by Jillian Hart
“Uh-oh,” he whispered in her ear. “They spotted you.”
“Mommeeeee!” Madison raced to the door, stretched up on tiptoe to reach the handle and shove it open. Her bare feet pitter-pattered on the tile floor. Water sluiced off her little pink T-shirt and yellow flowered walking shorts as she came barreling straight at Danielle, arms out. “I runned and I won!”
“You did?” Danielle knelt down, delighting in the soggy hug. She gave her dripping daughter a kiss on the cheek.
“Yip! I’ll shew you!” Off she went, feet slapping. “Come see! I can go fast!”
“I’m watching,” Danielle called out as the door swept open and the little girl took off through the lush green grass, running straight toward the sprinkler.
Jonas’s hand remained a gentle presence on her shoulder. He leaned closer, his jaw brushing against her hair. “Was it always like this?”
“Yes. Things are getting back to normal.”
“I can see why we had date nights. I had a tough time getting you alone.”
There was a smile in his voice, a smile that made hope leap into her heart. Before she could respond, a loud thunk, thunk, thunk rose from the staircase.
Dad called out, “Jonas. Uh…any chance you can come help out?”
“Be right there.” He withdrew his hand and moved away from her.
Danielle watched him walk away, her husband, her world. Her heart was full of love for him. It should be enough, but she couldn’t seem to stop hoping that her love would be returned.
Noises from the kitchen behind her reminded her that she was not alone. That the door to the backyard stood open and children’s laughter rose sweetly with the breeze.
Mom came close to rifle through one of the grocery bags Jonas had put on the counter for her. “Are you okay, baby?”
Love. She had so much of it. How could she rightfully pine for the one love she didn’t have? She turned to her mom, who watched her with concern. “I’m fine. I can make the spaghetti sauce if you want to go check on the men. Something tells me they need a woman’s advice.”
Another thump, thump came from upstairs.
“You’re right. I’d best keep my eye on them. You’re sure that you’re all right? Being in the hospital today had to make you remember when Jonas was in there. We all remembered, honey.”
Danielle’s throat felt thick. “That is all behind us. We’re here for Katherine now. She’s going to get all the tender loving care she can stand.”
“Exactly.” Mom skirted the corner of the counter. “I’d best get up there before some disaster happens. Oh, look at Madison. She left the door open.”
“I’ll close it, Mom. Go rescue the men.” Danielle went to close the door, and sure enough, Madison screeched to a halt in the wet grass.
“Mommeeeee! Look at me!” She took off in a run, little legs churning and feet flying.
A loud thump sounded directly over her head. She heard a flurry of voices, muffled by the ceiling, and Jonas’s calm baritone, rumbling in reassurance.
Her love for Jonas crashed through her like an ocean wave. It swept away her doubts and her fears for the moment, leaving everything in her heart fresh and whole and without limits.
The drive home was not a quiet one. Danielle spent most of her time trying to quiet Madison, who’d missed her afternoon nap and felt it, poor baby. No amount of comfort would soothe away the little girl’s upset over being strapped into her car seat. Tyler was revved up, talking a mile a minute over the top of her sobs of rage. Jonas seemed exhausted, although it did not show in his driving, which he insisted on doing, as the man of the house.
Exhaustion hung heavily on her, too. She’d grocery shopped with mom, cooked lunch for the crowd and helped her mom bake three low-sodium casseroles for the rest of the week. They’d chopped fresh veggies and bagged them for snacks. They’d washed the kitchen, did every dish, made the bed in the living room and set up as many conveniences as they could for Katherine.
The only saving grace was in knowing that she was home safe and sound, feeling better, and that her sudden onset of mild preeclampsia was being medicated and monitored.
“She’s going to be all right,” Jonas reassured her as he pulled onto their street. “Jack’s protective. If he didn’t think she should have left the hospital, she wouldn’t have.”
“I believe it.” Jack was nearly as impressive as Jonas, but then Danielle had to admit she carried a huge bias. No man was better than her husband. No man. “You did so much for my family today.”
