“Are you kidding me? I live for this stuff.” She worked Rachel’s hair one way and then the other as she put in stuff that felt mushy and cold. “Always thought I should’ve done this for real. It would be a whole lot more fun than spreadsheets and tax numbers.” Working the other way, she went back for more stuff.
“Is my hair even going to move after this?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“Good to know.”
Somehow Caleb had managed every other part of the confusing bits and pieces of the tux, but the cufflinks were about to do him in. “That’s it. I’m done with these things.” Taking them in hand, he went out to the living room where Sara and Zane were. “Okay. Whose stupid idea were these things?”
Zane laughed at him as Sara got up and went to help him. “It’s a conspiracy, man. Those things and ties and cummerbunds. Don’t get me started. I think they were all designed by women so they’d have an excuse to help us get ready.”
“Tell me about it.” Caleb put his arms out for his sister. “These things are impossible.”
“Stop being such a drama king.” Reaching up, Sara bopped him on the head. “This is nothing compared with what we go through for you guys.”
“I seriously doubt that,” Caleb said.
“No, dude,” Zane said, his voice brooking no argument. He shook his head and bugged out his eyes. “It’s frightening what they do. It really is.” He shivered. “Instruments of torture, things that will burn your hand off if you touch them. And the make-up. Oh, the humanity! There’s no end to the make-up.”
Sara shook her head. “You two are pathetic.”
“Sorry,” Hannah said as the curling iron heated just a bit too close to Rachel’s ear.
“Wow. When you said, ‘Stay still,’ you weren’t kidding.”
Hannah laughed. “Almost finished.”
Rachel glanced at the clock that was quickly sliding down to three-thirty. Her mind skipped through the hours ahead, where they had to be when, who was going to be where. At that moment the doorbell rang, and she fought not to jump. “Who in the world would that be?”
“Perfect,” Sara said, stepping back from her brother, and tears came to her eyes just as they had his mother’s.
“Oh, no. Don’t you start that too.”
The knock sounded on the bedroom door though it was open. Turning and bending to see who it was, Rachel found Aidan standing there apologetically.
“Uh, the photographer is here?” he said though it was far more like a question. “They wanted to know if there’s something you need them to do?”
“Oh, goodness. I’m coming.”
“One. More. Second.” Hannah released the curling iron which dropped a perfect curl coming down from Rachel’s temple. “I can do the baby’s breath later if you want.”
“Yeah. I’d better get some other things ready.”
“If you need help…”
Rachel let out a breath. “I think you’re my guardian angel.”
“Guardian angel, at your service,” Hannah said, saluting her.
“I think I’m going to head on up to the church,” Caleb said. “I was wanting to talk with the pastor if I get the chance.”
“Okay,” Sara said. “We’ll see you there. Oh, don’t forget your suitcase.”
“Good point.” He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “See you there.”
“Oh.” Dani’s face melted into awe and sweetness as Rachel came down the stairs. “You’re so beautiful.”
“Wait!” Eric said, putting up his hand which stopped both Rachel and Hannah on the stairs. “Don’t move.” He retrieved a serious-looking camera from his side, angled it up, and snapped the picture.
Rachel laughed. “This isn’t…” She looked down at herself as he snapped another. “I’m not exactly ready yet.” When she looked up again, he got one more. “I feel like a movie star.”
Dani grinned. “Well, you look like one.”
Reaching back, Rachel squeezed Hannah’s hand. “Thanks to my guardian angel.”
With that, they came down and everyone went into last-minute-detail-mode. Quickly it was decided that Hannah would head over to the church with Rachel to help her finish getting ready. Aidan and Pete would stay with the three kids. Jane would come around five to feed them one last time and bring them to the church around six. Sara would be here to get the cake in an hour or so.
Never in her life had Rachel felt carried along on the wings of so many wonderful people. “Okay. Let’s do this thing!”
At the church, Caleb headed not inside but to the little residence on the opposite side of the parking lot. He loved that little house. It represented where he was going, not where he had been.
“Caleb,” Jane said in surprise when she found him at her door, “come on in.”
“Is the pastor around?”
“Hang on, let me get him.”
He followed her into the living room and waited only a few minutes before Pastor Steve came out. The two men shook hands.
“This is a surprise,” Pastor Steve said. “You want to go in my office?”
“Do you mind?”
“Absolutely not.”
Caleb turned his steps back down the hallway and went into the space that felt like life after a spring rain. Going in as well, the pastor shut the door.
“Something on your mind?”
With a grin, Caleb lifted his eyebrows, and the pastor laughed.
“Okay, that was a dumb question,” Pastor Steve said. He motioned to the chairs by the window. “You okay? Everything… all right?”
Sitting down, Caleb rubbed his hands together. “It is.” He let out a breath. “Just needed a few minutes to get everything right in here, with me. It’s nervous but not the kind I expected.”
“Oh? How so?”
“Well, I thought I’d be worried about if she’s the right one for me. But that’s not it. I’m… well, I’m worried about if I’m the right one for her. Can I really do this? A husband? A father? What if…?”
“You can’t be what they need you to be?”
Caleb nodded. A second and the pastor did as well.
