by Leah Atwood
“Maggie, did the two of you have some sort of argument?” Her voice crackled over the line.
“Something like that,” she’d hedged, not wanting to get into the specifics. From past experience, she knew that Alec hated his mother being involved in their personal matters.
“What happened?” Dottie barked. Maggie should have known she wouldn’t be able to resist prying.
“It’s nothing, Dottie. Just a misunderstanding. He went out to blow off some steam. I thought maybe he swung by your house.” She could hear her voice trembling.
“Umm. Hmmm.” Maggie could hear the skepticism in Dottie’s voice. She could almost picture her sitting in her kitchen rolling her eyes to the heavens. “Well, he hasn’t stopped by here. I could call the boys—”
“No! Absolutely not. It’s fine,” she babbled. The last thing Alec would want was for his three brothers to get involved. She let out a hollow laugh. “Sorry to have bothered you, Dottie.”
“Honey, you could never be a bother. The day you married Alec you became my one and only daughter. I’ll see you guys tonight then.”
Maggie choked up, and through a haze of tears thanked her mother-in-law and ended the phone call. Once she hung up she surrendered to a bout of tears. She had no idea if they’d be heading over to his mother’s house tonight. How could she show up without her husband at her side? Dottie’s words had gone straight to the most sentimental part of her, yanking at her heart strings. Alec was her family. And so were his brothers. And Uncle Gene and Aunt Tamela. And she was filled with dread. If her husband didn’t want anything to do with her, neither would Dottie or the triplets. She’d waited her entire life to be part of something like the Donahue clan. And in one moment of stupidity, she may have lost it all.
She hadn’t felt this lost since the miscarriages. Yet another loss she’d been forced to deal with. All the losses in her life had piled up one after another, leaving her feeling blindsided and out of sorts. Why hadn’t she confessed her feelings to Alec? He would have understood. He would have tried to offer her a lifeline. But she’d been holding it in for so long, hiding her devastation. Everyone in her orbit had been under the belief that she’d been coping with everything, when in reality she’d been struggling.
Feeling as if she was going out of her mind, she did the one thing she knew would soothe her soul. She headed to the attic and pulled out their collection of Christmas ornaments. She made three trips to the attic, carrying out a total of ten boxes. With painstaking care, she unwrapped the ornaments one by one, placing them in strategic positions on the tree. The sounds of Johnny Mathis flowed through the room from her boom box, injecting a much-needed air of festivity to the house.
When Maggie heard the jingle of keys and the sound of the front door closing, she froze on the stepladder. Alec! Fear rooted her to the spot, making her legs feel like cement blocks. She heard the sound of his footsteps walking in the foyer, then down the hall until she could feel his presence directly behind her. She was too frightened to turn around.
“Maggie!”
The sound of her name rolling off Alec’s lips was jarring. A part of her had feared he wasn’t coming back. And even though he’d returned, a little voice in her head was telling her he might have come back just to grab a suitcase and pack his things. She couldn’t move, didn’t even want to turn around and look him in the eye. Fear rooted her to the spot.
“I’m sorry for walking out on you,” she heard him say through a haze of dread.
She felt his right arm snake around her waist and the sudden pressure of his face and chest pressed up against her back. She let out a sob and turned towards him, her arms grabbing hold of him as if she were a drowning woman in need of a life preserver. She made sure not to jostle his bad arm. “How many times have I warned you not to get up on this ladder? What happens if you fall and I’m not here to help you?”
“Oh Alec,” she said with a sigh. “I was being extra careful. I needed to see all the ornaments on our beautiful tree.”
He lifted her up with his one good arm and deposited her back on the hardwood floor.
She stepped back and took a good look at him. Red-rimmed eyes. The smell of stale beer and cigarette smoke. He looked as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. Pain sliced through her mid-section. She’d done this to him.
“Where have you been?” she asked, her stomach still in knots.
“Sully’s Tavern. I needed to cool off so I stopped by to grab a beer. I ended up running into a few of my buddies who were also deployed overseas. Then I ran into a few high school buddies. Nate was there and Stephen.” He shrugged. “Time got away from me.”
“I was scared you weren’t coming back.” Her voice sounded small and uncertain, exactly the way she felt.
“Maggie, I—”
She cut him off. “I don’t want to end our marriage. I want us, Alec. You. Me. The two of us,” she said in a breathless voice as tears streaked down her face. “I had a moment of weakness and I’m so sorry I hurt you. I was so afraid of losing you. And if you remember, we had that fight. That knock-down, drag out, awful fight that had us both at our worst. We said things...I said things—” She covered her mouth as sobs wracked her body. “I told you that maybe we shouldn’t have gotten married.”
Her voice sounded raspy as she continued. “I’m so ashamed of that.” She shook her head, regret stamped on her face. “It was the furthest thing from the truth. That’s the truly awful part, Alec.” She looked up at him, meeting his gaze for the first time since she’d started speaking. “I’ve never ever regretted marrying you. It’s the single most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me.”
