An elderly lady with a wrinkled, weathered face, her hair in a bun on top of her head, a plastic rain bonnet tied under her chin, walked toward her using a cane. She was a bit stooped over, and her silvery raincoat almost fell to her ankles.
When she was a few feet from Melanie, Melanie apologized. “I’m sorry if I’m trespassing.”
The woman waved one feeble hand at her. “That’s all right. I don’t get many visitors. Are you lost?”
“Not exactly. My name’s Melanie,” she said introducing herself.
“Beatrice Martin,” the woman responded, extending her hand. “Everyone calls me Bea.”
Melanie shook the woman’s hand, and although it was thin and fragile, there was strength in it.
“So what brings you out here?” Bea asked. “I saw you through the window. Are you looking for something?”
“Yes, I am. But I’m not sure what. Someone I know had an accident out here. It happened over a year ago. A green sedan went off the road into this tree.”
“Oh, I remember that one. The driver was going pretty fast.”
I forgot about the curve, Melanie heard in her head. It was lightning and thundering…getting dark…and my windshield wipers couldn’t keep up with the rain.
Melanie’s breath caught as she listened to the voice inside her head…to the voice inside her heart. She swallowed hard. “Mrs. Martin…”
“Bea,” the woman reminded her.
“Bea,” Melanie repeated with a shaky smile. “Was it almost dark?”
“Sure was. Terrible storm, too. I heard the car and then I heard the smash-up. Awful it was. I called 911. I knew there was nothing I could do. The ambulance got here pretty fast.”
But it was too late, Sherry’s voice told her. Too late to tell Zack…
Melanie waited for the rest, but it didn’t come.
“After the ambulance left,” Bea went on, “the tow truck took the car away.” She cocked her head and stared at Melanie. “I found something the next day. It must have fallen out of the car when they towed it away.”
Melanie’s heart pounded. “What did you find?”
“I’ll go get it. It didn’t seem right to throw it away. But I didn’t know what to do with it. Come with me. You can have a cup of tea and get out of this rain.”
As Melanie walked beside the older lady toward her house, she heard a car coming around the curve. As it slowed, pulled off the road and parked in front of hers, she recognized it. It was Zack’s. Ted must have called him. How was she going to explain this? Coming here, searching for…
Whatever this lady had in her house was very important.
She’d reached Bea’s front stoop when Zack came striding toward her, looking angry. He was wearing a blue flannel shirt and jeans and hadn’t even bothered with a coat.
“What are you doing here?” he demanded when he reached her.
“I had to follow my instincts. I had to follow Sherry’s voice.”
“For God’s sake, Melanie! Why can’t you let it alone?”
Bea returned outside then and handed Melanie the white plastic satchel with the department store’s name written on the front. “Here’s what I found.”
Melanie’s hands trembled as she took the package from Bea, opened the bag and slid out a pair of variegated pink-and-blue baby booties. The booties in her dreams. She held them out to Zack. “These mean something, Zack. They were in Sherry’s car and fell out when the car was towed away.”
The tortured look in his eyes made her wish she wasn’t doing this to him. But then in a flash of insight, with Sherry’s voice clear in her head, she understood why she’d been led here…why she’d had to find Zack. As he reached out for the booties, she knew clearly why Sherry had led her to him and what all of it meant.
Bea looked from one of them to the other, mumbled an excuse and stepped back into the house. The storm door clicked shut. Rain drizzled down on Zack and Melanie as Zack stared at the booties.
“Sherry changed her mind,” Melanie said breathlessly. “She’d accepted being pregnant because she loved you. She bought these for the new baby as a sign she wanted the child as much as you did. She was driving up here to tell you that.”
Zack gazed at the booties, heard Melanie’s words and then raised his head to look at her. He felt as if his life was spinning around him—as if the past had caught up to the present. His dad had called him, worried about Melanie. His father had told Zack where she was going. Rattled by Melanie’s wild proclamation on the mountain, the idea of her hearing Sherry’s voice and having Sherry’s memories, he’d driven out here furious with Melanie, yet torn by other feelings, too.
