“I am,” she admitted. “I’ve missed every bit of you, even your scent.”
“Will you please come back to Bluebonnet?” he asked with a voice that shook.
She was glad he wasn’t altogether calm. She wanted to know that she wasn’t in this alone.
“I told you, I was on my way there. I have a long weekend.”
“I don’t want you in Bluebonnet for a weekend. I want you there for good. In my life.”
“O-o-h-hh,” she said, drawing out the word.
He stepped back, returning the flowers to her hands. “Don’t make me have to read poetry.”
“Never,” she promised.
“I’m not good at this. I’m not a man who ever thought he’d find someone he wanted to spend his life with. But I’d chase after you, Marissa. I’d do my best to never disappoint you.”
“I’m coming back to Bluebonnet,” she told him. “I’m taking a job at the local school. I’m also going to date a cowboy.”
“Really? A cowboy?” He grinned, then lifted her off her feet and spun her around. “You are talking about me, right?”
When he set her back on her feet, she kissed him. “Yes, you’re the only cowboy in my life.”
“I plan on keeping it that way,” he promised.
He followed her back to Bluebonnet Springs and as she drove into town it felt like a homecoming in more ways than one. The man she loved was behind her and their future was ahead of them.
Epilogue
It seemed fitting that Alex and Marissa would wait a year and have a Christmas wedding in Bluebonnet Springs. Marissa stood in the fellowship hall of the church as her mom made the last adjustments to her hair and veil.
“You look beautiful,” her mom told her as she kissed Marissa on the cheek. “You were right, this dress is perfect.”
Marissa looked in the mirror, pleased with what she saw. She kept her hair shoulder-length now but it had been pinned up with tendrils curling loosely around her face. The veil hung just to her neck. The dress was slim-fitting white velvet and with few adornments.
“Mom, thank you. For loving me. And for being here today.”
“I think I’m more here than I’ve been in a very long time,” Mary told her daughter. “I’m sorry that it took so long.”
Marissa hugged her mom. “No regrets. Let’s just live the best life we can from this day forward.”
“Yes, from this day forward.” Her mom dabbed at her eyes. “From this day forward you will be Marissa Palermo. No longer my little girl, but a wife. And someday a mother.”
“Stop. You’ll make me cry.”
“That’ll make three of us,” Maria said as she sashayed close in her dark red velvet bridesmaid’s dress. “Your dad is at the door. It’s almost time. Lucy is ready, too.”
Her bridesmaid and her matron of honor. It was a simple wedding and Marissa couldn’t have been happier. She kissed her mother’s cheek one last time before she left to go find her seat in the church. And then Marissa walked out the door and took hold of her father’s arm.
They walked around the building to the front of the church. Christmas lights twinkled in the shrubs on either side of the door. From inside she could hear Bea singing a song about forever. Marissa’s dad patted her arm and then he led her up the steps and through the doors. She watched as her bridesmaids and groomsmen made their way down the aisle. And then her flower girl, Dane and Lucy’s daughter, Lily, followed. She tossed flower petals in the air with gleeful giggles that Marissa had informed everyone was perfect. The child couldn’t see, but she knew the number of steps to the front of the church and then Lucy would be there to guide her.
Bea’s song ended. She laughed and said that she was so happy that Alex had been so neighborly to her friend Marissa, because now they were going to be a husband and wife. And wasn’t that just the cat’s meow. Soft laughter rippled through the congregation.
The wedding march began and Marissa’s dad walked her down the aisle to the man of her dreams. A man she might have missed out on if her last groom hadn’t left her for the caterer.
She knew that sometimes things happened for the very best reasons. The man standing at the front of this church was God’s plan for her life.
Alex was her forever groom. And she was his Christmas bride.
* * * * *
If you loved this story,
pick up the first book in the miniseries,
SECOND CHANCE RANCHER,
from bestselling author Brenda Minton
And be sure to check out these other great books:
HER RANCHER BODYGUARD
THE RANCHER’S FIRST LOVE
THE RANCHER’S SECOND CHANCE
THE RANCHER TAKES A BRIDE
A RANCHER FOR CHRISTMAS
Available now from Love Inspired!
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Keep reading for an excerpt from THE CHRISTMAS BABY by Lisa Carter.
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Dear Reader,
I really wasn’t sure what would happen to Alex Palermo when he found a bride on the side of the road. Who finds a bride? A person might find a puppy or a kitten, or maybe a stranded traveler, but never a bride. And when one finds a bride, what does one do with her? In Alex Palermo’s case, stay as far away as possible. Unfortunately, circumstances made avoiding the pretty bride a difficult thing to do. In the case of Alex and Marissa, the lesson of “when God closes one door, another opens up” suddenly makes sense. When we think everything is falling apart, sometimes the plan is actually coming together for good.
