Sisters Found

by Joan Johnston

  “You’re chock-full of fun speculation,” Hope muttered.

  “Don’t you see?” Faith said, looking from one sister to the other. “Marriage is a gamble. It’s a risk. It’s a good bet, if there’s love and mutual respect. But there are no guarantees. You grab hands and leap off the cliff and hope there’s a soft landing somewhere below.”

  “And if there’s not?” Charity said bleakly.

  “Then you pick yourself up, glue the pieces back together and go on with your life. Like you’ve been doing all along.” Faith crossed and hugged Charity. “I have Faith in you.”

  “And I’ve got a lot of Hope,” Hope said, smiling as she crossed and hugged her sisters.

  “You two are awful,” Charity said. She looked from one to the other and said, “And I’m looking forward to offering both of you a little Charity over the years.”

  Hope and Faith both groaned. And grinned.

  “So where’s your dress? Somewhere close, I hope,” Faith said.

  “In the car. I was going to return it—”

  “Get it and get dressed,” Hope said. “We don’t have much time.”

  “Oh, God. This is such a giant leap—”

  “Of faith,” Faith said. “I know. Get your dress. We’ll all grab hands and jump together. It’ll be easier that way.”

  While Charity was outside retrieving her wedding gown, Hope slid an arm around Faith’s waist and turned them so they were looking into the mirror. Faith automatically slid her prosthetic hand behind her back.

  “Don’t,” Hope said. “Just let it hang by your side. You don’t ever have to hide again, Faith. We’re back together again, the three of us, and we’re going to be that way for the rest of our lives.”

  “Not tonight, I hope,” Faith quipped. “Randy and I have plans—”

  Hope pinched Faith’s waist and Faith yelped. “You deserved that,” Hope said.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” Charity asked, stepping into the room with her dress in hand. “Leave her alone.”

  Hope wanted to say they were just teasing, but she realized Charity didn’t understand what that was like. She would. As time went on.

  “We were just playing,” she said in explanation. “Which ends now. We need to get you dressed.”

  It didn’t take more than five minutes to get Charity out of her clothes and into her wedding gown. Faith and Hope sat her in front of a mirror, made sure she ran a brush through her hair and dabbed on some lipstick and powder. Then the three of them stared at each other.

  “My God. We look so much alike, I think we could fool our prospective husbands,” Hope said.

  “Don’t you dare suggest that we try it!” Faith said. “I want to end up with the right groom at the end of the day.”

  “But wouldn’t it be fun—”

  “Some other time, girls. Not today.”

  The three girls turned to find their mother sitting in a wheelchair as their father pushed it farther into the room.

  “Mom,” Hope said. “You look so well.”

  “Thanks. I think,” her mother said with a smile. “Stand there together, so I can look at all of you.”

  The three girls slid their arms around one another and stood in a line.

  “If I hadn’t heard Hope speak, I wouldn’t have known the three of you apart,” her mother said. “You are all so very beautiful.”

  “I’ll second that,” her father said.

  “I have something for each of you,” her mother said. “I bought them shortly before you were born, after I knew there would be three of you.

  “A cross for Faith,” her mother said, holding out the fragile gold chain with a gold cross on it. “Who has always been the strongest of us all.”

  Faith took the few steps to her mother and bent down to kiss her, then stood as her father clasped the necklace around her throat. Hope noticed Faith’s hand trembled as she reached up to caress the necklace before stepping back.

  “A circle for Hope,” her mother said. “Which has no beginning and no end.”

  Hope felt her heart beating erratically as her father clasped her necklace around her throat. She kissed his cheek, then turned and said, “I love you, Mom.”

  “And a heart for Charity,” her mother said, “with a wish that her life may be filled with love.”

  Charity hesitated a second, then crossed and bent her head, so her father could place the golden chain around her neck. Hope saw that Charity’s eyes brimmed with tears as she leaned over to kiss their mother on the cheek, then turned and hugged their father.

  Hope slid her arm around Faith as a tear slid down her father’s cheek.

  “Well, now,” their father said, releasing Charity and smiling through his tears. “This is a happy day. Your mother and I are going to go now. We’ll see you in church.”

  The three girls planned to escort each other down the aisle, which was just wide enough for them and their bell-shaped skirts.

  “Thank you, Mom, Dad,” Faith said. “For all of us. We’ll see you soon.”

  Charity was still holding her heart, staring at it, when they heard the processional begin.

  “I guess this is it,” Hope said. “No turning back now.”

  “Do you suppose our grooms have been having the same sort of second thoughts?” Charity asked.

  Faith shook her head. “They love us. And they’re lucky to get us. And they know it.”

  Hope and Charity laughed, and a moment later Faith joined them.

  “Shall we go?” Hope said, extending her left hand to Charity.

  Charity took a deep breath and let it out. “I’m ready.” She turned to Faith. “How about you?”