Alec grimaced, his features etched in pain. “Why, Maggie? Why did you say it? I’ve got to know. It’s been eating me up inside ever since.”
“Because I wanted to hurt you. I’m not proud to admit that, but it’s true. Every time you left me, each and every deployment, I died a little more each time.”
Alec’s eyes grew bigger and his mouth hung open. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Maggie shrugged. “I don’t know. Pride. Fear. I wanted to be like the other military wives. Strong. Fearless. So I put up a good front. But on the inside...I kept reliving the day of the plane crash and the death of my parents. And pretty soon I was having nightmares about the same thing happening to you. I imagined you being killed by a sniper’s bullet or going down in a military helicopter. Somehow I convinced myself that we'd be better off without each other. I convinced myself that it would be far less painful to end things than to run the risk of you leaving this world. Or to lose another baby.”
His eyes raked over her and a fierce look settled on his face. “We’ll never be better off without each other, Maggie. If you believe anything, believe that.” He reached out and grabbed her face in his hands. “When I left here I was so angry. I could barely see straight. When I was at Sully’s I kept remembering everything that we’ve shared and all the things that drew us together in the first place. And then I thought of the future. Maggie, I don’t have a future without you. Without us.”
“Baby, I feel the same way. And I do believe in us. That’s why I decorated the tree. Because I knew you’d come home. I knew we’d be spending Christmas Eve together and waking up in each other’s arms on Christmas morning.”
He leaned down and kissed her, his kiss filled with a tenderness and devotion that made Maggie’s heart swell with joy. All was right with the world. It was shaping up to be a very merry Christmas.
“I have a present for you. It’s not wrapped. And it’s too big to put in a box,” Alec said, his eyes lighting up like a kid on Christmas morning.
“A present on Christmas Eve?” she asked. “I thought you didn’t believe in that? You’re such a stickler about waiting to open presents on Christmas morning.”
Alec’s eyes twinkled and his face was lit up with a huge smile. “This one can’t wait.” He let out a sigh. “It’s big, Maggie. Because I
was shot during a counter terrorism operation, I’m being recommended for a purple heart.” His grin got even wider as he heard Maggie's squeal. “And I’m being given an honorable discharge due to my injuries. There’s been some nerve damage in my arm.”
For a moment she couldn’t breathe. Had she heard him right? An honorable discharge? No more deployments. No more separation. Waking up each and every morning with Alec by her side.
No more nightmares about losing him in the line of duty. Safety. Security. Everything she’d ever wanted.
“Remember that idea we talked about of opening up a bakery here in Breeze Point? A place where people could come from far and wide to buy our baked goods. If we can get a bank to give us a loan, our business might be the next best thing in Cape Cod. Our savings will cover some of the expenses.” He cupped her face in his hands and stared deeply into her eyes. He frowned. “No tears, my love. I’ve never been able to take the sight of you crying.”
“It’s just that...I’m so grateful, Alec. I love you so much. And the fact that I’m going to have you with me all the time...it humbles me. I’ve been praying so hard for you to come back to me. It’s an overwhelming feeling to realize that my prayers were answered. I’m in awe.” She let out a few deep breaths she’d been holding. “The fact that you’re going to be here means we can start to build our family. I’m ready to try again. And God willing, we’ll fill up this house with more kids than we can handle.”
Alec’s mouth swung open. He looked as if a slight wind might knock him down. “Oh, Maggie. That’s wonderful. And after everything you’ve been through, it’s incredibly brave.”
Maggie smiled at him, her heart doing flip flops at the sight of her big, strong soldier getting weak in the knees about their future baby. “Yes indeed. A year from now we could be bringing a little Donahue into the world.”
Alec reached out and pulled her into his arms. He murmured words of love to her as he wrapped his arms tightly around her.
“See what happens when you believe,” he murmured as he swayed side to side with her.
She pulled away from him, looking up into his twinkling blue eyes. “It’s true, Alec. When you believe, anything can happen.”
“Anything,” Alec murmured as he pulled her back into his arms. After all, in his arms was where she belonged. And nothing would ever change that. They were tied to one another for life. And no matter what God sent their way—good, bad or in between—they would face those challenges together as a united front.
**
Alec closed the album shut. The memories they’d built were food for the soul. He felt energized and reinvigorated. He and Maggie shared a love for all time. They were incredibly blessed to have found one another.
“Now that was an enjoyable walk down memory lane,” Alec said, pressing a kiss on Maggie’s temple. “Those memories are indelibly imprinted on my heart.”
“Precious, precious memories,” Maggie whispered as she swiped a tear from underneath her eye. “No regrets. Everything had to happen just the way it did in order for us to have our beautiful family and our happily ever after. Every step we took brought us to this moment.”
