by Merry Farmer
The way he answered—with so much confidence, confidence like she’d never known—was almost reassuring. But she couldn’t shake the realities she’d lived with for too many years. Life wasn’t fair. That’s just the way it was. You couldn’t argue with it, you couldn’t fight it. You just had to learn how to work with it to get the best outcome possible.
“He’s right, though,” she went on, slumping against Hero’s supportive shoulder. “He has a better quality of life than I do. He could give Destiny so much more.”
“He can’t give her love,” Hero insisted. “Not the kind of love you’ve given to her. I bet he can’t give her stability either.”
“Did you see the truck he’s driving? And all the jewelry that wife of his was wearing?”
“Stuff isn’t stability,” Hero insisted.
“But it is.” She sighed and twisted to face him fully. Everyone else in the room had gone back to work and was busy not paying attention to them. Denise was grateful for the pseudo-privacy. She grabbed Hero’s masculine hands, squeezing them with the force of her fear. “There have been times where I wasn’t sure where our next meal would come from, days when we had to choose between having the electric or the water turned off. There were way too many years when I couldn’t give Destiny the Christmas presents she deserved.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” He closed his hands protectively over hers.
“Things are good now, but one false move and they’ll be bad again,” Denise went on. “And Mom just keeps getting older. What am I going to do if she gets to the point where she needs more care than I can give? What if I can’t rely on her to take care of Destiny after school? I’m balancing on a tightrope here.”
“Denise.” He said her name like an apology for all the hard knocks life had sent her way.
“If Wes takes me to court for custody, the court will see things his way.”
“The court will make him pay child support,” Hero argued. “Back child support too, if there’s any justice in the world.”
“But that’s just the thing,” Denise said, impassioned. “I’m not sure there is any justice in the world. Or if there is, it’s all coming back on me because I was such a horrible person for all those years.”
He raised a hand to cradle her face. It was such a tender gesture when she was feeling at her worst. Before she could stop herself, the tears were falling.
“I told you before, I’ve never met a horrible person. I mean that.” He wiped away a tear with his thumb.
For a long time, they sat there in silence. Denise’s heart throbbed to the point of breaking. She didn’t think she could handle any more trouble in her life. Destiny meant everything to her. It would kill her to let Wes take her, but at the moment, even though she wanted to fight tooth and nail, she didn’t have the first clue where to begin. And the way Hero stared at her made her feel in her bones that he was about to say something monumental. With her luck, it would probably be goodbye. She knew he was too good to be true.
He sat a little straighter, lowered his hand to hold hers again. Here it was. The moment when everything crashed and burned. She held her breath.
He said, “Marry me.”
She could almost hear a record scratching somewhere. “What?”
“Marry me.” Hero smiled.
She blinked. “Are you…are you serious?” Her voice faded to a whisper.
“Yes, I’m serious.” He laughed. Hero always laughed. “I like you, Denise. I like you a lot. I’ve never met anyone like you. My entire life since I’ve met you has felt like Fate screaming to take a chance, make my life amazing. I think your car broke down on purpose, and this is the purpose. In fact, if you don’t marry me, I think Karma will probably find a way to kick our butts.”
All she could do was sit there and gape at him. “You want me to marry you?”
“Yes.” He laughed harder. “I’m about to start a great job nearby. I can’t promise you and Destiny and your mom designer clothes and high-end electronics, but I can get us a nice house and make sure all the bills are paid on time.”
A second later, his smile vanished.
“Oh. You probably don’t want to move to Haskell. You’ve got a whole life here.”
“No!” she yelped. “Well, yes, I do have a whole life here. I actually have friends now. But…but Culpepper and Haskell are just a short drive away. And…and if I’m being honest—” she lowered her voice to be certain none of her friends could hear. “—I need a change. I need to get out of here. I need to start over.” Her heart squeezed tight at the idea. Never in all her miserable years of wishing things were different had she ever thought she actually could change her life.
