The Family Doctor
Page 21
She still wasn’t saying anything. The energy that had fueled him through the long, difficult night and this even longer morning was gone all of a sudden, and he deflated like a popped balloon.
“Hell. I guess this is a huge mistake. You’re not in love with me.”
“Yes, I am.” Her voice was soft, and so were her hands. She put them on each side of his whiskery face and looked into his bloodshot eyes. Hers were shimmering. “I have been for a long time, but I’d stopped hoping.”
He was starting to again. “I can’t figure out where we’ll live, Kate. I can’t ask Dorothy to move out on top of everything else.” Inspiration struck. “Maybe we can sell both houses and buy a triplex. That way everybody’ll have their own space.”
She nodded. “Okay. But my suite is for rent. Dorothy could live there if she wanted.”
It took a moment, but he got it. And grew worried all over again. He knew how much she loved her stepdaughter. “What about Eliza?”
“She’s with her dad, but I’ve got partial custody. She spends half her time with each of us. You were right about me—I needed to take my own life back again. I think it’s going to work out fine. For all of us.”
His sense of relief was so great he bent his head and rested it on her lap. His knee was aching, and more than anything in the world he wanted to lie down with her in that giant king-size bed. After he had a shower. After she said what she still hadn’t said.
“So, Kate?” She smelled so good. He could feel the warmth of her skin through her cotton skirt. “What do you say?”
He knew she was smiling.
“Yes, I say yes. Yes, Tony, I’ll marry you.” There was fierce joy in her voice. “I love you so very much. We’ll be a family, you and I and the girls. But first can we go on a honeymoon? Just the two of us?”
His relief was so great he had to squeeze his eyes tightly shut or embarrass himself totally. He thought of his father, of how precious each moment was.
“Anywhere in the world, my love. Paris, Rome. Anywhere.”
Anywhere was perfect when two people had a lifetime of loving to share.
EPILOGUE
THE CEREMONY WAS HELD in the back garden of the small brick house. Exotic birds twittered, and the heady smell of roses and hibiscus filled the late September afternoon.
Tony held tight to Kate’s hand while the majestic words of the marriage service were read, and he winked at her every now and then as she swiped at her brimming eyes with a tissue. All the women were crying, and many of the men’s eyes were suspiciously damp, as well.
“In sickness and in health…”
Betsy tipped her head back and with a radiant expression looked up into the eyes of the man she loved as each of them repeated the age-old vows.
Ford was growing thinner by the day. The blue suit Tony had helped buy just a few days ago already hung in loose folds on his father’s gaunt frame, but by some miracle Ford’s mind remained clear. The Decadron had given him this window of time, he’d assured Tony, to complete the things that mattered to him, and marrying Betsy mattered most of all.
Dorothy had agreed to the divorce, and with the assistance of a judge who was one of Tony’s patients, the decree had been hurried through.
As his father’s best man, Tony had Betsy’s gold wedding ring looped on his little finger. When the moment came, he pressed it firmly into his father’s hand, so Ford could slide it on his bride’s finger.
“With this ring, I thee wed…” Ford’s voice was weak, but the power of his emotion rang strong and clear. “With my body, I thee worship, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow.”
Overcome with feeling, Tony turned his head to look at Kate. They, too, had repeated these holy vows just ten days ago, half a world away, in the Vancouver church his family attended, where first his grandfather and then his mother played the organ. Dorothy had played for their wedding.
In this small garden in Brisbane, there was only birdsong as background music. Just fourteen people were gathered here to witness the ceremony, close friends of Ford and Betsy.
In Vancouver, it had seemed to Tony that half the city was there. Kate had wanted a big wedding, and the females in Tony’s family had been overjoyed. The men had given him sage advice.
“Lie low and just agree to everything.” He’d found it invaluable.
McKensy and Eliza were flower girls, Leslie was matron of honor, Georgia a bridesmaid. His entire family turned out in force, cousins and aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews. Kate’s sister and her family flew in, friends and co-workers from St. Joe’s demanded invitations, and patients brought gifts.
The day of his wedding, Tony missed his father more than he’d ever thought possible. Ford and Betsy had flown back to Brisbane two weeks earlier.
“It wouldn’t be fair to your mother,” Ford had said when Tony pressed him to stay. “Kate’s a grand girl, I’m honored I’ve had a chance to get to know her. And I’ll be thinking of you on your wedding day, lad. But the only two people who really matter at a wedding are the bride and groom.”
After Ford was released from St. Joe’s, he and Betsy stayed with Judy for the remainder of their visit. Dorothy tried her best to change Judy’s mind, and when tears and tantrums didn’t work, she flew off to Portland in a huff to visit a friend for the duration of Ford and Betsy’s visit.
Those few days had been one of the happiest family times Tony could ever remember. Judy organized a picnic to celebrate Kate and Tony’s engagement, and Margaret and Georgia followed suit with barbecues and potlucks. The mood of the family changed without Dorothy there to dampen it. Even Wilson managed a joke or two. The entire family gathered at the airport when Ford and Betsy left, and the parting had been emotional on both sides.
It was Kate who insisted on Australia for their honeymoon. When the telegram arrived announcing that Ford and Betsy were marrying, she’d asked Tony to cancel the Bermuda trip.
“We’re flying to Brisbane. Going to a wedding has to be the best way to start a honeymoon,” she’d said in a tone that brooked no argument. Tony hadn’t thought he could love her more than he already did, but at that moment his heart felt as if it would burst from his body.
It felt the same way now.
“To love and to cherish until death us do part,” Ford was repeating, and the poignancy of the moment hung in the air, touching every heart.
“What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder. I now pronounce you husband and wife. Ford, you may kiss the bride.”
Incandescent joy radiated from Ford’s face and reflected back from Betsy’s. He gathered her gently into his arms and lowered his mouth to hers.
Tony put an arm around Kate and gathered her into his embrace, thinking of what his father had once told him.
Ford had been so right.
In the end, love was really all that mattered.
ISBN: 978-1-4592-4366-8
THE FAMILY DOCTOR
Copyright © 2002 by Bobby Hutchinson.
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