“Our path wasn’t easy. That’s for sure. We certainly had some ups and downs,” Alec said with a disbelieving nod of his head.
“That’s the thing, Alec. So many people go through hard times in their marriage and they throw in the towel. Hanging in there and working through our issues got us through the storm. I’m so proud of us for that.”
Alec ran his hand lovingly down his wife’s back. “I’m proud of that too. It’s never easy to work through issues, but the end result is worth every bit of struggle.”
“Couples need to hang in there and fight for love,” Maggie said with a sigh. “Love is worth the fight.”
“I have only one regret, my love,” Alec mused.
She looked up at him. “What? Leaving the service?”
He ran his thumb along her jawline. “No. I wish I’d met you sooner, so I could have loved you just a little bit longer.”
She didn’t think her heart could have been any fuller, but Alec’s words, so beautifully spoken, caused a physical ache inside her chest. Maggie stretched up and placed a kiss on her husband’s lips. The kiss lingered for a few beats as they both surrendered to the emotions of the moment. In looking back on their past they’d solidified everything they had in the present. Brick by brick they’d laid the foundation. It hadn’t come easily, but with an abundance of love and faith, they’d achieved it.
“Don’t worry, baby,” Maggie crooned. “I’ll be loving you for the rest of our days.”
“I’m going to hold you to that, Mrs. Donahue,” Alec drawled, his voice low and intense.
As the lights from the Christmas tree glowed and twinkled beside them and snowflakes fell gently from the heavens, Alec and Maggie basked in their love. Life wouldn’t always be easy, but with love and devotion and commitment, they knew they would live out their lives together as a married couple. The vows they’d exchanged all those years ago were indelibly engraved on their hearts.
For better or worse. For richer, for poorer. To love and to cherish. From this day forward. In sickness and in health. Till death us do part.
The End
About the Author
The author of the Seven Brides, Seven Brothers Series, Belle Calhoune is a bestselling author of Christian romance. Belle also writes for Harlequin Love Inspired. She lives in Connecticut with her college sweetheart husband and two beautiful girls. A huge lover of dogs, Belle has two of her own—a toy poodle and a chocolate lab. One of the major perks of being a writer is the ability to work in her pajamas. When she’s not creating love stories, Belle loves to travel, spend time in Cape Cod, read and watch classic films.
If you enjoyed “When You Believe” please consider leaving a review of this book on Amazon.
Look for me at www.bellecalhoune.com or on Twitter @BelleCalhoune. Join me on Facebook at Author Belle Calhoune.
Seven Brides, Seven Brothers Series
Book One: The Way Home
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KTCBXSC
Book Two: Still the One
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00M0EUU22
Book Three: Until You Loved Me
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00N15TPFC
Book Four: Love Me Tender
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OFAVB1I
Book Five: If Only In My Dreams
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00R6U2PZK
Book Six: Baby It’s You
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VZ3FCB8
Book Seven: When A Man Loves A Woman
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B011J6ZTE0
Secrets of Savannah Series
Book One: Till the End of Time
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017L5ZPCE
Book Two: A Moment in the Moonlight
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AARG24A
Book Three: The Last Kiss
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01C1WIPAG
Book Four: For Love Alone
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GEE5Q8G
Book Five: Falling in Love
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LYTVT4N
Perchance to Dream
JoAnn Durgin
Perchance to Dream
Copyright © 2015 by JoAnn Durgin
All Scripture contained within is from the New American Standard Bible. Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any info
rmation storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the author.
Cover Photographer: Cammi Macy O’Teter
Cover Model: Maci O’Teter Hindman
Cover Design/Modification: MaxCovers @ fiverr.com
Author’s Note
~~♥~~
Dear Readers,
Ellie Franklin and Ryan Sullivan could be your neighbors down the street or a young couple in your church. Two kids who grew up together and fell in love. Their story is one filled with faith, love, family, and hope as the Lord works in the lives of Ellie and Ryan to bring about His perfect will.
This book is respectfully dedicated to the men and women who have given their time, their energies—and many the ultimate sacrifice—to valiantly defend and protect the freedoms we hold so dear. I honor and commend you for your willingness to serve your country. For those waging the battle on the home front, you have my prayers and deepest admiration.
Special thanks to my very special reader, Cammi Macy O’Teter, for the use of her lovely photograph used for the cover of Perchance to Dream. My deepest gratitude goes to the beautiful bride and cover model—Cammi’s daughter, Maci O’Teter Hindman—for graciously granting her permission to use the enchanting bridal image captured on her wedding day.
Perchance to Dream is first and foremost a love story, but it is also a story of leaning on one’s faith and trusting in the precious promises of the Lord. The setting is small-town Ohio during the Christmas season, but its message is timeless and enduring. Just as Ellie claims those promises to bring about her own Christmas miracle with Ryan, may you seek our precious Savior in every season of your life, and fall in love with Him all over again.
