by Dana Corbit
“For my boss, cost-cutting meant changing purchase orders and replacing higher-cost building materials that the home owners were paying for with cheaper ones. Mostly less visible things like the plumbing for the whirlpool tubs but others, too.”
As he spoke, I couldn’t help but stare at the table. How could I have been so insensitive? I hadn’t listened when he’d told me the situation was bad at work.
“I’m so sorry,” I said when he paused. “I had no idea.”
“At first I had no idea what to do. My success in this business was so important to me. Too important. And then Clyde was demanding that I look the other way on business practices that went against my Christian values.” He stopped and blew out an exasperated breath. “All that to keep a job that I’d just discovered I hated.”
With that, all he’d needed was a judgmental girlfriend to nag him for spending too much time at the office. How fortunate for him, I’d stepped up for that task and performed it with flair. At the time, he’d said something about me on my high horse, but now I’d been bucked out of the saddle and the landing rightly smarted.
“Luke, why didn’t you tell me? I might have been supportive and if not that at least a little less whiny.”
“You did help me without knowing all the details—just by being you. Thank you.”
I was laughing now. Here I was ready to give up helping people for their safety and well-being, and he was offering me an undeserved thanks.
“You mean my sledgehammer-to-the-head kind of help?”
He smiled, but he shook his head. “You showed me that it’s possible to do God’s will, even when it hurts.”
At first I stared at him quizzically until realization dawned. He had understood that my decision to break our engagement had been about sacrifice rather than my heart.
“Right or wrong, I was trying to follow God’s will.” I had questioned and prayed about that decision ever since, wondering if I’d done the right thing.
“It was right,” he said, answering the question for me. “It took me a while to understand a lot of things. Like why I believe that God could love me without my doing anything to deserve it and yet feel I had to work so hard to prove myself to the people I love.”
People I love. My heart squeezed at his words. Did he count me among those people even after our breakup? If he did, was there some way we could work all of this out so we could be together and do God’s will?
“Do you have it all figured out then?” I asked him.
“At least part of it.”
“Which part?” I held my breath, hoping for some elegant words that would be forever written in script in my wedding scrapbook.
He shrugged. “I quit my job. I want Sam to be proud of me for the man I am, not the money I make.”
I nodded. Okay, it didn’t have Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s imagery, but it was poetic in its own way. At least for Luke and his son. Their lives would be better now. I was happy knowing that. It had to be enough.
“I also decided it wasn’t enough just to walk away,” he continued. “I told Clyde that I’d placed a few calls to an inspector friend of mine and a few of the new home owners, so he’ll be under enough scrutiny that he’ll have to toe the line from now on for his own good.”
“That’s great, Luke. I’m so happy to hear it.”
This was what he’d come to tell me, I realized. He hadn’t come after me to convince me to take him back. He only wanted to thank me as his friend for helping him to get his life straight. I should have been grateful. God had used me to help another person—what a privilege. But my heart ached. Sometimes doing the right thing wasn’t enough. For the first time I understood that.
My eyes burned, and yet I wouldn’t allow myself to cry. God had a plan for me. Just because it wouldn’t be with Luke didn’t mean His plan wasn’t perfect. Maybe if I repeated that to myself every day, the pain would lessen over time.
“I figured out something else.”
I jerked my head up and found him watching me. How long he’d been studying me I didn’t know. He was smiling as he reached for my hand.
“I decided I couldn’t let go of the best thing that ever happened me. I finally found someone who really loves me, and I had to find a way to love myself and her the way we both deserve. With God’s help, I can do that.”
My heart was beating so loudly in my chest that he had to hear it. In fact, I was probably interrupting classes all through the building with this ridiculous pounding. “Her?”
“You.” He grinned. “Were you thinking of someone else?”
Before I even realized what I was doing, I leaned across the table and kissed him right on the lips. He closed his arms around me, and I was home. I realized that from this moment on, home for me would always be wherever Luke Sheridan was.
The opening of the door and the chattering voices brought us apart with a jerk. Three of my colleagues who were coming in for their prep periods stood in the doorway, staring.
My cheeks burned as they hadn’t since those sunny days at the cottage, but Luke just sat there grinning.
“Hi, guys,” I said sheepishly. “This is my friend Luke Sheridan.”
“Good friend,” art teacher Stephen Oliver said. He spoke for the group that included kindergarten teacher Tina Wyatt and third-grade teacher Brenda Lewis.
Luke stood and shook hands with Stephen and the two female teachers. “I’m just trying to convince my friend here to take me back.”
“Looks like you’re making a good case with her.”
Stephen grinned at my frown. I could hear it now. They might as well announce this whole thing over the public address system because it would have reached every teacher in the building, plus the paraprofessionals and the other support staff by the time the final bell rang.
“She hasn’t heard my whole pitch yet.”
“Then by all means.” Stephen ushered the other women out into the hall. He stuck his head back inside. “You have five minutes.”
“I’ll do my best,” Luke assured him.
As soon as the door closed, he turned back to me.
“I’ve only got five minutes, so we need to make this fast.”
“Is this like speed dating because I always thought it would be fun to meet twelve available men in sixty minutes?”
