My Heart's Desire

by Wendy Lindstrom

  Faith understood what being a Grayson meant to Adam. He would carry a name that was respected and valued in this community. And he would belong; he would have a father who would love and guide him into manhood with all the values Adam respected and admired.

  Looking over at Steven Cuvier, the sad acceptance she saw made her heart squeeze. Her father would have been there for them if he’d had the opportunity, if Rose had been truthful. He was happy to become a father to Faith, but Adam needed and loved Duke, and considered him his father. Steven gave a solemn, kindly nod to acknowledge his understanding. “You have my blessing in this,” he said to Adam.

  Faith laid her book on the coffee table and got the ink stand and quill for Adam. Her father looked on while Adam signed a document that made him another man’s son.

  When they finished, Adam frowned at Faith. “If Duke’s my dad, what does this make you?”

  “Exactly what I’ve always been, Adam, your motherly sister.” And her son by possession. The darling little boy she’d loved and raised from birth.

  His nose wrinkled. “Does this make you my grandfather, Mr. Cuvier?”

  Warmth filled his eyes and he smiled at Adam. “I’d be honored to be your grandfather.”

  Chapter Forty-two

  Adam marveled that Faith and his aunts, with the help of Duke’s family and Anna, had made the second floor of the greenhouse into a festive hall. He’d carried up chairs and coffee tables that Faith had grouped around the edges of the room, leaving the middle of the hardwood floor open. But the best part of helping was watching Duke’s brothers and Patrick haul a piano upstairs. When they finally set it down, they were panting and sweating, and Adam was staring with awe. Someday he was going to be strong enough to lift a piano.

  “It’s so pretty in here,” Cora said, her eyes wide as she stared at the pine wreaths and ribbons and candles that decorated every wall and table.

  It looked kind of bright and girlish to Adam, but he and Cora had sure been enjoying the food table in the back. It was loaded with cookies and pies and food they had never tasted before.

  Someone touched his shoulder, and he wheeled around to see if Faith was fussing with his shirt collar again. But it was Rebecca, looking pretty in a green dress and shiny green hair ribbon.

  Her eyes were almost as sad as the day he’d told her he couldn’t see her anymore. “Are you mad at me?” she asked.

  “No,” he said, glad his voice wasn’t croaking as often. “I thought you were mad at me.”

  “I was just... I’ve missed skipping stones and walking to school with you.”

  He’d missed it too. Nicholas Archer had been coming around, but it wasn’t the same as being friends with Rebecca.

  Cora skipped across the floor to see Amelia’s new baby, leaving him alone with Rebecca.

  “Want to go raid the cookie trays together?” she asked with a smile.

  He was going to say no, that he’d eaten more than his share, but the hopeful spark in her eyes wouldn’t let him disappoint her. “If you’re allowed to be around me.”

  “I’m allowed. Daddy said we can be friends.”

  Friends. It was less than he wanted in his heart, but he’d thought he’d lost everything. “Do you want to be friends?” he asked.

  “More than anything, Adam.” She stuck out her hand with those pretty long fingers that could skip stones better than Adam sometimes. “Friends?”

  He closed his hand over hers, his heart lifting. She was worth waiting for, and someday he would marry her.

  “There you are, Adam!” Duke’s younger brother Boyd caught clapped a strong hand over Adam’s shoulder. “I hear you’re a Grayson now,” he said, clowning like he did at the sawmill.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “That’s yes, Uncle Boyd,” he said, scrubbing his knuckles on the top of Adam’s head.

  Adam laughed and elbowed him away, but it was the best night of his life. He had a dog, a dad, and Rebecca’s friendship—and a real chance of becoming the man he longed to be—a Grayson man.

  Duke watched Boyd joke with Adam and his heart flooded with warmth. He linked hands with Faith and drew her to his side.

  The joyous sound of bells filled the room and drew their attention to the front of the room. Bells in hand, Iris stood with Patrick beside the huge pine tree that Tansy, Claire, and Anna had strung with red and gold ribbons. “Welcome to our first annual family soiree,” she said, giving the bells a jolly shake that made everyone clap.

  Iris winked at Duke. “This year we have much to be thankful for. I’ll start listing our blessings by giving thanks for each one of you with your loving, forgiving, accepting hearts that have allowed me and my family to find a real home.”

  Duke lifted his glass of ale. “Here’s to you, Iris, and your…loving family, who has taught me not to take what I have for granted.” A loud cheer shook the rafters then everyone fell quiet, waiting for him to go on, but he was so choked by emotion he could barely speak through the gratitude and love filling him. He moved his glass in an arc to encompass and salute his friends, his brothers and mother, his wife and children, and the Wilde women he’d come to love. “To each of you, for being too stubborn and noisy to let me die in peace.”

  His comment made them laugh, and one by one each person in the room added to the long list of their blessings. Rebecca said she was thankful to have a mother and father who loved her.

  “I’m thankful to be a Grayson,” Adam said, casting a half-grin at Duke that made his chest tighten with pride. “And to have a bunch of uncles who are as crazy as my aunts.”