“Well, I was going to save this for the sermon, but…” The pastor shifted. “We’ve talked about this, how God’s love requires so much more of us than we are capable of giving. That is true nowhere more than marriage. A forever commitment is just something that normal humans cannot make on their own. In fact, when God made a covenant with Abraham, He put Abraham into a deep sleep, and He ultimately made the covenant with Himself. Abraham was a good man with the best of intentions, but he was human, and God knew that.
“God knows you have the best of intentions, Caleb, but He doesn’t expect you to love Rachel and the kids on your own strength. He knows you need Him.” The pastor shook his head. “You’re not in this thing alone. You never have been. You’re not even in it with just Rachel. If you really want this marriage to be about fighting the good fight, finishing the race, and keeping the faith together, then it has to start and end with God. He has to be the Alpha and the Omega of your marriage. His is the love that will bind you together so that no man, including the two of you, can ever tear you apart. When you get that part right, life is still going to be life, but it won’t shake you and break you apart. Hold onto her and let God hold onto the two of you. That’s the best advice I could ever give you.”
A moment and Caleb nodded. “Just checking, but you’re not like planning on leaving or anything any time soon, are you? Because I don’t think this is the last time I’m going to show up on your doorstep.”
“You’re welcome any time.”
“Oh! I love the hair,” Sage said the second she came into the little bride’s dressing room, the gown in one hand and a box of corsages and boutonniere’s in the other.
“Whoa,” Rachel said, taking in her friend’s grayish-silver full-length dress. “Wow.”
“I was trying to find something that wouldn’t clash with the guy’s ves
ts.” She hung the white gown on the hook, set the box down on the floor, straightened, and ran her finger down the loose ringlet sliding down the side of her face. “Is it too much? Jaycee said it was okay.”
Rachel laughed. Her friend seemed more nervous than she did. “It’s beautiful, but we might have to get a fan for Luke.”
Sage giggled. “He’s already seen it.”
“Oh, yeah? How’d that go?”
Swatting at her friend, Sage shook her head, but the blush said it all. “You’re terrible.”
“Uh. Huh.” Rachel grinned. “That’s what I thought.”
“Enough about me. We need to get you into this thing. I saw the photographer people out there. He’s taking pictures of like everything.” Sage went to work, unzipping the plastic around the mesmerizing dress. “They really seem nice.”
“They are. I think I’m going to like working with them.”
At that Sage straightened again and stopped all movement. “Wait. Does that mean you’re doing this thing with Caleb and Derek?”
A second and Rachel smiled. “They talked me into it.”
“Eep!” Sage clapped like a little kid and bounced on her feet. “This is like so awesome. Ahhh! I’m so excited for you!”
At one time in her life Rachel would’ve argued, but she couldn’t find a single one anywhere in her. It truly was awesome in every detail.
It was at that moment that Sage pulled the dress from the bag, and tears sprang to Rachel’s eyes. “Oh, Sage.”
Sage wobbled her head back and forth, clearly fighting the tears herself. “Do you like it? I just added this to the top…”
“It’s gorgeous.”
“Eep! I was hoping you would say that! Come on. Let’s get you in this thing.”
However, instead of going into motion, Rachel stopped, overcome with the need to let Sage know how very grateful she was. “Sage… Sage.”
Only the second one stopped her friend’s butterfly-like motions. “What?”
Closing her eyes as the tears collapsed her strength to hold them, she stepped forward and put her arms over her friend’s shoulders, pulling her into a hug. “Thank you. For everything.”
The hard sniff told her Sage was now crying too. When Rachel backed up, Sage put her hand to her nose and stomped her foot.
“Darn it. I was going to get through this without crying.”
Rachel laughed, sniffed, and swiped at her tears, trying not to mess up Hannah’s make-up job. “Yeah. Good luck with that.”
Chapter 32
Eric & Dani
“Get some of the tree,” Dani said as she stood, watching her husband focus in on the little navy and white flowers on one of the pews. Decked out in all its Christmas finest, she had found a new appreciation for the little church. She’d been in it a few times over the years, but it had never looked quite so magical as it did today. “You can use them as backgrounds.”
“Good idea.” Eric went over to the Christmas tree, and Dani smiled and ducked her head. It had been a long time since she’d seen him like this. It brought back memories of their earliest days together when they would go out hiking—just him and her and the camera. True, the first couple of times she was a little high maintenance with her heels and whining about the cold and how far it was back to the car. But when she’d finally decided he was worth the effort, she’d fallen in love with those simple moments together.
As she watched him now, she wondered where those had all gone. Down a hole of work and house and life details. It was sad to realize that simple time was over and would never be a part of them again.
Commotion at the back of the church yanked her attention that way, and she smiled. It was Caleb and Derek and another guy she didn’t recognize, but they were all in tuxes, and the picture they made was coming down the aisle talking together was perfect. “Eric,” she whispered, and when he turned, she lifted her chin. “Get a shot of them.”
With only that amount of prompting, he did. He checked the picture and showed it to her.
“That’s a good one,” she said.
“Eric, Dani,” Derek said as the three men came all the way down the aisle to them. Handshakes went around.
