His Surprise Son

by Allie Pleiter

  How? he asked the falls—or, more precisely, their Creator. How do I do this impossible thing?

  The answer struck him as he turned to walk up the petal-strewn aisle and make his way to the reception: the same way you’ve done all the other impossible things in your life.

  That’s not entirely true, some new and deep part of him he suspected Jean would call his soul argued. You can’t do this. But the God who makes all things possible can, if you’re willing to ask.

  Okay, God, he replied to himself, realizing with a start that what he was doing could be qualified as praying. I’m asking.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Less than an hour later, Josh watched his stepsister dance with her new husband. As she twirled with Lyle in the center of the dining room of Hailey’s Inn Love, her face still glowed with the wonder of the ceremony.

  It was more than just wedding day bliss. He’d thought about it since handing her off to her new husband at the end of the aisle: she’d become complete. Lyle completed Vi, and she did the same for her captain. It was what made words like soul mate make sense. As Lyle grinned at his wife, Josh found himself grinning with happiness for his stepsister. Some people really were destined for each other.

  The thought sent his gaze around the room until he found Jean, standing slightly apart from the crowd. He’d never tell the bride, but Jean was by far the most beautiful woman in the building. Not in the eye-catching way she was in college—although she still was gorgeous in his estimation—but in a deeper, lasting kind of beauty. The grace and strength he’d seen from her this month had an allure beyond the color of her eyes or the dazzle of her smile. I need her. I’ll never not need her. I’ll never be right without her. No pressure, no demand or ultimatum, but the ease of certainty. A truth more powerful than anything Hal Braddon could ever offer.

  Jonah, standing next to Jean in an adorable blue striped seersucker jacket and a jaunty bow tie, wiggled his fingers in a wave. Him, too, his heart pronounced. Somehow, without his even realizing it, Jean and Jonah had taken the spot at the center of his life he’d always allowed SymphoCync to occupy. When did that happen? He couldn’t go back to how it was a year ago even if he wanted to. And he didn’t want to.

  He walked over to where they were standing. Jonah’s enthusiastically signed “Hi, Dad” shot a glow of joy through him that could have challenged Violet’s bliss to a contest.

  “Hi, J,” he signed. “Let’s dance with Mom.”

  Jonah scrunched up his face with the expected reaction of his age to dancing with grown-ups. “It’ll be fun,” Josh insisted, adding a grin as he heard Jean chuckle from behind him.

  Jonah replied by sticking out his tongue.

  “Maybe he’d rather go help me find some cookies,” Bill Williams said, appearing from out of nowhere and making the sign for “cookies” while he cast a knowing glance between Josh and Jean. “Dancing’s boring.” He added something else Josh didn’t recognize, but it clearly convinced Jonah.

  “What did Bill say?” Josh asked as he led Jean to the dance floor. When Jean slid into his arms, it was as if all the years since they’d last danced evaporated like the mountain mist in sunshine.

  “Nothing,” she replied.

  He chose to let it slide, reluctant to do anything that would mar the delicacy of the moment. He had Jean Matrim in his arms. The amazement of that wasn’t likely to leave him for a long time—if ever. “You know,” he said with a more intimate tone than he would have dared even yesterday, “I still can’t quite get over the fact that I’m here.”

  Her eyes sparkled. “At your sister’s wedding?”

  “Well, that, too.” Jean’s gaze left his eyes for a moment, settling on the blissful newlyweds he knew were dancing behind them. Sure, this day belonged to Violet and Lyle, but today was a milestone for Jean, as well. “Congratulations, Mayor Matrim. You pulled it off. You made Matrimony Valley.”

  Her face flushed at the compliment—he’d always loved that about her. Back in the day, he used to tell her over and over how beautiful she was just to watch it light the glow in her cheeks. “God made Matrimony Valley, not me.”

  “Oh, I disagree. God made Matrim’s Valley, but you made Matrimony Valley. I ought to have my PR guys write you up a press release. ‘Jean Matrim single-handedly saves hometown.’ The world loves a good turnaround story.”