Brenda
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The Christmas Baby
by Lisa Carter
Chapter One
His footsteps echoing, Ryan Savage walked the first grader from the cafeteria toward the media center. The dismissal bell had released the rest of the students to buses and to car pool thirty minutes ago.
Oscar’s hand slipped into Ryan’s. “Mister Sabbage?” The child barely spoke above a whisper.
Biting back a smile, Ryan paused in the school corridor. “What is it, Oscar? Are you still hungry?”
Eligible students enrolled in the after-school tutoring program received a healthy snack. For some of them, it was the only food they’d receive until returning to school the next morning for a nutritious breakfast.
Small for his age, the little boy shook his head. “I jus’ wonnered if the new teacher in our group was as nice as Miz Thompson. I’m gon
na miss her.”
There was something endearing about the child, which tugged at Ryan’s heart. “Perhaps Mrs. Thompson will return to school after she has her baby. But I think you’ll like the teacher who is taking her place.”
“What’s her name?”
“Mrs. Reyes is an old friend of mine.” Ryan smiled. “In fact, we became best friends when we were in first grade like you.”
This was Anna’s first day of teaching at the small elementary school outside Kiptohanock, Virginia, where they’d grown up. He was looking forward to seeing her again, but an unexpected nervousness opened in the pit of his stomach. Which was ridiculous. He wasn’t the gangly teenager who once had feelings for Anna Pruitt.
Oscar’s eyes widened. “You were in first grade like me?”
Ryan rolled his tongue in his cheek. “Hard to believe, I know. But true.”
Oscar shook his head as if he wasn’t quite sure he should believe Ryan. “Is she pwetty?”
Ryan pushed his glasses farther along the bridge of his nose. “I think so. You’ll have to tell me what you think.”
Oscar nodded. “We better go see.”
Anna was probably already inside the media center waiting with the other two students who would make up their group in the after-school enrichment program.
Pressing through the doors, Ryan steered Oscar past other clumps of students and supervising adults. The intervention teams were composed of teachers, professional counselors and trained community volunteers.
Due to a poor attendance record, Oscar was falling behind his classmates. His classroom teacher also reported that when Oscar managed to get to school, he often fell asleep. A six-year-old shouldn’t be so tired. Ryan needed to make a home visit to talk with Oscar’s mother.
Weaving past the computer lab and waist-high bookcases, Ryan waved to other kids he’d come to know during his short career as a fifth-grade teacher. Students entered the program due to behavioral issues and low academic performance in math or language. The goal was to help kids rise above difficult home circumstances and acquire the academic and lifestyle skills to achieve success far beyond their current situations.
Sighting Anna’s dark hair at one of the tables, he herded Oscar forward. But the knot of apprehension in Ryan’s gut tightened.
Until they went off-Shore to college and lost touch, they’d been best friends. While he’d pursued a research career, she eventually married someone else. A marine.
Now as a young military widow, Anna had just returned home. Hired by the school board to finish the term for a kindergarten teacher on maternity leave till after Christmas. And only this week, Principal Carden asked Ryan to head an additional support team for three newly identified at-risk kids.
On this late November afternoon, the light spilled milky sunshine through the blinds on the window and across the table where Anna and a little girl hunkered over a picture book.
Ryan stopped short, his hand on Oscar’s shoulder. His heart was in his throat—which as a scientist he knew to be an anatomical impossibility and yet at this moment it was proven true.
Anna’s long hair lay gathered across one shoulder, secured by a clip. Beneath the quilted, white vest, she wore a red-and-black-striped flannel plaid shirt. Red—like Christmas, he remembered—was her favorite.
Her finger skimmed underneath the line of words on the printed page. Her voice as soft and melodious as ever, as she occasionally prompted the little girl reading aloud.
But he couldn’t catch a glimpse of Anna’s dark brown eyes. His pulse ratcheted. When she glanced up, would she be pleased or indifferent to see him?
Oscar surged toward the cluster of chairs around the table. And when her eyes fastened onto Ryan, Anna gave a soft gasp.
Ryan held himself motionless. “Hello, Anna.”
The corners of her mouth curved. And a light appeared in those melted chocolate eyes of hers. Warming at the sight of him. “Ryan.”
Oscar’s blue eyes darted from Ryan to Anna. “I thought his name was Mister Sabbage.”
She laughed. Like the sound of tinkling wind chimes on a gentle ocean breeze.
“It is Mr. Savage, Oscar.” He ruffled the hair on top of the little boy’s head, and Oscar smiled. A cautious smile. As if unused to affection. Or trust. Ryan could relate.
Oscar plopped into a chair. “You’re right, Mister Sabbage. She is very pwetty.”
She blushed.
“Thank you, Oscar.” She extended her hand across the table. “I’m Mrs. Reyes. And I am so happy to meet you. I hope we’ll have fun together after school.”