“For our family.” He kept his attention on the road and spoke evenly over Madison’s “Noooooo! Hate the buckle!” and Tyler’s advice to his sister not to sweat it, you gotta wear a seat belt. “I see how it was when I was hurt. They’re there for us. We’re there for them. It’s what you do for people you love.”
His words struck her. It’s what you do for people you love. He used to say that all the time. It was a phrase she hadn’t heard since his injury.
Did that mean he was starting to remember? To come back to himself? She was too tired to filter her emotions and tears filled her eyes. It took all her strength to blink them away.
An electronic tune rang out, hard to hear with all the noise from the backseat, and she fished her cell phone from her purse. It was a long-distance number she didn’t recognize. “Hello?”
“Danielle? It’s me.” Aubrey’s voice sounded worried. “I just talked with Mom, and I’m really unhappy with you all right now. Someone should have told me about Katherine earlier than this. William’s rearranging our flights.”
“That’s why we didn’t call you.” Danielle loved her sister for her caring heart. “We knew you would be on the next available flight home, and Katherine and the baby are going to be fine.”
“She’s not fine. They put her in the hospital.”
“As a precaution. She had a sudden rise in blood pressure, but she’s all right now.”
“She’s on bed rest. That’s not all right. I should be there to help her.”
“You should be with your husband on your honeymoon. Kath has the rest of us at her beck and call.”
“But will she—” Aubrey paused, as if what she had to say would be too painful. “Will she lose the baby?”
“Not if she takes care of herself. That’s what we’re all making sure of. It’s a minor complication, is all. At least at this point.” Danielle understood her sister’s worries. She had them, too. “Promise me you’ll finish out your stay. Call Katherine if you have to. I’m sure that’s what she will want.”
“I don’t want to trouble her—”
“She’d love to talk with you. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch Mom and Rebecca. They were still there when we left. I think Rebecca was doing all the laundry, and Mom was scrubbing bathrooms.”
“Not that Katherine’s house needed that, as it’s always spotless, but that’s Mom for you.” Aubrey sighed, love clear in her voice. “All right. I’ll call Katherine and make sure. But if we stay, then I want your word, Dani. You have to call if there’s any change. I mean it.”
“I promise.”
“Good. And I’ll call anyway just to check.”
Danielle saw Jonas glance at her as he stopped in the driveway, and she hit the garage door remote clipped to the visor in front of her. “You enjoy Fiji, and bring back lots of pictures.”
“Okay. Give Jonas and the kids my love.”
Danielle said goodbye and hung up to find Jonas still watching her. “Aubrey has a hard time being so far away from us.”
“I can understand that.” It was too dark to see much of his expression, but his baritone rumbled pleasantly. “She’s the twin that got married, right?”
“Right.”
“See? I’m getting this. I’ll be back to normal soon.”
She remembered what he’d said on their first reenacted date, standing on the bridge. I’m disabled. That’s what they call me now and it makes you sad. You need a whole man. A strong
husband.
Her dear, sweet Jonas. “Normal? We were never normal, handsome.”
“Are you saying we were abnormal?”
His joke made both of them smile.
“We were blessed. We still are blessed.” She dropped the cell phone back into her purse, looking down into the shadows, hiding her face, hiding the breadth of her love for him.
“I’m not doubting that, Danielle. I can see how God has blessed me. But you—” He took a breath, as if gathering up his courage and the right words. “I’m fighting for you. You’re going to get back the man you married.”
Her chin came up and she forgot to protect her heart. “Oh, Jonas, trust me. I love you just the way you are.” Even if you do not love me. She bit back those words, keeping them inside, already hearing the silence settle between them.
Without a word, Jonas eased the minivan into the garage, and the moment between them had been shattered. She’d spoken her feelings too soon, shocking him, probably making him feel pressure to feel what he did not.
