by Laura Scott
“Love is a promise,” Shelley said. “It’s the promise, knowing that you each want the other in your life.” She hugged Paige. “I’ll let you think on that.”
Shelley’s words remained with Paige long after her friend left. She mulled them over and was shamed by her cowardice in refusing to have the courage to share a life with Liam.
Love. Where she could lean and not lose part of herself, where he could do the same. That’s what it was all about.
The other—jobs, where they lived—that could be figured out.
But love...that was the key. She loved Liam. With all her heart. It didn’t make any difference whether she was married to him or not. It wouldn’t change her feelings, the love she carried in her heart for him. Why had it taken her so long to figure it out?
She’d been a fool. She could only pray he’d find it in him to forgive her.
* * *
After arranging with Shelley to take the rest of the day off, Paige headed to Liam’s house.
He opened the door and gazed at her quizzically.
“Hi.” She winced inwardly. The greeting was totally inadequate, but it had been all she’d been able to come up with.
She was aware of time moving very, very slowly. One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand... How many seconds—or was it minutes—had to pass before he said something?
Finally she broke the silence. “Are you going to invite me in?”
“Uh...sure.” Liam stood back. “Come on in.”
“Thanks.”
“I didn’t expect to see you.” There was longing in his eyes, and any worry that he might not have missed her as much as she missed him vanished.
“I didn’t expect to be here.” Okay, Walker, you can do better than that. “I came to apologize.” That, and a lot more.
“Apologize?”
“I had no right to tell you how to run your life.”
“You didn’t.”
“I came pretty close. I was out of line. Mostly, I was—”
The French doors opened, and Jonah and a puppy skidded inside. “Daddy, we...” His words skidded to a stop just as his feet had. “Hi, Miss Walker.”
“Hi, Jonah.”
“Do you want to meet my puppy? This is Ralph. Ralph, say hi to Miss Walker. She’s really nice.”
Ralph barked enthusiastically.
What did she say upon being introduced to a dog? “Uh...hi, Ralph.”
“We just got Ralph a couple of weeks ago. He’s my best friend.” Jonah’s freckled face bunched up in a thoughtful frown. “Well, Daddy’s my best friend. And Ralph’s my next best friend. You can be my friend, too. And Ralph’s.”
Absurdly touched, Paige smiled. “I’d like that.”
“Jonah,” Liam said, “why don’t you and Ralph go back outside? Ms. Walker and I need to talk.”
“Okay.”
Jonah and his new best friend ran outside in a rush of feet and paws and what could only be described as hoots and barks of pure happiness.
With no preamble, she plunged in. “I should have trusted you when you said that you can take care of yourself. I’ve seen you in action. I know that you’re good.” She sucked in a breath. “I came to ask you to forgive me.” There. It was out. She waited.
“There’s nothing to forgive. You’d suffered a terrible loss, and you were dealing with it in the only way you knew how.”
“I love you no matter what job you have, no matter how much I want you to be safe.”
“Same goes.”
Tears clogged her throat at his easy forgiveness, and Paige searched for something to say.
“Don’t postpone joy,” she murmured, thinking of her conversation with Shelley.
“That’s an interesting observation.”
“Something Shelley told me. She said we should choose joy whenever we can.”
“Smart lady.” He crossed the room and took her hands in his. As always, his touch sent tingles of awareness through her. “What were you going to say before that tornado blew in?”
She took a gulp of air and then forced out the words in a single breath. “I was scared. Scared of losing you.”
“Why?”
“Why do you think? I love you.”
A satisfied smile settled on his lips. “That’s all I need to know. The rest, we can figure out.”
“That’s what I’m trying to say. We don’t have to figure anything out. I’m okay with you joining the marshals. I’ll probably worry, but I trust you to take care of yourself.”
“You mean that?”
“With all my heart. The last time we talked, I forgot something very important. Or, I should say, Someone very important.”
“The Lord.”
Warmth filled her heart that Liam had invited the Lord into his life. Any remaining doubts she had about joining her life with Liam’s disappeared. “I forgot to include Him in our relationship. If we have Him on our side, we can’t lose.”