“Really?” Hero sat straighter, puffed his chest out as if he’d done something right. “You wouldn’t mind leaving Culpepper to come live in Haskell?”
“I’d love it,” she sighed. She even closed her eyes to imagine the idea for a moment. A second later, she popped them open. “Mind you, Destiny will put up a fuss. She has a lot of friends and an after-school job at Elvie’s veterinary clinic that she loves. But I also think she could handle a move.”
“Then let’s do it.” The energy came back to Hero’s eyes. “Let’s be crazy and get married, even though we only met yesterday.”
“Yes.” Denise put every ounce of passion she had into the single word.
“Do you think your friends would let us get married with them tomorrow?” he asked.
Denise’s jaw dropped. “You want to marry me right now?”
“Well, tomorrow isn’t exactly ‘right now,’ but yeah. Why not? If we’re going to be crazy, why not be really crazy? And we can nip Wes’s plans in the bud at the same time.”
“Oh my gosh, you’re serious.” A soul-deep giggle bubbled up from her gut.
“I’m absolutely serious.”
Denise gaped at him for a few more seconds, then made up her mind. “Let’s do it. I can ask Elvie and Evan if it’s okay with them, and if it is, I’ll talk to Brother Anthony about doing a double wedding.”
They both stood. Denise felt like she could fly up through the ceiling with all the joy she suddenly felt. Her life was about to change in more ways than she ever could have dreamed of, and she couldn’t have been happier.
5
To say that things happened fast was a massive understatement. Hero stood at the front of the sanctuary in the best suit he’d been able to find at the last minute. Two days ago, he’d been driving down I-80 without a care in the world, on his way to a new life. He just hadn’t had a clue what that new life was.
At least he wasn’t alone. Evan Lipinski stood with him, nervously waiting for the brides to appear.
“This isn’t what I saw myself doing this fall,” Evan joked. He didn’t look at all like Hero would have imagined the heir to a huge candy fortune would look. He was solid and unassuming. Hero had liked him instantly.
“This isn’t what I saw myself doing last week,” he replied, chuckling.
“It’s not what we saw you doing either,” Hero’s mom commented from the front pew, somehow managing to look crisp and bright after a last-minute flight from Minneapolis. She sat fidgeting beside his father, who smiled at everyone who gave him funny looks, as though he was just happy to be there.
“Haven’t you been bugging me to get married and give you grandbabies for years, Ma?” Hero winked at her.
“Not like this.”
“Hey!” Destiny—who sat on the other side of Hero’s dad, Mrs. B. beside her—yelped. “Is that supposed to be some kind of insult?”
Hero’s mom flushed with embarrassment. “Oh, no, dear, no. Not at all. It’s just so sudden.”
Destiny flopped back in her seat, arms crossed. “Tell me about it.” She scowled and pouted, teenage moodiness at its finest, but Hero saw the anxiety that her peevishness was masking.
“Sit up straight, dear,” Mrs. B. whispered to Destiny, patting her arm.
“Why should I?” Destiny continued
to pout. “My mom’s about to marry a complete stranger. This is the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.”
Hero exchanged a glance with Evan.
“And I thought I had problems,” Evan muttered.
“It’s not going to be a problem for long,” Hero said.
Destiny overheard him and sat bolt-upright. “Oh my gosh, are you going to get rid of me? You’re going to send me off to some creepy boarding school, away from all my friends, aren’t you?”
“Destiny,” Mrs. B. scolded gently.
“Our Hero would never do that,” Hero’s mom added.
Destiny ignored them. “You are, aren’t you?” Her eyes went wide. “If you’re just going to get rid of me, then I want to go live with my dad.Where is he anyhow? He said he was going to come.” She twisted in her pew, searching all the way to the back of the sanctuary. Her expression grew downright pitiful when she didn’t see hide nor hair of Wes.
There was no way Hero could just stand there and let Destiny suffer. He wasn’t her father, but he was about to be in a position to fill that role. With a quick nod to Evan, he stepped away from their post waiting for the brides and over to Destiny.