  “Crazy?” Boyd lunged at Adam, and the boy danced away with a laugh.

  “I got a pony!” Cora shouted.

  When the laughter died down, Duke’s brothers joked that he would have to carry the piano downstairs by himself when he healed, and teased him about taking so long to get back to work at the mill, but they all gave thanks that he had survived his injury.

  “Amen.” His mother raised her glass. “I’m eternally grateful to Faith and Doc Milton and this big, boisterous family for nursing my son back to health.”

  Faith’s arms slipped around Duke’s waist, and she smiled at him. “I miss you,” she whispered. Her smile faded and tears glistened in her eyes. “I love you, Duke. I’m so grateful for you and for what we share. I feel so much love and...darling, there just aren’t words—” She broke off and pressed her lips to his jaw. He drew her close, agreeing that what they were feeling was too big, too deep, and too powerful for words.

  Boyd whistled to get everyone’s attention. “Faith has requested a song this evening.” He swept Claire into his arms and danced her across the floor to the piano. They sat and began playing “Kissing in the Dark.”

  The rich sound of the piano filled the room and Duke gathered his wife in his arms and kissed her in front of everyone. “I love you,” he whispered. He would kiss her in the light of day and in the dark of night and every chance he got.

  He opened the dance floor right where they were standing, holding his wife in his arms, sharing their deep and true love. He savored the moment and the blessing of having this big, loving family gathered around him.

  The dance floor filled, and Patrick and Iris twirled past, their eyes sparking with laughter and fixed on each other’s face. “She’ll marry him,” Duke said, resting his hand against the curve of Faith’s waist.

  “I hope so.” She looked at Iris and sighed. “But you don’t know my aunt like I do. She’s stubborn and independent and terrified of giving her heart to a man.”

  “Well, I know Patrick, and my money is on him. He won’t quit until Iris speaks her wedding vows with him.”

  “Good.” Faith smiled. “She needs a strong man who isn’t afraid of a challenge.”

  “Then Patrick is her man.”

  “And you’re mine,” she said, drawing him closer.

  He felt the unmistakable tug of Cora’s small hand on his suit- coat. She looked up with bright eyes a
nd a chocolate-smudged cheek that wrung his heart. “Will you dance with me, Daddy?”

  He wanted to, but he couldn’t hold her in his arms yet. Faith reached down and lifted Cora onto her hip. “We’ll both dance with Daddy,” she said, and Duke gladly, joyfully drew his girls into his arms.

  Chapter Forty-three

  After a long night of celebration and putting the children to bed, Faith and Duke relaxed in the parlor

  “I have something for you,” he said, pulling an item from his coat pocket.

  To her surprise, he placed her mother’s silver-handled hair brush in her hand. Her breath sighed out and she held the brush in her palms. “You found it!”

  “I’d forgotten about it until I put my coat on tonight.”

  “Oh, Duke, this is... it reminds me of the times Mama brushed my hair.” She stroked her fingers over the painted roses on the porcelain back, remembering those brief but warm moments with her mother. “She loved me.” The truth flowed into her heart, washing away the ache, leaving behind peace and love and forgiveness. “I was loved,” she whispered.

  “You were. And you are.”

  She drew the brush through her hair, feeling the delicious tug against her scalp and hearing the raspy sound of the bristles slipping through her hair. Her mother had loved her.

  “I’ll brush your hair if you like,” Duke offered.

  She raised her eyes to her husband, touched by his tender consideration, but she shook her head. She didn’t need her hair brushed anymore; she needed to be in her husband’s arms. She laid the brush on the table, at peace. “All I need is your love.”

  “You own my heart,” he said, his voice filled with sincerity and conviction.

  “Even after all I’ve cost you?”

  “You’ve brought me riches I never dreamed of.”

  “Would you have chosen me if you’d known the truth?”

  “The only truth that matters is that I met and fell in love with a brave, compassionate and loyal woman, and I chose with my head and my heart when I asked you to marry me.”

  She cradled his firm jaw in her palms. “I could have been a wealthy princess with a kingdom of men to choose from, and I would have chosen you as the love of my life. Duke, you will always be my friend, my love, and the man of my dreams.”

  A sense of homecoming filled Duke, and he kissed his wife. Love was no longer a mystery out of reach or beyond his wildest dream. Faith was love. She brought companionship and meaning to his life. All the struggles and sacrifices and lessons were worthwhile. Their future together would be a journey filled with family, laughter, and love. Giving his heart to Faith had changed him, altered his too-rigid way of seeing the world, and had taught him what it means to love, to be a husband, a father, and a better man—a complete man.

  And their journey together was just beginning.

  The End

  Dear Reader,

  Thanks so much for taking the time to read My Heart’s Desire. I am deeply grateful for your support. If you enjoyed this story of undying love, and consider it a 5-star keeper, will you please consider helping other readers find my books by writing a review? Your review will help me, too! And if you would like to find out when my next book is available, sign up for my newsletter. I often write about my little Rustic Studio and the magnificent — and somewhat crazy — wildlife that resides in this beautiful little glade that reminds me so much of the Grayson world. I share a lot of other fun information in my newsletter as well (like the fact that I’m working toward my black belt and that I recently got my motorcycle license and that I’m in love with tiny houses). So please sign up and join the conversation!