“You brought Him back into my life. I can never thank you enough for that.”
“He was never gone,” she said softly. “You just didn’t know where to look.”
“Because of you, I found my belief again.” His voice turned husky. “I want you in my home. In my heart. In my life. I want you and Jonah and Ralph and me to be a family, the forever kind.”
Her heart, the one she thought she’d closed off, opened to joy. “That’s funny. That’s exactly what I want. I want together forever with you.”
A frisson of excitement ruffled her senses as he gazed at her with eyes full of love.
“I’m not always easy to get along with,” she warned. “I like to have my own way. I tend to think I’m right no matter what the question is. I’m—”
“Are you trying to scare me away?”
“I’m trying to warn you that we’ll likely find ourselves on opposite sides of things at times.”
He smiled and circled her wrist with his fingers. “I’ll take the risk.” He drew her to him and kissed her with so much love that her heart felt like it would burst in that instant. The kiss held the soaring sense of a man who had just escaped captivity and discovered freedom. She returned it with the same depth of feeling.
Slow and soft, spinning out this one moment in time, the kiss promised everything. She laid her hand on his heart, feeling the steadiness, the strength, the power. She wondered how she had ever endured the lonely days before Liam, knowing he would be there, beside her, with arms to hold her, a heartbeat to match the rhythm of her own. Their love was a light that would always guide her out of the dark.
She gave herself to the feelings, to him. With his arms around her, his heart beating against hers, she knew she had come home, a real home she and Liam would make together. She pulled back a few inches and traced the shape of his jaw with her fingers. Strong, like the rest of him. The steady look he gave her promised everything.
Theirs wouldn’t be a life without problems—they were both too strong-willed for that—but it would be perfect because they were together.
“Will you marry me?” she asked. Since she had walked away and hadn’t given him the opportunity to ask her the last time they were together, it seemed only fitting that she do the asking now.
A huge smile broke across his face. “Yes.” He kissed her lightly. “Are you ready to take on a five-year-old boy and a puppy named Ralph who’s going to grow into a very big dog?”
“I already love Jonah. As for the puppy, how can I not love a dog named Ralph?”
His smile infinitely tender, he fitted his hands to her waist. “I’ve been looking for you for a very long time. All of my life, in fact.”
“And I, you. I’m here. With you. I’m not going anywhere. Not today. Not ever.”
“Me, either.”
His lips on hers were swee
t with the heady promise of today and tomorrow and all the tomorrows after that.
“I don’t need a big fancy wedding. Just a simple ceremony with Jonah and your parents and our friends. And Ralph. There’s one thing I insist on, though,” she said when he lifted his head. She assumed her most serious expression.
“What’s that?”
“We have to have good auto insurance. Really good.”
He looked perplexed, then threw back his head and laughed. “Full coverage. I promise.”
She kissed him once more. “Perfect.”
* * * * *
Dear Reader,
As I told Liam and Paige’s story, I knew that I wanted to write about two strong people who were, nonetheless, broken. In Japan, broken objects are often repaired with gold. The flaw is seen as a unique piece of the object’s history, which adds to its beauty.
Are we not all broken in some way? I know that I am. I am broken in many places, some more visible than others. I am broken in grief over the loss of loved ones. I am broken in pain from betrayal. I am broken in spirit when depression overcomes me.
I am broken.
And yet I know that I can be made whole once again through the atonement of the Savior. His supreme sacrifice allows me and all of us to appear once more before Him, whole, our scars repaired with the gold of His infinite love. Christ asked that our sacrifice for Him be a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
I pray that we can each find the broken parts inside us, rejoice in the refining fire of them, and then allow Jesus to heal us.
With gratitude for His love,
Jane
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ISBN-13: 9781488072321
Secrets from the Past
Copyright © 2021 by Jane M. Choate
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WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS BOOK FROM
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ISBN-13: 9781488072529
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Wyoming Mountain Escape
Copyright © 2021 by Laura Iding
Cold Case Takedown
Copyright © 2021 by Jessica R. Patch
Secrets from the Past
Copyright © 2021 by Jane M. Choate
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