Now as he gazed into her blue eyes, he realized what she was saying was true. He realized somehow she could hear Sherry’s voice…or her thoughts. And he finally understood what it all meant. Sherry didn’t wreck the car on purpose or try to lose the baby. She was looking forward to their life together and had accepted the idea of another child. Her accident had been simply that—an accident.
Emotion choked him, and he couldn’t speak. He could only rub his fingers over the baby booties as the wash of relief, but also grief over everything he’d lost, lapped over him.
Melanie must have seen it. Her own eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry, Zack. I’m sorry you lost Sherry and your unborn child.”
He couldn’t respond to her. He couldn’t make sense of everything roiling inside him.
“I—I’ve got to get back to the penthouse,” Melanie murmured. “Out of the rain…out of your life.” The last was a whisper as she took off across the yard to her car. She had climbed in and had pulled onto the road, headed back to the penthouse, before what she’d said had sunk in.
Out of his life? What did she mean by that? He didn’t want her out of his life. He…
So many realizations battered him at once. He loved Melanie Carlotti. He’d been fighting it for weeks. He’d been guarding himself against it because of the guilt he still felt about Sherry’s accident, about their argument, about the way he felt about her because she hadn’t wanted his child. But now he could let go of all of it. Now he was free to really live again…to love again.
There was only one woman he wanted to love now, wanted to spend the rest of his life with, wanted as a mother for Amy.
Bea opened her door again then, and peeked out at him. “Mister, you want to come in out of the rain? I told Melanie I’d make her a cup of tea, but she ran off. I can make one for you.”
“No. No tea, thanks. I have to catch Melanie.” He rushed toward his car.
But he heard the little old lady say, “Drive carefully.”
He waved a hand in acknowledgment and yanked open his door, still overwhelmed by everything that had happened, suddenly afraid Melanie wouldn’t be able to forgive his doubts or the harsh things he’d said. He’d never known true fear before, but now he did. He couldn’t let Melanie leave. He had to make her understand that he loved her.
When Zack rushed into the penthouse, Flo saw his expression. “What in heaven’s name happened?”
“You won’t believe it if I tell you,” Zack muttered.
“Melanie ran in here, said she’d found an apartment in Santa Rosa. She’s packing. She’s leaving!”
“She can’t leave.”
“Well, she is. She went into her bedroom and shut the door. Amy’s sitting outside of it. Melanie doesn’t know she’s there. I wasn’t sure what to do.”
“I’ll take care of it,” he called to Flo as he hurried down the hall.
His daughter sat outside of Melanie’s door, holding on to BoBo for dear life. She looked up at him with big wide eyes.
“Mommy…Mellie.” Amy didn’t look confused or troubled but very certain.
It might be shorthand language, but Zack understood Amy perfectly, clearly saw the meaning of her words in her eyes. Melanie was a gift that Sherry had given to him and Amy. Melanie had been sent here to bring him peace and to make his life whole again. He hadn’
t been ready to accept the gift before, but now he was. It was as if Sherry had picked out Melanie for him, a perfect mate, one who had his values and sentiments and goals and dreams.
Scooping his daughter into his arms, he hugged her, and then he looked up to heaven. “Thank you,” he murmured. To Amy he said, “I need to talk to Melanie alone this time, but you and Flo can get some hot chocolate and cookies ready. Okay?”
His daughter gazed into his eyes and then gave him a cherubic smile. “Okay,” she agreed.
After Zack settled Amy in the kitchen with Flo, he went back to Melanie’s room and knocked sharply on the door.
When she didn’t answer, he turned the knob and went inside.
Once before she’d tried to pack to leave and he’d stopped her, telling himself it was because of her contract, because he needed her to finish supervising the opening of the headquarters, because he’d wanted to give her Christmas with his daughter. That time she’d packed neatly. Now she was just tossing clothes into the suitcase. Her hair was wet from the rain and there were tear streaks on her cheeks. He hoped he wasn’t too late to make her believe they could have a future together.