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  Again, my sincere thanks, and I hope you will read and enjoy the rest of my books about the Grayson family.

  Peace and warmest wishes,

  Wendy

  Turn the page for a preview of Second Chance Brides Series Book Five

  A Christmas Promise

  Two Young Sweethearts Discover The True Meaning Of Love

  When Adam Grayson and his sweetheart Rebecca discover two orphans hiding in his sister’s greenhouse, they promise to help the boys find a warm, loving home. Adam never suspects that home might be his own. Being an only son is not a position he wants to give up, but in trying to protect his place as an only son, will Adam lose what he wants most—to win Rebecca’s heart and become a man of integrity like his father and uncles?

  Chapter One

  A Christmas Promise is the SWEET edition of

  Sleigh of Hope (Grayson Brothers series)

  Fredonia, New York

  December 1880

  After the annual family Christmas meeting, Adam and Rebecca bolted across the street to his sister’s greenhouse. Laughing, they stopped at the door and gazed at each other as snow fell around them.

  Fluffy flakes of snow speckled Rebecca’s dark hair and gray wool coat. “What do you want for Christmas?” she asked, the warmth in her brown eyes melting him.

  He shrugged. “Which family will receive your basket of delicious cookies for Christmas?” he asked, tugging the end of her pretty blue scarf.

  She laughed and danced away. “Probably the Cavneys.”

  The Grayson family gave to the community year round, but it was a family tradition to help a local family at Christmas. This year they would donate lumber and labor to repair the Cavneys’ home that had been partially burned from a cook stove fire the day before. The Grayson ladies would bring food and keep everyone fed during the restoration.

  A wave of excitement rolled through Adam. He had worked the family sawmill for a year and knew a lot about lumber and building materials. He was also becoming a good carpenter, thanks to his new dad, Duke Grayson. With a saw or hammer in his hand he would help repair the Cavneys’ home and be a smart, industrious Grayson man just like his dad and uncles. This year he was even making gifts for his family.

  “Want to see the bootjack I’m making for my dad?” he asked, remembering how he had nothing to give last year when he celebrated his first Christmas with the Grayson family. He had come to Fredonia with his sister Faith and their aunts seven months before that seeking a safe new life. Faith had opened a greenhouse in Colburn’s old grist mill, and married Duke Grayson two months later.

  “Sure, if it won’t take long. My father will be back shortly to walk me home.”

  “We’ll hurry.” He reached for the door latch eager to show her his handiwork, but the door was ajar. Someone was inside.

  Everyone at their family meeting had headed to their own homes afterward to escape the frigid, snowy evening. Rebecca’s father had gone to the harness shop in town. Whoever was inside was not family.

  Adam laid his fingers across his lips and warned her to be silent. “Wait here,” he whispered.

  Easing the door open, he slipped quietly into the greenhouse and ducked behind a tall cluster of lemongrass.

  His sister’s business was closed now, so whoever was trespassing could only mean trouble. He’d had more than his share of trouble in his life and he couldn’t allow anyone, including himself, to mess up his new, perfect family. Not now when he finally had Duke Grayson as a father.

  Snow pelted the huge greenhouse windows as he peered through the thin, fragrant reeds. His new dad would not want him to do something stupid like surprise whoever was rummaging in the parsley flat a few feet away. But the Sneak would be here and gone by the time Adam could get help. So
he would handle this like the Grayson man he was trying to become. He would act with courage and protect those he loved. He would be fair but firm with the Sneak on his sister’s property. And he wouldn’t brag one word about his actions to anybody no matter how well he handled the situation. Secretly, though, he hoped Rebecca might spy in the window and watch him catch the bad guy.

  The hope of becoming a man like his dad and uncles straightened his spine and filled him with confidence. In one bold stride he stepped from behind the lemongrass and confronted the trespasser.

  A round-cheeked baby with his fingers stuck in his mouth stared up at him with curious blue eyes. Drool dangled from his fist onto his dirty, bare feet. A ragged blanket lay on the floor beside the baby.

  “Whoa!” Adam back-pedaled two steps and scanned the greenhouse to see if the boy’s mother or father was with him. He saw no one.

  The baby wobbled as if he might tip off his feet at any minute.

  “How did you get in here?” Adam asked, wondering why the baby had no shoes or at least a warmer blanket. It was freezing outside.

  The baby pulled his fingers from his mouth. “Gah!” He slapped his wet hand against the side of the pine cart. “Gah... da-dee-da-da.”

  “Oh boy...” Adam’s heart lurched and he knew without being told that this baby had been purposely left here for his sister Faith or one of their aunts to find. For a parent to abandon their baby was a desperate act, but it happened, right here in his own town sometimes. Faith and Duke would want to help, but they already had him and Cora, and they would probably start having more children soon. Would they want another baby?

  The boy’s head of dark hair bobbed as he whacked the wooden flat. “Da-dee-da-da.”