He shut off the engine, and to the sound of Tyler tumbling out of his car seat and Madison’s sniffles, he turned to her. “I don’t remember how much I loved you, Dani, but I want to.”
He pressed a kiss to her cheek, chaste and promising, her answered prayer.
Chapter Eleven
Danielle faced another day, as she always did, both remembering those quiet mornings before the kids were born when she’d had time for prayer, devotional reading and reflection over her morning cup of coffee—and being grateful for the constant noise, motion and refereeing.
“Madison, don’t you climb up on the dresser.” Danielle blew the shank of hair out of her eyes and opened the closet door. “You are troubles, bubbles.”
“But I’m a hummingbird, Mommy. Hayden said I was fast just like one.” She stuck out her arms and hummed.
And didn’t move a muscle from the opened dresser drawer, second from the bottom, where she had one foot in, one foot out. How long that was going to hold, was anyone’s guess.
“Hummingbirds don’t climb on dressers.” Danielle knowing full well what her daughter was up to, snagged her around the waist and snuggled her close. “I think you need to be punished.”
“No, Mommy! No!” Madison giggled with anticipation.
“Sorry, but you’re in big trouble now.” Laughing, too, she kissed her baby’s plump cheek with a smacking kiss.
“No-ooo!” Madison screeched in delight.
“One kiss.” Danielle smooched the other cheek. “Two kisses.”
“Mom-meeeee!” Madison giggled uncontrollably.
“Three kisses.” The tip of the nose. The middle of her forehead. “Four kisses, and you know what that means.”
“No tummy tickle!” The little girl squealed with glee, wiggling.
Danielle gave only the lightest of tickles, warm with happiness to the tips of her toes as her daughter wiggled and laughed.
“All right, what’s going on in here?” Jonas filled the doorway, dressed in his running shoes and sweats, ready for his early-morning physical therapy appointment.
“Daddy! Mommy’s kissin’ me.”
“Is that right? I’m afraid I can’t let this go on.” He came into the room, moving quickly with his cane, grinning ear to ear. “Not without me.”
“No! Daddy! No-ooo—” Madison’s protest dissolved into more happy squeals as Jonas gave her a loud smacking kiss on her cheek.
Why did he have to be so wonderful? Danielle felt her heart take a long slow glide, falling again, for this man. Love she could not stop. Love that had no beginning or end. Love that made her see Jonas from the past, taking precious time with his daughter. Love that made her see this new Jonas, enamored with their little girl.
Love wasn’t a sum of every past moment of shared history. She hadn’t realized that before, because she had always thought that it was their devotion to one another, day by day, that built upon itself to make their marriage a strong one.
But as Madison wrapped her arms around her father and laughed when he blew a raspberry against her throat, making her howl and squirm with delight, Danielle knew he didn’t remember the morning Madison came into the world, all pink and fresh and new. He didn’t remember how he’d been the one who could make her stop crying. That he was the one she called for when she was scared.
But being unable to remember hadn’t diminished his love for his child.
“Hey!” Tyler tromped into the room and wrapped his arms around his dad’s knees. “Do you know what? Today’s the perfect day for getting something.”
A dog. Danielle ruffled her fingers through Tyler’s hair and gave Jonas a warning look. “Don’t even think it.”
His eyes glimmered at her. “I don’t know. It could be a good day for getting something.”
“Jonas—” Oh, she could see how this was. “You two are teaming up against me.”
Tyler gasped. “So, can we do it? Can we get a dog?”
“I wanna dog!” Madison added, never to be left out of a conversation.
Danielle sighed. A dog. She had her hands more than full as it was, and yet one look at Tyler’s wide, pleading eyes—oh, he knew how to work her—and then at Jonas’s quieter, more serious request, all the reasons why now wasn’t the right time faded into none at all.
“All right.” She said those fateful words, hardly getting the last one out before Tyler shouted in triumph and Jonas gave her a loud smacking kiss on the cheek, just as he’d done to Madison. It made the kids laugh, but there was something else, just beneath the surface, that lurked like shadows in Jonas’s eyes.