  He felt her soften in his hands just the smallest bit more against him, and it sent a zing down his spine. “Oh, I think God made Matrimony Valley, too,” she said, her tone a little more breathless. “I pleaded with Him for a solution, and the idea came to me not long after.” Hadn’t he just done the same thing not an hour ago? He wanted her to rest her head against his shoulder the way he remembered her doing. Her head on his shoulder was the most exquisite feeling in the world. Instead, she turned her face to look right at him. “Can you believe in something like that?”

  “I never thought I would,” he replied, not stopping himself from pulling her even closer. This new strength of hers called to him in irresistible ways. The contentment that radiated from her, from Lyle and Vi, seemed to seep right out of the forest and into new corners of him.

  Contentment. He’d always considered it the opposite of ambition, but that wasn’t it at all.

  “But now?”

  “I’m gonna say something stupid,” he said, unable and unwilling to stop the foolish grin he could feel spreading across his face.

  “You’re too brilliant to say anything stupid,” she replied.

  Oh, he could think of a few truly foolhardy things to say at this moment with her looking at him like that. “Well, unexpected, then.” He pulled in a deep breath, suddenly aware of her heartbeat against his. “I feel like...like my soul...woke up here.”

  He waited for her to laugh at the sugary sentiment, but instead her smile just glowed all the more. “The valley does that. But only to the person who’s ready for it.”

  He was ready for it. Who back in San Jose would believe that? “I see why you fight so hard to keep it going. Jonah deserves to have this.” With a surge of bravado he added, “I’m glad our son has this.” He wondered how much longer he’d be able to resist saying “I want this.” Right now, it felt like he wouldn’t last the hour.

  Ah, but Jean was still the kind of woman who never let him get away with anything. “And what about you?”

  Last an hour? He clearly wasn’t going to last the next sixty seconds. His newly awakened soul told him to tell the truth. “What I think I want is at war with what’s possible.” That was it in one sentence, wasn’t it?

  Her eyes told him she understood the full breadth of what he said. “Joshua Tyler, you’ve been at war with what’s possible as long as I’ve known you.”

  “I don’t always win,” he admitted. It struck him that he’d never voiced that to anyone before, not even Matt. It was his role to reframe every defeat with words that played better, words like temporary setback or challenge we can meet. One thing he wasn’t winning—wasn’t even sure he wanted to win anymore—was the battle to stay away from the valley, to resist the lure of the land around him and the woman in front of him. But that wouldn’t be losing, would it? He’d be gaining so much. Jean. Jonah. They were more valuable than a dozen Hal Braddons, despite his deep pockets and endless influence. What was here felt eternal. As if the logistics of how he held on to it were mere details.

  Jean seemed to catch on to his thoughts, for she raised an eyebrow and asked, “What?”

  Josh let the hand on Jean’s back wander up to play with a tendril of hair that had escaped her businesslike, mayoral and wedding planner updo, luxuriating in what came over her eyes when he did. Pulling her hair down out of its ponytail used to be his definition of bliss.

  “I was just thinking how tiny San Jose feels right now. The valley feels huge, and everything back in California feels like a tiny detail.”


  * * *

  She’d fallen back in love with him. Or the love had never really left, just “woken up,” the way he said his soul had. He held her the way he used to, but then again altogether differently. Back then it was she who circled around his brilliance, riding the tail of his rising star. Now, it was an equal thing, born of respect. And born of what they were to Jonah.

  “Come home, Josh.” The words escaped her lips before she could recognize their recklessness. And it was reckless to invite him to the valley. To ask him to do the impossible. But she suspected that didn’t stop either of their hearts from wanting it. She could always read him, and the yearning in his eyes was so much stronger now than the lost look he’d borne when he first stepped out of the car with Violet.

  She watched her words hit him. His shoulders tightened under her arm as it rested on him, and his eyes widened—in what? Shock? Recognition? Agreement? His arms pulled her close.