“Thanks for coming,” Caleb said, and his usual calm nature was undergirded with a nervousness Dani could sense without trying.
“You mind if we get some of the three of you?” Eric said. “Before everything gets too crazy.”
“Uh. Yeah,” Caleb answered for the others. “Sounds good.”
Just after six, Jaycee came striding down the aisle right to Dani. She ducked closer as if to mask her words from the guys. “Rachel’s kids just got here and her mom. We wondered if you wanted to get some shots of them in the dressing room.”
“Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Good idea. I’ll get Eric.”
“K. Thanks.”
In the small dressing room, they found Rachel resplendent in a white gown, dotted with crystals at the waist and on the neckline. Her hair which was just up before now had wisps of baby’s breath twined in the back of it. She was seated on the floor, the magical dress fanned out around her, shoes and coats and other things surrounding her as well, and seemingly in the middle of near chaos, she simply held her baby girl and little boy on her lap as she talked to them softly.
One look and Dani’s heart melted. “Eric, Eric, quick.” Grabbing for him, she pulled him into the room so he could get the picture. He did. One, two, three of them.
At that moment, Jaden skipped from amidst the women and over to her mom. Dani sat down on her heels and hugged her daughter. “Isn’t she pretty?”
Jaden nodded wordlessly.
“She looks like a princess, doesn’t she?”
Again her daughter nodded, and Dani put her arms around her and hugged her. “She’s getting married today. Did you know that?”
The nodding stopped although Dani was sure her daughter was taking all of it in just as she was. When the little conversation on the floor ended, Eric stepped forward. “Would you like some pictures of you and the bridesmaids?”
“Oh, that would be great,” Rachel said as with help, she got to her feet. “But aren’t the guys in the church?”
“We can fix that,” Dani said. “Come on, Ja. You can be Mommy’s assistant.” And with that, she took her daughter’s hand and they went out to get everything ready.
Epilogue
Caleb & Rachel
The whirlwind of pictures ended sometime around 6:45 when everyone realized seven was just around the corner. However, just as they were being banished from the church back to the groom’s room in the front part of the church, Caleb managed to snag Eric. “I need you to do something for me.”
“Name it.”
“Um, knock, knock,” Eric said, reappearing at Rachel’s dressing room door.
“Is it time?” Sage asked in panic as her gaze jerked up to the clock.
“Not yet,” he said very carefully. “I have had a special request.”
Sage, Jaycee and Rachel frowned.
“What’s that?” Jaycee asked.
“Well, Caleb would like a couple more pictures before we get started. But it’s going to take a little doing.” He swallowed. “The guys are right outside, and they’re ready. But he wants this to be so he doesn’t see you, like you wanted. So, you’re going to have to trust me and just do what I say without really questioning it.”
Still confused, Rachel nodded. “Okay.”
Outside the door, Caleb waited with Luke, Derek and the pastor. He shouldn’t have sprung this on her, not like this. But it wasn’t planned. He hadn’t even thought about it until five minutes ago. When the door opened, his gaze jerked up to it and his heart did too.
“Okay,” Eric said, holding the door open but not all the way. “We’re going to set this up, so everybody needs to listen so it doesn’t take forever.” He held his hand out inside the room. “Rachel, you come here.”
Caleb’s heart sped up until it felt like it might come out
of his chest. Behind him, Derek clapped him on the shoulder and nodded his support.
“Caleb?” Eric put his other hand out and Caleb stepped forward to the door. “I think you should face the door and put your head on it. Close your eyes. Okay, now, no looking. Take her hand. Yeah. Right here.”
The touch of Rachel’s hand sent a wave of emotions flooding through him.
“Good. Yeah. Just like that. Okay. Let me get that one.” He clicked a few times. “Great. Okay. Now I want the rest of you to come in around them.”
Their friends huddled into the space, and Caleb was sure his heart was going to burst.
“Good. Good. Now.” Eric came forward and picked up Rhett. “Let’s put you, big man, right here.” He stood the child next to Caleb’s pant leg. “And you Miss America, right here.” A second of putting Natalie by Rachel, and he stepped back.
“Perfect. That’s perfect.”
“Pastor,” Derek said right next to Caleb, making him jump, “would you mind taking a moment and offering up a private blessing out here?”
“I’d be honored.”
And so eyes closed, holding only her hand, surrounded by his friends, Caleb listened to the pastor’s words.
“Heavenly Father, we come before You today on this joyous occasion. You know all the roads it took for us to be here together for this amazing couple. Lord, we ask You to be with them today as they make their vows to each other in a few minutes. But mostly we ask Your guidance, help, and blessings for them and on them from this moment forward. May they always know they are not alone, that they have not just each other but two amazing families, and friends who love them more than they can ever put into words. We thank You, Lord, for this precious moment You gave us to be here together, to pray for Caleb and Rachel, Rhett and Natalie, as they step into this new life You had planned for them from the very start. We thank You, and we praise You. In Jesus’ Holy Name, we pray. Amen.”
A Moment Like This: A Contemporary Christian Romance Prequel Novella (The Grace Series Book 4) Page 18