“Too late.”
I’m sure I had some funny comeback on the tip of my tongue, but it fled the moment he reached into his pocket and withdrew the ring. No box. No decorator’s icing. Just the ring that represented the promise I wanted more than anything to make.
“I love you, Cassie. I’ve probably always loved you, or at least the idea of you.” He held his hands wide, the ring clasped in the left. “Well, here I am. I have nothing to offer you. I’m scarred and unemployed. But I’m hoping you’ll take pity on me and become my wife.”
At first, I couldn’t answer but only stared at him, as tears streamed silently down my face.
Luke reached over and brushed the tears away with his thumb. “I guess I’m asking you to take me just as I am.”
Suddenly, the tune of the traditional hymn, “Just As I Am,” filtered through my thoughts. In the same way we had both come to God, as the imperfect people we were, Luke was offering himself to me. It felt like the most perfect gift.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I smiled as the tears continued to fall.
For the second time this summer season, Luke kneeled in front of me and offered his ring.
“Cassie, will you marry me?”
“Yes.” No misgivings this time, I felt at ease as he slipped the ring on my finger.
When the ring was in place, he stood and pulled me to him. I went willingly into his arms, lifting my face for his kiss. This was the man I’d dreamed about, I’d hoped and prayed for, and I’d known him all my life. I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of it with him.
He kissed me again, a deep and passionate promise of the sweet intimacy ahead for us in our mar
ried life.
“Time’s up,” the art teacher called out.
Luke and I backed apart, but this time we were both grinning. I’d been caught sneaking kisses on the job for the second time in a quarter hour, but I didn’t care.
“I take it she decided to give you another chance,” Stephen said.
“Better than that,” Luke told all of them. “She’s taking the ultimate risk. She said yes.”
I stared out the window at the dark lake, beating in barely controlled fury at the shoreline. One of the white folding chairs toppled, taking a perfectly good floral arrangement with it. The weather forecaster had said the storms wouldn’t hit until dinnertime, and I prayed that just this once he was right.
Turning back from the window, I stared at someone in the mirror who didn’t look like me. This woman was dressed in a prairie-style ivory gown with long sleeves and a high lace collar. She wore her hair in an elegant, upswept hairdo.
Because I hadn’t heard her approach, it surprised me when Aunt Eleanor appeared behind me in the glass and squeezed my shoulders. “You make a beautiful bride, Cassandra Eleanor. But it’s probably just the dress.”
“I’m sure it is.” I turned and hugged her. “Thanks for letting me wear it. I’m honored.” It had taken some work, including lowering the hem a few inches, but we’d made the dress mine now.
Though she’d joked about it only a moment before, Eleanor’s eyes flooded as she looked at me. “No, I’m honored that you asked. I wouldn’t have been prouder if you were my own….”
My eyes burned then blurred. She didn’t have to say daughter because I understood just how she felt. I loved her like a mother, as well, which I finally realized wasn’t a betrayal to my own mother. God had given both women to me, and I could finally appreciate the gift in both of them.
I hugged her again before we both turned back to our images in the mirror and started repairing our makeup. Eleanor smoothed down her long lilac-colored gown. I had selected the long-sleeved sheaths for my aunt and Yvonne, my matchmakers turned bridesmaids, because I expected the wind to be chilly on the beach. Now I worried we should have chosen raincoats instead.
My aunt caught me watching the steel helmet of sky.
“Don’t worry, sweetie. The weather will hold out for your special day.”
I shrugged. “I guess this was kind of a romantic notion to try a beach wedding in October.”
“It’s a romantic notion to have a wedding at all, isn’t it?” She squeezed my shoulder. “Are you sad about leaving the school?”
I shrugged, uncertain, an ache filling my heart. I knew I had made the right choice, but that didn’t make leaving any easier. “I hated having to say goodbye to my kids, but it was great that the school found another speech path to take over my caseload so soon.”
“I’m sure you would have stayed until they found someone.”
“I can always work with children in this area if I decide I miss it, but Luke I and will be busy enough just starting out.”
“Hopefully, you’ll get busy, making some new grandnieces and grandnephews for me, too.”
I grinned at her because I hadn’t even made it to the ceremony, and she was already clamoring for babies. My expression changed the moment I looked back out the window. Had the sky darkened again in the last ten minutes?
“Come on. Stop worrying,” Eleanor said. “It’s going to be beautiful.” She glanced out at the same threatening sky I’d been observing. “As long as we do it soon.”
Yvonne appeared at the slider then with a tux-clad Sam. “Are you ladies coming? You’d better hurry before this wedding becomes a washout.”
“Yeah, Miss Cassie, it’s going to rain,” Sam announced, sounding excited about the prospect of seeing the whole wedding party drenched.
“Not on this wedding, it won’t.” I hurried outside, ruffling Sam’s already messed-up hair as I went.
Down below, I could see Reverend Lewis, Luke, Marcus and Uncle Jack standing at the front, waiting for us. Those four plus most of our guests kept casting nervous glances at the sky. We descended the steps as gracefully as our gowns would allow. Because the sand was cold now, we all wore shoes today, but low, comfortable ones.