  “I don’t know if I know how.” His admission sounded as if it bared his soul. She’d never known Josh Tyler to admit he didn’t know anything. He was a “never give in, never give up” force of ambition. It had been that power that first drew her to him, but Jean realized that with those words, he’d finally, fully stolen her heart.

  “I didn’t know how or if my plan would save the valley, either.”

  “So you’re saying I should plead with the Almighty to help me pull this off?”

  “I’m saying you should ask the God who loves you to bring you home to the son who loves you, too.”

  “I love him,” Josh said with a fierce glow in his eyes. “I think I loved him from the first moment he handed me his truck. Is that possible?”

  “Of course it is.” Hadn’t she loved Jonah from the first moment she became aware of his existence? And more the moment his sweet eyes first looked up into hers? Eyes that were so very much like Josh’s eyes, which burned into hers right now?

  Those eyes glinted with mischief. “How much of a scandal would it cause if I kissed you right here, right now in front of everybody?”

  She giggled like a schoolgirl. “Let’s find out.”

  “Yes, ma’am, Your Honor.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The morning after the reception, Josh felt drawn back to the falls. Despite Jean’s insistence that God was everywhere, to Josh He seemed to reside here. The grandeur of the falls and the surrounding nature were a far more fitting “church” to Josh than all the breathtaking cathedrals he had seen on his travels—not that he was in the habit of visiting holy places. Still, after watching Violet and Lyle vow the rest of their lives to each other yesterday with such bliss on their faces, this did seem like a holy place.

  The chairs were still set out; the colored ribbons still fluttered in the breeze down the aisle and around the gazebo. He laughed to himself as he sat down in one of the chairs—this sort of stuff would have been gone in an hour if left outside overnight in San Jose. He remembered looking down from his hotel window at one outdoor wedding in Los Angeles to note with sad amusement that the chairs had been strung through with airplane cable and a padlock.

  Not here. In Matrimony Valley, no one owned a car alarm, bicycles were never locked and he couldn’t say if people even locked their front doors. More than once, he’d ducked into a business on Aisle Avenue to find the place unattended and a “Back in five minutes” note posted to the counter. The whole town felt decent and human and caring—and that, he realized, is what drew him back. Who’d have thought decent and human and caring would win out over fast, loud and exciting? Certainly not the Josh Tyler he’d been a month ago.

  A loud sound caused him to turn around, and he saw Kelly Nelson, the florist, picking up one of the large tin urns that had been set at the top of the aisle. There was a little girl with her—her daughter, he realized, having met them at the florist shop while trying to calm Violet down about the whole last-minute flower crisis.

  “Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there,” Kelly said as she set the urn upright. “I can come back later.”

  “No,” Josh said as he rose. “You’re not disturbing me. I just wanted to see the place again.” He walked toward her. Poor Kelly—she’d pulled off an amazing feat of logistics to make the flowers for this wedding happen. “You must be exhausted, but you did a great job on your first wedding. I know Vi didn’t make it easy on you.”

  Kelly undid the string that tied a bunch of ribbon to one of the chairs. “All brides are complicated.”

  “I don’t think all brides make huge last-minute flower switches on holiday weekends, though, do they?”

  “Well, if you’ve got the money for it, most problems are solvable.” She gave Josh a look as she handed the brightly colored loops to her daughter. “Sorry it cost you so much to give your sister what she wanted. I did the best I could on crazy short notice like that. I didn’t gouge you, I promise.”

  “I never thought you did. I was actually impressed you pulled it off in so short a time.” He undid the string from the bunch of ribbon on the chair nearest him, handing it to the little girl.

  “Thanks,” she said brightly. “I’m Lulu.”

  For a split second, Josh thought about all the times Jonah missed a simple exchange like this. His heart gave in to a moment’s ache for all the ways Jonah was cut off from the world. And yet, Jonah was more connected here than Josh had ever felt in San Jose. “Hi, Lulu, I’m Josh.”