“Let’s talk.” He reached for her hand, surprised that she took it, and helped her to stand.
They walked to the side of the room, half the wedding guests watching them and the other half pretending not to. Mrs. B. slid to the end of the pew, close enough to hear them.
“This is stupid,” Destiny started, arms crossed, still searching the back of the church for Wes.
“Yeah, it’s a little stupid,” Hero laughed.
That caught Destiny’s attention. She whipped to face him, eyes wide.
Hero shrugged. “It’s probably stupid and several other things to get married two days after meeting someone, but I promise you, there’s something about your mom that hits me right here.” He thumped a fist to his heart.
“My mom?” Destiny gave him a typical teenager look of incredulity. She snorted and shook her head. “You’re weird.”
“I’ve been told,” he answered, deadpan. “But I think you’re underestimating your mom by a long shot.”
Destiny lowered her head, mopey, like she knew she was out of line. “Why do you care?”
“Because even though I’ve only known her for two days, I knew from the first two minutes that she’s a woman with a big heart who has been through a lot. Life hasn’t always treated her fairly. I think you know that.” He shifted to the side and hunched a bit so that he could look her in the eyes, even though she tried to look away. “You know that, Destiny.”
She didn’t say anything, but the pained look in her eyes and her quivering lower lip told Hero she did, in fact, know.
“I don’t know why fate chose to bring me and your mom together, but it did. And I’m glad it did. Believe it or not, I really like your mom, and I think we could be happy together. I think we could all be happy together.”
The tension around Destiny’s mouth and eyes lessened. She still wouldn’t look directly at him, but she was listening, He was getting through, he was sure.
“I promise you, Destiny. Big, big, promise. I promise you that I will take care of your mom. I might not make as much money as your dad does, but I do okay. I promise that I’ll make sure she’s happy and comfortable, that she has all the things she needs without having to work so hard for them, and that she feels loved and appreciated all the time.”
At last, Destiny peeked up at him. Her grumpiness was gone, replaced by uncertainty and hope. “No one has ever taken care of my mom before. She’s always been the one to take care of everyone else,” she said in a tiny voice.
“I guessed that.” Hero matched her tone with one of his own that was warm and gentle, or so he hoped. “And I’m also guessing that you don’t really like to see her struggle.”
Destiny shook her head and looked down.
“I promise that I’ll give her the break that she deserves,” he went on. “And I’ll make sure that you have everything you need, and your grandma too.”
Destiny snapped up to gape at him. “You’ll take care of Grandma too?”
“Of course,” Hero laughed.
For some reason, that made Destiny stare at him in awe. “You’ll…you’ll let her live with you and mom and…and me?”
“Absolutely.” Hero grinned over the breakthrough he knew they’d just had. “I mean, if she wants to. She might want to set up her own place, after all. To entertain gentlemen callers and all.”
Destiny snorted. “Grandma with a boyfriend. Now that’s weird.”
Hero glanced to Mrs. B. She must have heard everything they said, because she was giggling now, a hand held to her mouth, even as she blinked back tears. “I knew you were one of the good guys,” she whispered.
Hero turned to Destiny. “What do you think? Am I one of the good guys?”
Destiny quickly hid her smile behind an assessing frown. “I don’t know yet. Too soon to tell. But I’ll let you marry my mom anyhow.”
“Good.” Hero nodded, smiling at Destiny. “We’re in this together, you know. It’s up to us to make sure your mom is happy.”
Destiny didn’t have time to reply. The organ burst into the opening chords of the wedding march. All eyes shifted to the back of the room, where a cluster of bridesmaids in pink dresses had appeared in the doorway. Hero squeezed Destiny’s shoulder and gestured for her to rejoin his family—old and new—on the front pew. He hurried back over to Evan, who gave him an approving nod and a thumbs-up.