This was important to him and Lord help her, she’d never been able to say no to the man. The man she now loved more, impossibly more, for how hard he had fought to come back to her.
Their past no longer mattered. Love was so much more than where they had been or where they were going.
It was where they were. Together.
Danielle had never imagined the heartbreak in the eyes of the rows and rows of kennels at the local shelter. Big dogs, little dogs, in-between dogs, all with big soulful eyes. From the moment the kids stepped foot in the aisle, nearly all the dogs raced to the front of their cages, offering friendly pants to excited yips to “look at me!” barks.
Jonas’s hand settled on her shoulder. “How are we ever going to pick?”
“I don’t know. It means saying no to all but one of them.” She knew next to nothing about dogs, but she liked them well enough. Grandpop, when he’d been alive, always had a dog. There certainly seemed to be so many nice ones, like the big yellow dog pressed against the metal cage, trying to get his tongue on Madison’s head.
“Stay with me, sweetie.” She held on to her daughter’s little hand firmly. “We don’t want to startle any of the dogs.”
“They love me, Mom.” Madison pulled hard, trying to get free. “Look at the curly one!”
A white curly-haired dog panted, as if trying to make friends.
“Look at the chocolate one!”
In the kennel next door, a brown dog danced happily, trying to steal the attention.
“Mom!” A few steps ahead, Tyler stood in the middle of the aisle, contemplating all his options. “Mom! That’s the one!”
His loudness seemed an invitation for all the dogs to make more noise. And as the barks echoed and a caretaker ordered them to hush, Tyler went down on his knees in front of a center cage, with his hand out. A white nose pressed against his palm and licked happily.
“He’s polka-dotted!” Madison gave a mighty yank, and her sticky fingers slid out of Danielle’s grip and raced over to her big brother.
“Mom!” Tyler was pink with delight. “This is him. It’s Lucky!”
A long list of why this might not be the dog rolled into her head and onto the tip of her tongue, but Jonas’s grip on her shoulder tightened just a touch.
“Let me,” he said in that resolute way of his, limping over to the children and the do
g who was doing his best to win everyone’s affections.
Jonas had been raised with dogs, so she trusted him to know if this was a thoroughly gentle creature. He knelt down with some difficulty and began rubbing what he could of the dog’s head through the metal barrier. “Aw, you’re just a good guy, aren’t you?”
The dog, pure white sprinkled with black dots, panted happily and licked Jonas’s nose.
“I love him.” Tyler sighed with contentment, his mind—no, his heart—made up.
“Mommy! He licked my hand.” Madison rubbed her palm against her rosebud-sprinkled T-shirt to dry it off, but she was pink with joy.
Four pairs of eyes turned to her, all powerfully pleading. No words were necessary. Not a single one. From Tyler’s heart-deep pleading to Madison’s delight to Jonas’s silent nod to her, she felt her resistance buckle. Even the dog pleaded with her silently, big friendly eyes that were filled with too much sadness.
She had enough on her plate without falling in love with a dog—thankyouverymuch, as Rebecca would say.
Thirty-five minutes later Danielle was in the minivan driving toward home with all four of them in the van—plus the dog, collapsed on the floor at Tyler’s feet, yipping, his voice rising and falling, as if he were talking excitedly.
“Boy, he’s sure glad to have me for a best friend,” Tyler commented as he petted the Dalmatian’s head.
“Mommy!” Madison shrieked, giggling. “He licked my toes. It tickles. Ahhhhh!!”
Jonas, behind the wheel, flashed her a telling glance and spoke over the yip and yap of the dog’s chatter. “At least she’s forgotten to scream about the seat belt. See, the dog is a good thing already.”
Madison squealed again, and the dog vocalized even louder.
“Yes,” Danielle said, fighting not to laugh. “I can see how things have changed. Any louder, and the cops will pull us over and ticket us for breaking city decibel ordinances. We’re louder than a truck downshifting on a steep hill.”