Oscar gave her fingers a quick squeeze. Then laying his head on the table, he closed his eyes.
Ryan pulled out a chair across from Anna. He recognized the little girl, Maria Guzman. Overweight compared to her second-grade peers, she could speak and understand English according to her file, but her reading ability was below grade level.
Sixty-something Agnes Parks headed their way with the third student in tow, Zander Benoit. Mrs. Parks was the wife of Ryan’s pastor. Their daughter, Darcy, had once been Anna’s best girl friend in high school.
Throwing himself into one of the empty seats, third grader Zander held himself taut. But his black eyes never stopped moving, assessing the other children, the room and Ryan, too. He wasn’t sure why, but Zander reminded Ryan of his brother, Ethan, who’d just returned home from the army.
When the child’s gaze landed on the red Exit sign, Ryan understood the connection between his combat veteran brother and the third grader. Zander was formulating an exit strategy. Calculating the distance between the table and the door. The way Ryan was planning his own exit strategy after Christmas.
“What’s with the candy canes, man?”
Ryan’s attention snapped to Zander. A diversionary tactic? As if he sensed Ryan getting too close. Zander deserved a home visit, too.
Oscar’s eyes opened, and he lifted his head. Maria glanced around the media center walls, decorated with candy cane cutouts. The week after Thanksgiving, a few industrious colleagues had begun the holiday countdown to winter break.
Zander jutted his jaw. “Do we get candy after this boring school thing is done?” Behavioral issues had landed Zander in the program.
Ryan leaned back in his chair. “No candy. But—” he made sure he had everyone’s attention “—if each of you complete your weekly goals, we have a big reward planned for the group before winter break.”
Oscar’s face lit. “We get Chwistmas?”
“Don’t be stupid,” Zander responded before Ryan could. “Christmas isn’t real.”
Oscar’s face fell.
Maria stuck out her chin. “Estupido is a bad word. Isn’t it, Mrs. Reyes?”
Anna laid her palms on the tabletop. “We don’t say stupid, Zander.”
“Whatever.” Zander thrust out his chest. “But Christmas is for babies.”
Ryan shook his head. “That’s not true, Zander. Christmas is for everyone.”
He threw Anna an apologetic look. They hadn’t had time to confer. “Mrs. Parks and I were thinking about a field trip next week to the tree lighting in the Kiptohanock town square.”
Agnes Parks smiled. “With milkshakes and dinner beforehand. On us.”
“Milkshakes?” Zander’s dark eyes took on a gleam of interest.
Agnes nudged a math workbook toward him. “And the countdown to everyone reaching their goals begins right now.”
Ryan had his own private countdown. After Christmas, he was returning to the pharmaceutical position he’d abandoned to come home and help his family when his father died.
Yet surprisingly, Ryan had enjoyed the last three years as a fifth-grade teacher. A job far different from the technical work for which he’d trained. And even more of a surprise, he’d
relished the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of at-risk kids like Maria, Oscar and Zander. Although with a tough kid like Zander, how much a difference he made remained to be seen.
Zander’s eyes slitted. “You mean them two—” his index finger jabbed the air “—got to meet their goals for me to get a chocolate milkshake?”
Mrs. Parks—whose team specialty included character building and cooperative learning—rested her slightly plump chin in her hand. “Exactly what we discussed earlier, Zander. We’re here to help each other succeed.”
Necessary in most endeavors, academic or otherwise. Crucial in life—as Ryan discovered when he and his siblings rallied to save the family business.
Mrs. Parks patted Zander’s hand. “Zander is fabulous on the computer. He has a lot he can teach us.”
Zander muttered under his breath. “How fun.”
Ignoring him, Anna laid the picture book on the table. “Let’s get started, shall we?”
Ryan’s pulse accelerated. And although he understood she was speaking to the children, her smile was for him.
* * *
Anna Pruitt Reyes inhaled the familiar and comforting scents of the elementary school media center. The musty smell of books. The faint leftover aroma of coffee from the teachers’ lounge.
It felt good to teach again. And after fourteen years, good to be home on the Eastern Shore, the narrow peninsula bordered by the Chesapeake Bay on the west and the Atlantic on the east.
Sweet, shy Maria headed off with Mrs. Parks to the computer lab. Zander feigned disinterest while Ryan attempted to show him how to subtract fractions.
Prodded awake, Oscar came over to Anna’s side of the table. And a tender spot grew in her heart for the little guy in clean but ill-fitting blue jeans. Zander’s ragged jacket was totally inadequate for the coming winter months. But though her clothes were from a discount store, Maria appeared cared for.
In her previous teaching post in Texas, Anna had enjoyed her after-school work with at-risk students. And now more than ever, she needed the salary supplement.
The Rancher's Christmas Bride Page 19