As soon as “The Wedding March” began, we hurried down the sandy aisle. I marched down the aisle unescorted this time, having chosen that for my second wedding I no longer needed anyone to give me away. Sam broke out in a run, and everyone laughed. When he reached the lectern area, Marcus pulled him next to him, resting a protective hand on his shoulder.
I smiled down at the sweet little boy, but then I looked up again, and Luke was smiling at me. My breath hitched. He stared at me as if I was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. In his dark tuxedo, he didn’t look half-bad, either.
Would it still be like this for us twenty-five years from now? Would this amazing man still be able to take my breath away with just a secret smile or a loving look? Or would our love mellow into a warm comfort to span the years? I smiled back at him. I didn’t care what the future held for us as long as I could share it with Luke.
When I reached him, Luke took my hand and leaned close to me. “Into every marriage, a little rain must fall.”
Grinning at him, I whispered, “Are you kidding? There’s only sunshine ahead for us.”
The weather held out until just after the minister told Luke to kiss his bride. We didn’t even wait for Reverend Lewis to introduce us as Luke and Cassie Sheridan but took off running hand in hand for the house. Our guests raced after us, with everyone looking spattered but not soaked.
Good thing we had chosen to have a small ceremony with only some friends from church and a few of my teacher friends from Ohio. A bigger crowd might not have even fit inside my aunt and uncle’s huge house where we’d decided to have the reception. They would have been stuck out in the rain.
“Here’s to the new Mr. and Mrs. Sheridan,” Uncle Jack said, already at the punch bowl handing out cups of lime sherbet punch.
Outside the glass, lightning zigzagged over the water, and several seconds later thunder boomed.
Turning the job over to one of the other guests, Jack made his way over to Luke and me.
“Now you two sure know how to plan a party with fireworks,” he said, his laughter filling the room.
Luke laughed with him. “My wife and I, we don’t do anything halfway.”
He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me close to him. My wife and I. I liked the sound of that.
Jack turned to my new husband. Husband. I liked the sound of that, too.
“So how are you getting along with our Cassie’s dowry?”
“Uncle Jack, I wish you’d quit calling it that. It makes me sound like a head of cattle or something, available to the highest bidder.”
“Sorry.” Luke shook his head. “You’re not available at all.”
Aunt Eleanor joined the conversation then. “He’s right, sweetie. You’re downright off the auction block.”
“Luke here was just telling me about the new project,” Jack informed his wife.
Her eyebrow lifted. “Any new developments?”
I couldn’t blame them for being interested. As soon as we’d called them to tell them that our engagement was back on, they’d told Luke about my “dowry,” as they’d insisted on calling it. Since I was their sole heir anyway, they thought it would be fun to begin giving me my inheritance early by providing the funding for Luke and me to begin a small building company.
I smiled, remembering how Luke turned down the offer at first, worried that owning his own business would make him lose sight of family as his priority, but I’d convinced him we could work through the challenges of it, building the company together, slowly.
Now I could see the excitement in his eyes as he spoke of our plans to build a solid Christian business.
“It will be great for young families,” he said. “Once we get the land, we’ll build a community of quality, affordable homes where th
ey can raise their families. We’re going to build our own home right in the middle.”
My uncle turned to me. “What about you, Cassie? Have you decided how involved you’ll be in the company?”
“As involved as I can possibly be,” I told him. “It’s such a worthy venture. I can’t help but want to be a part of it.”
Our circle expanded as Marcus and Yvonne approached with Sam. Though we had yet to cut the round wedding cake, the boy already had frosting evidence on his mouth.
My new in-laws hugged and kissed the both of us before Yvonne moved on to Aunt Eleanor.
“Well, we did it, my friend,” Yvonne said. “We’ve been friends for so many years, and now we’re finally family.”
Sam looked back and forth among all the adults. “Does this mean I have another grandma and grandpa, too?”
Luke reached down and squeezed his son’s shoulder. “Don’t mind him. He’s just trying to get more Christmas presents.”
My aunt only grinned. “Absolutely, sweetheart.” She crouched down to his level. “So let Grandma Eleanor know what you just can’t do without this Christmas.”
We were all still laughing at that when Sam raised his arms for me to pick him up. I lifted him, frosting face and all, up on my hip.
“And you’ll always be my new mommy, right?”
My throat clogged, and I could see that all the other adults were as affected as I was. I needed to tell him that I wouldn’t want to replace his mother, that she was the one who gave him life and who would always be a part of him, but he needed to be reassured now. I had a lot of time to help him to understand the rest.
I cleared my throat. “Yes, I’ll always be your new mommy.”
“Can I call you Mommy?”
“I’d like that.”
While the rest of us misted up, Sam nodded, his questioned answered. He climbed down in search of more cake.
“Oh to see the world through the innocent eyes of a child,” Aunt Eleanor said, and we all nodded our agreement.
After more well-wishing from friends, Luke finally drew me into the front hall for a moment alone. He didn’t waste any time before pulling me into his arms and giving me the proper kiss that we’d missed by being chased in by the storm. Okay, it wasn’t completely proper, but it was sweet and wonderful. As the kiss ended, he continued to hold me.