The Damaged Heroes Collection [Box Set #1: The Damaged Heroes Collection] (BookStrand Publishing Mainstream)

by James, Sandy

  She’d set the alarm so she could get up early enough to sketch for several hours before Janos came home for lunch. Joy reached over to pick up the clock and flipped it to look at the back. The alarm was turned off. With a groan, she scolded herself for forgetting to set the silly thing.

  “Pregnancy must cause memory problems,” she grumbled to the cat as she scratched behind his ears. At least with her pets around, she had someone to talk to.

  If her stomach hadn’t rumbled loud enough to echo through the room, Joy figured she would have been content to sleep the rest of the day away. With a reluctant sigh, she sat up, grabbed Lucas’s robe, and forced herself out of bed.

  Shoving her arms into the sleeves, she stepped over to glance out the window. Joy had to blink a couple of times before she could make sense of what she was seeing. A wooden gazebo stood in the exact spot Lucas had pointed out to her. It was beautiful—six-sided with winding spindles and lattice work. Just like Lucas described he would build.

  “How on earth...” Her heart began to pound a rough cadence.

  Lucas! Lucas is back!

  Joy whirled around, ready to run downstairs to see if she was no longer alone when she stopped short of taking a single step. An enormous red ribbon was lying on the floor at the bedroom door. She cautiously walked over and gawked at the ribbon that looked so out of place. A small note was taped to its tail. She crouched down and pulled it from the floor.

  Follow me to your dreams.

  Standing back up, Joy just stared at the ribbon. It led out of the room, and as she stuck her head out the bedroom door, she realized it flowed down the stairs, through the foyer, and disappeared in to the kitchen.

  Lucas was up to something. While she desperately wished he would just show himself so she could throw herself into his arms and then give him a good scolding for worrying her so, Joy realized how much effort had gone into this romantic plan. Her heart fluttered. He was really back. He was back and he wanted to impress her with a grand gesture.

  Pushing up the long sleeves of the robe, Joy picked up the end of the ribbon and began to follow it like a yellow brick road. Gathering the big trimming into her arms, Joy stopped when she reached the kitchen. The ribbon continued on its journey out the door, but it was weighted down by a box wrapped in floral paper.

  Joy dropped her armful of ribbon and knelt next to the box. She plucked a small note from the top.

  To realize your dream to be an artist.

  Joy ripped the box open and began to pull out art supplies of all shapes and sizes. After she stacked them next to the box, she saw another note in the bottom on the box. She grabbed the printout of an email and read it.

  From: Seth Remington

  To: Buildings and Grounds Division, Remington Computers

  Miss Jozsa Kovacs has been commissioned to paint a mural in the lobby of the new Chicago headquarters of Remington Computers. The mural will highlight founder Sterling Remington and his interest and involvement in harness racing. Please join me in welcoming Miss Kovacs to the Remington Computer family in hopes she will be gracing many of our offices with her work.

  Joy crushed the paper against her chest as happy tears began to stream down her face. Lucas had arranged this, she had no doubt. And the generosity and faith in her shown by Seth Remington reached all the way to her soul.

  Her dream to be an artist might finally come true.

  Wiping away her tears, Joy gathered the red ribbon back into her arms and began to follow it again. Out the kitchen door to the barn. Up the long aisle to another box, this one full of holes with another note taped on top. She grabbed the note and read it.

  To realize your dream of owning lots of animals.

  Joy crouched down to open the box, but as she reached her hand out, it suddenly moved. She shied away fast enough she ended up on her butt. The box moved again. Kneeling beside it, she lifted the flap and heard the cries before she saw the lamb. “Oh, Sweet Jesus.”

  Lifting the lamb out of the box, Joy hugged it to her chest as it bleated. She stroked its soft head. “You’re beautiful.”

  With a light-hearted laugh, she cradled the lamb as she again began to follow the ribbon’s trail. Out of the barn to the new gazebo. Up the stairs to a note nailed to one of the support posts.

  To realize your dream of a family of your own. Look on the lamb’s collar.

  She hadn’t realized her new pet even wore a collar. Her fingers followed the blue nylon band to find it had been threaded through a diamond ring, the same one, she figured, Lucas had tried to give her in Erie.