“You can’t leave,” he said hoarsely.
She didn’t look at him and she didn’t stop moving. “I have to leave. You still love Sherry. Maybe you always will. I could see that when you realized what those booties meant.”
“What you saw was overwhelming relief. I thought I had caused her accident. I thought maybe she’d caused it on purpose to lose the baby. She’d told me she didn’t want to be pregnant again, that she’d wanted to terminate the pregnancy. I couldn’t abide that idea. It was the worst argument we’d ever had.”
Still Melanie didn’t stop packing.
Frustrated now, he went to her and took her by the shoulders. “Melanie, you have to listen to me. I love you. I’ve been fighting that love for weeks. I don’t begin to understand any of this…or anything about what happened to you…or what led you out to that accident site today. But I do know you were sent to me and not just as a messenger to tell me what Sherry couldn’t tell me herself. You’re a gift from her or from Someone who knows how much I need you in my life. You’ve given me perspective again. You make me want to smile and truly feel. I’ve been guarding myself against feeling for a very long time. I appreciate life so much more when I’m with you.”
He took a deep breath and rushed on. “I know I doubted you. I know I said things you might not be able to forgive. But I love you, Melanie. Can you try to forgive my lack of faith? Will you marry me?”
She looked stunned.
His hands slid from her shoulders to her face. “I love you,” he said again.
“Oh, Zack.” She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him as if she never wanted to let him go.
He held her then, feeling so full of love and gratitude he had to swallow hard.
Eventually Melanie pulled away and gazed into his eyes. “I love you too, Zack. So much. And I love Amy. The longer I was with you and Amy, the more I could tell Sherry’s feelings from mine. She just wanted you to be free.”
“I see that now. I see how courageous you’ve been in not giving up on me. Can you forgive the way I doubted you?”
Her blue eyes shimmered with all of her feeling for him. “Yes, I can forgive you.”
He couldn’t keep from kissing her then, from bringing her so close that they were almost one. Their kiss was more than a declaration of love. It was a promise that they’d never doubt each other again.
Finally he broke away. “And you’ll marry me?”
“Whenever you want.”
There was a patter of footsteps in the hall, and suddenly Amy was at their feet, her arms around both of them as she hugged their knees and looked up.
Laughing, Zack scooped her up into his arms and held her along with Melanie. When Amy lifted her arms to Melanie, Melanie cuddled her close and kissed Amy’s cheek with a freedom he hadn’t seen in her before.
They were both free to love now, free to create a future together.
Epilogue
It was an end-of-April evening on the island of Kauai. Flo adjusted the white ginger lei around Melanie’s neck as Beatrice Martin looked on.
“You look absolutely beautiful, my dear,” Bea said as her gaze passed from the wreath of flowers in Melanie’s hair down her shimmering, flowing, white silk and chiffon dress to her delicate white shoes. “You’ll knock Zack right off his feet when he sees you.”
Melanie took a deep breath, anticipating the moment when she’d see Zack for the first time today under the flowered arch the hotel manager had explained would be perfect for their wedding ceremony. This resort was an exclusive one that Zack had chosen specifically for its special services and amenities.
“I still can’t believe I’m here,” Bea went on. “That man you’re marrying is something special.”
Melanie knew that. She’d known it from the moment she’d met Zack. The night he’d proposed, he’d insisted he wanted to court her properly. He wanted their wedding night to be the most special night of their lives, and he didn’t want to rush anything. So they’d planned the wedding for the week after Easter and had brought everyone with them who was important to them—Ted and Amy, Flo, Bea, Barbara and her husband, John Finney and his wife. Everyone who was important to them except…
Melanie’s one regret was that Jordan Wilson couldn’t be here to witness the ceremony. His practice kept him too busy for that. Everyone else was here, though.