  “That’s Mr. Josh to you, hon. He walked our bride down the aisle, remember?”

  Lulu smiled at the memory. “She was beautiful.”

  “She was, wasn’t she?” Violet had glowed with love and happiness. She deserved it, and he really was overjoyed for her. Despite his error, yesterday had still been the happy day it was supposed to be. But yesterday had also unlocked a craving for love and happiness for himself.

  Kelly leaned down to her daughter. “Why don’t you collect all the ribbons in a great big bouquet for me?”

  “Sure!” Lulu skipped off down the aisle on her collecting mission.

  “So,” Kelly said, facing him with a matter-of-fact expression. “You and Jean.”

  He’d kissed her in front of everyone at the reception last night—it shouldn’t surprise him that someone was going to say something to him about it. “We...um...go back.”

  “I know,” Kelly said. “I know everything, actually. About Jonah, and all.” She paused for a moment. “I realize it may be none of my business, but we all love Jean, and she’s been through a lot. No one wants to see her or Jonah hurt.”

  He hoped anyone at SymphoCync would stick up for him so fiercely, but he found he couldn’t be sure. “I don’t want to hurt either of them. I just want to be part of their lives here.”

  “Part? No offense, but I happened to be there and that kiss didn’t look like it had anything partial about it. I don’t know how they do things where you’re from, but here in the valley, if you kiss a girl like that in front of everybody, you’d better mean it.”

  “I did mean it,” he said defensively, then realized he didn’t quite know what that declaration meant. “I care a lot about her.”

  Kelly looked down the aisle to her daughter. “Lulu’s father was killed in an aviation accident. She knows he’s gone. Every day she knows it, and misses him. I’d give anything—anything—to change that, but I can’t.”

  “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying you have a choice with Jonah. He’s such an amazing kid. Jean’s a rare woman. Neither of them deserves only part. Don’t lead her on to something you can’t really give. Jonah needs a dad beside him, and Jean’s not the kind of person who can ever do things halfway. She’s poured her heart and soul into this town, and I just want to keep that heart from being broken.”

  “Wow,” Josh said, rocking back on his heels. “No sugarcoating in Matrimony Valley, is there?”

  �
�We’re straight shooters, and we take care of our own.” She smiled. “And I like you. And Jonah adores you. And Jean, well, I think it’s pretty clear how she feels about you. I know you’ve got a lot waiting for you back in California. I just want to make sure you realize how much is waiting for you here.”

  It seemed to just leap out of him, even though he barely knew the woman. “What if I end up hurting them? What if I do...what it might take to be with them and it...fails?”

  He waited for Kelly to roll her eyes at his blurted words, but she smiled gently and thought a moment before replying. “I know it sounds cheesy, but I think the only real failure to be afraid of here is the one you’d make by not trying. You’re already his dad. It’s just a question of what kind of dad you decide to be.” Her thumb strayed to her empty ring finger, reminding Josh she was a widow and that her late husband’s choice—and chance—had been stolen from him.

  Not being around to watch Jonah enter middle school, or go to prom, or go to college and fall madly in love—the thought chewed at him in ways he’d never expected. “Does it ever get less terrifying—being a parent, that is?”

  She looked at her daughter with the same mix of pride, worry and affection that often sat on Jean’s face. “Actually, I think it gets worse. I mean, teenagers. And yeah, I think it will be different—harder, maybe—with Jonah. But I’ve never met a kid more up to the challenge. Ever think he might get that from you?”

  It was true, he’d seen much of his own dogged problem-solving in Josh, his knack for pulling people into his world that was one of the key ingredients in SymphoCync’s success. Josh was challenged in unique ways, but he was also amazing in ways that were just as unique. Still... “I think he gets a lot of that from his mother.”

  She laughed softly. “That’s just as scary, isn’t it?” Looking down at the gazebo where Violet had said her vows not twenty-four hours earlier, she continued. “Jean says weddings are the ultimate act of faith and optimism. That’s why she did it, you know. Matrimony Valley.”