  “Lucas? Where are you?”

  Joy whirled around and bumped right into him. Somehow he had caught her unawares, but then again, her thoughts were in tangles. She threw her free arm around his waist and buried her face in his chest, trying not to crush the poor lamb that was braying its displeasure. Lucas chuckled and took the pet from her arms. He retrieved the ring and set the lamb just outside the gazebo on the grass. It bleated a few more times and headed back toward the barn.

  Lucas had to catch his breath to still the rapid beating of his heart. Her nearness was enough to send his senses reeling. Joy was disheveled in his enormous robe, her hair wild, flowing down her shoulders and back in a tangle of curls. He’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life. He cupped her face in his hands and pressed his lips to hers. One quick, sweet kiss, then he pulled away. “I’m back, Jozsa. If you’ll have me. You never answered me in Erie, so I’m asking again. Will you marry me?” He held up the ring.

  She knocked the breath right out of him when she threw herself at him, pushing her arms around his neck and wrapping her legs around his hips. As she started to rain kisses across his face, Lucas held her tight, smiled, and said, “I take it that’s yes.”

  “Yes, yes, yes,” Joy said in between kisses.

  “I’m so sorry I left you, Sweetheart,” Lucas said as he hugged her close.

  “I knew you’d be back. I knew it.”

  Lucas sat back against the railing and just held Joy to him, swearing he would never let her go again. “Thank you for having faith in me.”

  She stopped kissing him long enough to look into his eyes. He’d forgotten how beautiful those wise, dark eyes of hers were. “And did you find what you were looking for, Szivem?”

  He nodded; she smiled.

  “Now we can move on.”

  “Now we can move on. And we’re getting married,” he replied. “When were you going to tell me about the baby?” Lucas was pleased to see confusion in her eyes. For once, he had thrown her off balance.

  “How did—”

  “I figured it out when I stopped to think. I can add, Jozsa. I mean, you never had your...” He could feel her body tighten and her gaze shifted from his, so he figured he’d embarrassed her and let the thought hang. “You were tired, too.” Lucas kissed her forehead. “Were you afraid to tell me?”

  She nodded and laid her head on his shoulder. “I knew you needed to find some peace with the past. If I would’ve told you, you wouldn’t have taken your journey. You would’ve wanted to stay with me. But I knew you needed to go.”

  “The wind told you?”

  She chuckled and nodded against his shoulder. “The wind told me. How did you get the gazebo up without me hearing it?”

  “I had it built before I left. Some Amish friends helped me bring it over this morning. Luckily, you sleep like the dead. You didn’t even flinch when I came up to check on you before we put it up. I flipped off your alarm clock just in case. It took every ounce of strength I had not to slip into that bed with you.” He savored her limbs squeezing him more tightly to her.

  “And you’ve been waiting on me? All morning?”

  Lucas nodded and kissed her forehead again. “I think I owe you a little bit of patience. After all, you waited for me.”

  “I promised I would.”

  “Thank you for that. I love you, Jozsa Kovacs. And I’m going to marry you just as soon as we can arrange it. H
ere, at our house. In this gazebo.”

  She smiled and nodded. “Show me my ring.”

  Lucas reluctantly released her as she put her feet back on solid ground. He took her left hand and slid the ring on her third finger.

  Joy held her hand up to stare at the diamond. “It’s beautiful.”

  Lucas savored her smile. Then her grin turned saucy.

  “Would you like to see all I’ve done to our house now?”

  Lucas took her hand and started walking toward the kitchen door. “How about we start in the bedroom?”

  “I don’t think we’ll get that far,” Joy purred in response.

  Chapter 29

  Lucas shifted his weight between his feet as he waited nervously in the gazebo for Joy to come to him. He checked his watch for what seemed like the millionth time, worrying at her tardiness.

  His eyes scanned the small gathering of friends who stood around talking and killing time. He smiled and nodded at Seth and Katie. Reed sat contentedly on his father’s lap while Chelsea stood on Katie’s thighs and swatted at Reed.