And then the whirlwind began. The bridesmaids walked down the aisle, grinning and happy. They took their places on the opposite side of the chancel from Evan and Hero and the O’Donnell brothers, who were standing up as groomsmen for both of them. And then the two brides appeared at the back of the church. The wedding guests sighed and murmured in appreciation as Elvie and Denise walked down the aisle side-by-side.
At least, Hero thought they walked down together. He only had eyes for Denise. It hadn’t even dawned on him that she hadn’t looked her best for the past few days. Now she was radiant. The wedding dress she wore was simple, probably because Denise had picked it up from the nearest mall late the night before, but it suited her well. Her short hair with its pink section was styled in a way that suited her face…and a beautiful face it was. She was beaming.
“You look amazing,” he whispered when she reached him and took his hand.
“And you look spectacular,” she replied, all smiles. “We’ve got to be crazy for doing this, though.”
Hero shrugged. “So we’re crazy. Feels good, doesn’t it?”
“Absolutely!”
Any further conversation was cut short as the door at the back of the chancel opened and Culpepper’s smiling, grey-haired pastor, Brother Anthony walked out. Hero had met the man briefly the night before, when they had approached him about the double ceremony. He’d been startled by the pastor’s eccentricity, but there was something about the man that made you want to root for him.
“Well look at this, folks,” he said as he took his place in front of the couples. “Lovie, did I have too much to drink this morning? I’m seeing double.”
“You haven’t had a drink in years, Tony,” Lovie replied from the organ. Hero had met Brother Anthony’s long-suffering wife the night before as well, and liked her all the more for her ability to put up with her well-meaning, ridiculous husband.
“Coulda fooled me,” Brother Anthony continued to joke. He swayed back and forth, chuckling. “Which one is which?”
“Elvie and Evan, right here,” Elvie said, raising her hand.
“Denise and Hiroshi here,” Denise added, giggling.
“Right, right.” Brother Anthony scrutinized the two couples. He burst into a sudden grin. “Hey! One more couple and we could have one of those newlywed game shows. Anyone else want to get married?” He craned his neck and looked past the two couples in front of him into the congregation. “How about you and y
ou?” He picked two random people out of the sea of guests.
“We can’t,” the guy answered, laughing.
“Heck, why not?” Brother Anthony spread his arms wide. “Folks around here seem to get married for no reason. Why not you too?”
“Because Jim and I are cousins,” the girl answered.
“Oh.” Brother Anthony was crestfallen. “Well, some places they don’t mind too much about that.”
Giggles rippled through the guests. From her place at the organ, Lovie cleared her throat. “Get on with it, Tony.”
“Right.” Brother Anthony nodded, shook his shoulders and faced the two couples he already had. “I guess any more brides and grooms and there wouldn’t be enough space up here.”
“Probably not,” Elvie answered, laughing.
Hero grinned from ear-to-ear. Denise had warned him the ceremony could be interesting. She was right, and he loved it.
“Okay, then.” Brother Anthony cleared his throat. “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to see this whole big mess of people get themselves married. To each other.” He stopped. “But not to each other, each other. Not in a whole big group, like. Just two by two, same way as they went on the Ark way back then. Though back then it was animals, not people.” He narrowed his eyes in thought, staring at the two couples. “If you could be any kind of animal you wanted, what would you be?”
“Tony,” Lovie hissed from the side of the room.
Brother Anthony shook himself. “Oh. Right. Wedding.”
“I would have said a tiger,” Hero answered, stealing a peek at Denise.
“I’d settle for being a bear,” Evan muttered.
“I’d’ve pegged you as more of a stallion,” Elvie told him, prompting a deep flush on Evan’s face.
“I’m probably a walrus,” Denise sighed.
“No, more like a lioness defending her cubs.” Hero winked at her.
Denise blushed, swaying into his side.
Brother Anthony sent Lovie a smug grin. “See. Told you it was an important question.”
“I’m sure they’d like to get married now,” Lovie answered, glaring at all five of them.
