many of the children Peter prays for every night.”

  Speechless, Maggie looked at Keith, who was equally stunned.

  “And Keith.” His father looked at him. “I do not know who you are meant to help in this world, so I have left the exact mission of the Bonnie Ayer foundation open-ended. I do know, however, that you’ll do the right thing with it.”

  Tears flowed down the old man’s cheeks as he pulled them into a hug. “God bless you both.”

  “Keith!” The voice from the rocks crashed through the celebration. “Keith… Keith… Maggie…” Stumbling down the path came Jamie with Tanner right behind her. She had a cell phone up in the air. “I know. I know, but this call just came in, and I knew you would want to take it.”

  Maggie’s gaze went to Keith as he took the cell phone from Jamie. “Hello?” His gaze traced down to her. “Yes, this is Keith Ayer.” The pause set her pulse racing as she tried to figure out what was going on. “Already?”

  He looked at her, and she read every word. Stunned disbelief smashed into her. “Already?

  “Yes. Yes, ma’am. We can be there tomorrow morning. Yes. Thank you. Yes, thank you, Ma’am.” He squeezed Maggie to him as he beeped the phone off. Love surged through her like a gigantic fountain. After a moment for just the two of them to enjoy the news, his gaze swept over the others and then down to Maggie in confirmation. “Well, we were going to wait to tell you this, but I guess it
’s kind of late now.”

  Her gaze stayed on him as love so strong it swept the rest of the world from her gushed through her.

  “We applied to be foster parents, and well…” He looked down at her again. “They have a little girl they want to place with us in the morning.”

  Ohs and gasps criss-crossed the little group.

  “It was a little unconventional,” Keith said, gazing at Maggie who was lost in his words and his eyes, “but they pulled some strings, and it’s for real. Elisa Marie will be with us by tomorrow night.”

  She let out a long breath as Keith turned to her once again and pulled her into his embrace. Never could Maggie have guessed she could feel for another person what she felt for him at that moment. They were together. They were a team, and deep in her heart she knew this moment had been in God’s plan from the very beginning. God had taken everything life had thrown at them and stitched something very, very good from it. She now had a husband and a family, and tomorrow she would be the bridge for a little girl to learn that even life’s trials aren’t the end of the story if you trust God to open the doors you were meant to walk through.

  Somehow, she had always known that to be true, and as Keith hugged her to him once again, any questions that had remained on that count faded away forever.

  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.

  --Ephesians 2:8

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  More Than This

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