  Brian and Samantha waited at Lucas’s side, representing his family as Joy had asked. She’d wanted some Romungro traditions, and Lucas had agreed wholeheartedly. Since his parents were gone, Brian and Sam would fill their shoes. Janos would stand in as Joy’s father.

  Lucas glanced over and saw the track chaplain waiting patiently as he cradled a small black Bible to his chest and leaned against one of the support posts, looking bored.

  The late autumn day was warm, and Lucas tugged at his collar, thinking it felt a bit too tight. Not that he was nervous about marrying Joy. He was more than ready to say his vows. But she was, evidently, not as anxious. He grew concerned that she might have, at long last, come to her senses and was planning to leave skid marks in her haste to put some miles between them.

  “She’s just running a little late, Lucas,” Brian said, laying a comforting hand on Lucas’s shoulder. “She’ll be out in a minute.”

  Lucas nodded, but he wasn’t so sure. Janos was supposed to bring her out to the gazebo to give her away, but Lucas hadn’t seen him all day. He assumed Janos was with Joy, but her tardiness made Lucas wonder if Janos had disappeared to try to hold up the wedding or perhaps postpone it. He chided himself for letting his ridiculous worries get the best of him.

  The crowd suddenly turned to the sound of a car coming up the gravel drive. Lucas immediately recognized it as Janos’s Honda. “About freakin’ time,” he mumbled to no one as he figured he could give Janos a major piece of his mind later. After he was finally married to Joy. “Where has he been?”

  The surprise was suddenly noticing that Janos wasn’t alone in the car. As it ground to a halt near the barn, Lucas’s eyes flew wide when he saw Bela and Illona getting out of the car.

  Lucas’s gut tightened, fearing they were here to end the ceremony before it even began. “No. No way.”

  Without a word to anyone, Janos guided his parents into the house through the kitchen door.

  “Um, it looks like we’ll be waiting a few more minutes, folks,” Brian said to the small group of well-wishers.

  “Or longer,” Lucas said to Samantha. “Maybe this will never happen.”

  “It’ll be all right.” Sam put a steadying hand on Lucas’s arm. “It can only be good that they’re here.”

  Lucas shook his head, dread filling his heart. “Not necessarily. They might be here to stop this.”

  Sam shook her head. “Joy wouldn’t let that happen. Neither would Janos. Be patient, Lucas. Just let this play itself out.”

  * * * *

  Joy stared at her reflection. She was ready. She’d been ready for more than an hour. Smoothing the front of her long, ivory dress, she smiled at her bare feet, sure that Lucas would notice.

  “Where’s Janos?” she said to the empty room. Checking the clock, she felt a flush of panic sweep over her. It was already fifteen minutes past when the ceremony had been scheduled to begin. Joy decided she would give him five more minutes and then she was heading downstairs to marry the man she loved—brother or no brother.

  “Jozsa?” Janos stepped into the bedroom.

  Joy turned around and, despite her annoyance, smiled at her brother. “Janos. You worried me. I was starting to think you were leaving me on my own.”

  He walked over and kissed her forehead. “Never. I just...”

  He seemed to be having trouble finding the proper words, and Joy was suddenly concerned that he was trying to find the right way to tell her something very bad. “Lucas left, didn’t he?” she asked, unable to disguise her fear.

  “No, Noverke. He’s waiting patiently in the gazebo.” Her brother snorted a little laugh. “Well, maybe not so patiently. It’s good to see him waiting for once. If I were you, I’d take my sweet time.”

  She ignored the barb. “Then what is it, Janos? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to give you a wedding gift. Something special. There’s someone here I think you need to see before we go out there.”

  Joy heard the squeak of the floorboards next to the bedroom door. She glanced over to see her father standing there, staring at her. “Papa!”

  “May I come in?”

  Joy didn’t answer him as she ran across the room to throw herself in the arms he stretched out in welcome. “I’ve missed you, Papa.”

  “I’ve missed you too, Jozsa.” She could feel Bela stroking her hair and took great joy in knowing the separation had been as hard on him as it had been on her.

  Getting control of her emotions, Joy pulled away and stared at her father. “Why did you come here?”