Over the past few months many things had changed. Ted had become so much a part of their lives that Zack had told him about Melanie’s corneal transplants and about everything that had led her to him. Ted hadn’t seemed at all buffaloed by it. He’d just patted Melanie’s hand and said, “I’m glad you’re going to be part of this family.” He’d even accepted the gift of this trip to Hawaii from Zack because he knew how important it was to both of them. Flo had been afraid she’d be out of a job, but Zack had insisted she stay on as their housekeeper since Melanie would be working, at least part-time. Melanie, as well as Flo, had become good friends with Bea over the past few months. Zack had insisted the elderly woman accept this trip because he and Melanie might not be together without her and her care of the pink-and-blue baby booties.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” Melanie responded with a smile at Bea’s comment about Zack being a special man. “I’m so glad all of you are here.”
There was a knock at the hotel room door.
“That better not be Zack,” Flo warned. “All day he’s been itching to see you.”
Tonight she and Zack would be moving out of the hotel into a small cottage closer to the beach. He’d wanted their nights to be a true honeymoon, even if they spent their days with the people they loved. They’d only be a stone’s throw from the suite where Bea and Flo were staying with Amy, as well as Ted who would be keeping the room he’d been sharing with Zack.
Flo hurried to the door, and when she looked through the peephole, she smiled and then opened it.
Jordan Wilson stepped inside.
“Jordan!” Melanie went to meet him.
He took her hands in his. “Zack said to tell you I’m part of your wedding present.”
Before their trip she’d given Zack a Vincente Largo sculpture of a man and woman embracing. He’d given her a diamond bracelet she would treasure forever. But apparently he’d also guessed that having Jordan here would make her wedding day complete. “I thought you couldn’t get away.”
“I wasn’t sure I could, but Zack insisted I try. I did want to be here.”
If Zack had once been jealous of Jordan, he wasn’t anymore. In fact the two men had played golf a few times. Zack had known how important Jordan had been in her life, and she loved her husband-to-be even more for encouraging her friend to come.
“I’m returning to L.A. tomorrow,” Jordan explained. “But just seeing you looking this radiant was worth the trip.”
“Than
k you for coming,” she said, squeezing his hands. “It means a lot to me.” Then she kissed him on the cheek.
After another hug he winked. “I’ll see you again outside.”
As Bea and Flo checked Melanie over one last time to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything, her heart began beating faster. She couldn’t wait to be Zack’s wife. She couldn’t wait to be truly one with him. She couldn’t wait to be Amy’s mother.
The women took the elevator down three floors and walked along a hall with windows facing the ocean. While Bea’s cane clacked on the intricately painted ceramic tile floor, Melanie’s heart was so full she felt she would burst. Ever since the night Zack had proposed, she’d felt such a sense of peace, such a sense of rightness. She’d had no more dreams, except those of her future with Zack, and no more feelings that weren’t her own. All of the puzzle pieces had finally fallen into place, and she knew that Sherry Morgan was at peace, too. It was the kind of knowing that couldn’t be explained, only felt.
Stepping outside was truly like stepping into paradise. Palm trees, lush greenery, bougainvillea along with fuchsia and white hibiscus lined the walkway to the private area reserved for weddings. As they approached the arch of flowers, the view of ocean and sky, as well as the kaleidoscope of purple, pink and gold from the setting sun, acted as a backdrop that Melanie would never forget.
The minister stood on the other side of the arch, and then Ted and Zack were there, too. Ted was holding Amy. Though he was Zack’s best man, Zack’s father wore a flowered shirt he’d bought in the hotel’s gift shop after they’d arrived.
Her gaze swept from Ted’s wide grin to her husband-to-be. Traditional to the core, Zack had worn a tuxedo. He was devastatingly handsome. The world of love she saw in his eyes drew her to him.
Flo was her matron of honor and walked before her until they arrived at the arch. Then, like Ted, she stepped to the side so only Zack and Melanie stood before the minister. Melanie was aware that Bea and Jordan sat with the two couples on chairs set up for the occasion, but all of her attention was on Zack and what they were about to do. The hotel manager had asked if they’d wanted music, but they’d decided to let the sound of the waves, the rustle of palms and the chirping of birds be their music.
A Husband In Her Eyes Page 15