  “I... Jozsa, I wish...” He couldn’t seem to find the proper words as he finally shook his head, obviously frustrated.

  “I’m getting married. To Lucas, Papa. You can’t stop that.”

  Bela shook his head again. “I am not here to stop your wedding. I am here to be a part of it. If you will allow it.”

  “I don’t understand.” Joy glanced over to her brother. All he did was give her a curt nod. “You said—”

  “Bah! I’ve said many things.” He waved of his hand in dismissal. “Not all are wise.” Bela took her hands in his. “My family is not complete without you in it. To lose my only daughter was the same as having an arm ripped from my body. I’ve missed you. Your mother has missed you.”

  “Mama’s here?” Joy asked, a bit breathless at the whole turn of events. God, if she started crying now, she’d never stop. Happy tears stung her eyes nonetheless.

  “She is setting up the bread and wine for the ceremony.” Bela squeezed her hand. His eyes looked a little misty, choking off Joy’s air. “I am sorry Jozsa. I am sorry that Tamas hurt you.”

  Joy shook her head. “That’s over and done with.”

  “I should have listened to you. Instead, I hardened my heart. I was no better to your Lucas than people have been to Romungro since the dawn of our race. I see that now.” He raised her hand to his lips to kiss the back of it gently. “I am here to give my only daughter to the man she loves.”

  * * * *

  Lucas gaped at Illona as she walked over to the table that held the wedding cake. Reaching into the bag she carried, she pulled out a large loaf of bread and set it next to the cake.

  “I don’t understand, Lucas,” Sam said. “What’s she doing?”

  “That’s for the wedding. The gypsies eat bread with a drop of their new spouse’s blood. I think Joy’s parents might actually be here to watch the wedding, not to stop it.”

  “God, I hope so,” Brian said. “It would mean the world to Joy. I wonder what changed her father’s mind.”

  Lucas suddenly knew. “Janos. Janos must have gone to try to talk some sense into them.” He wondered if Janos had told them everything. Perhaps the thaw had come with the news of the baby. Whatever the reason, Lucas was grateful and very pleased Joy’s family seemed to be coming around. It might take a long time before they fully accepted him
, but at least now they accepted the marriage.

  It was enough.

  Illona put a bottle of wine on the table then set the bag aside. She walked over to the gazebo and faced Lucas. “If you will allow it, we would like to welcome you to the family.” She reached up to cup his face in her hands before she kissed both of his cheeks. “I need to go to Jozsa now.”

  Lucas nodded, fearing tears were going to start at any moment. He sniffed them back, feeling more than a bit choked up. He watched Illona disappear into the house and waited patiently for Joy to come to him.

  A few minutes later, Janos came out the kitchen door and strode over to the gazebo. “We can start now.”

  Samantha, Brian, and the chaplain took their places as Lucas stood at the entrance to the gazebo. Joy and her parents came out of the house. Illona and Bela walked on either side of her as she paced the path lined with a white cloth to meet her groom.

  Lucas smiled when he saw the bare feet peeking out from under the hem of her wedding dress. She’d painted her toenails a pretty pink. He took her into his mind and savored each little detail, from the long, satin dress to the white flowers she had woven into the long braid that rested over her shoulder. When she reached him, he nodded. She favored him with a bewitching smile.

  Bela took Joy’s hand and placed it in Lucas’s. “Be good to my daughter.”

  “I will. I promise.”

  Bela nodded and stepped back to stand at Illona’s side.

  The ceremony went by in a blur of smiles and heartfelt promises. When the chaplain pronounced them man and wife, Lucas tugged Joy into his arms and kissed her, savoring the sweet taste of her lips as he marveled that she was now his.

  “Szeretet, Jozsa Mitchell.”

  “Szeretet, Szievem.”

  Epilogue

  Janos sat on one of the chairs in Joy’s hospital room and watched with great amusement as Bela and Lucas argued over what to name the latest addition to the Kovacs clan. While the two men had reached an understanding since Lucas and Joy had married, Bela and Lucas seemed to enjoy their good-natured disagreements to the point that Janos wondered if there were real differences at all. Perhaps their squabbling was all just for show.