  “I’ve been ready for an hour—and waiting on the two of you,” Faith said with a grin.

  Hope grabbed Faith’s left hand—or rather the hook that substituted for it. “No sense postponing this any longer.”

  They didn’t carry flowers, just held one another’s hands. The congregation gasped when they appeared, and stood in awe as they marched slowly down the aisle to their respective grooms.

  Jake and Hope stood in the center, with Randy and Faith on the left and Kane and Charity on the right.

  “Dearly beloved,” the minister began.

  Hope wondered if her sisters were experiencing the same difficulty swallowing that she was having herself. Wondered if their hands were also trembling. Wondered if their hearts were beating so hard. She felt Jake’s hand tighten around hers comfortingly. Felt his fingertip lift her chin so she was looking into his eyes as the minister began the vows that would bind them together.

  Hope had dreamed about this moment constantly for the past three years and despaired of it ever coming to pass. Now that it was here, she damned the blur of tears that kept her from seeing Jake’s face clearly.

  “Blink,” he whispered.

  “What?” she whispered back.

  “Blink. Again. Again.”

  And there he was, his blue eyes so filled with tenderness, and with love, that she felt her heart swell with feeling.

  “I promise to love, honor and cherish you,” Jake was saying.

  She wasn’t listening to the words, she was looking into his eyes, seeing the promise there of a future filled with love. And with children. They’d spent the past week deciding how many they wanted. At least four. Maybe five. Or six, if Jake wasn’t too old by then. He’d laughed when she’d said it, then sobered. Because they’d put off being together for three years, and might already have started their family if he hadn’t been so stubborn.

  “I, Hope, take you, Jake,” Hope repeated after the minister.

  She was no longer aware of her sisters, no longer aware of the congregation. Her eyes stayed on the man whom she loved, whom she would always love,
and who had pledged his troth to her. She was surprised to feel his hands tremble as she began her vows, and she tightened her hand in his, reassuring him, as he’d reassured her.

  We belong together. This is forever. We will love long and love well.

  “I now pronounce you husbands and wives,” the minister said. “You may kiss your brides.”

  Hope heard the plural announcement that made it clear she wasn’t alone with Jake in front of the altar. But she might as well have been, because she didn’t see or hear anyone or anything, except Jake’s quiet, “I love you, Hope,” and then the taste of him, as his mouth captured hers, and the feel of his arms circling her, surrounding her with love.

  It was the joyful laughter and applause of the congregation that brought Hope back to herself. She looked up at Jake, still stunned that he was her husband, glanced first at Faith, then at Charity, and then grinned at Jake.

  “Hello, husband,” she said softly.

  “Hello, wife,” he replied.

  Faith and Randy were first back down the aisle, followed by Hope and Jake, then Charity and Kane. In the vestibule the brides hugged each other, as the grooms shook hands. Then the grooms kissed the other brides, and the brides kissed their sisters’ grooms.

  “I suppose we’ll be in a race now to see who can produce the first baby,” Jake said to Hope as he led her from the church.

  “Faith’s already won that prize,” Hope said. “But I have high hopes we’ll come in second!”

  “I’ll give it my full attention,” Jake promised with a grin.

  The reception was held in the church hall, with a single cake from which the three brides fed their husbands.

  Jake stuffed a piece of cake into Hope’s mouth as she pushed a too-large piece of cake into his.

  “And this is symbolic of what?” Jake said through a mouthful of cake.

  “That we’ll take care of each other,” Hope said back in an equally muffled voice.

  Jake swallowed and said, “I will, Hope. Always.”

  “And I’ll be there for you, Jake. I promise. Always.”

  Jake looked around at the crowd and said, “How soon can we get out of here?”

  “Where did you have in mind to go?”

  “Home.”

  “No honeymoon?” Hope said with a fake pout.

  “Rabb and Amanda are taking the honeymoon I had planned.”

  “Who’d have thought they’d elope to Mexico? I suppose it was lucky you’d planned a honeymoon in Cancun.”

  “I envy them right now,” Jake said. “Alone together. Somewhere on the beach.”

  “Knowing how practical Miss Carter is, they’re not making love on the sand,” Hope said.

  “Why not?”

  “It itches,” Hope replied.

  “How would you know that?”

  “I think I read it somewhere.”

  “No firsthand experience?”

  Hope shook her head. “The only experience I’ve had is with you. Just that one breathtaking afternoon alone, naked in bed—”

  “That’s enough,” Jake said. “Keep that up and my tux trousers won’t fit.”

  Hope glanced down and said, “My, my. Looks like they fit just fine to me.”

  Jake laughed. “Cut that out, Hope.”

  “Take me out of here, Jake. Take me home.”

  “We can’t leave yet, Hope. There are still—”

  She hooked her hand around his nape and pulled his head down to kiss him, thrusting her tongue into his mouth deep and hard.

  He groaned, then grasped her hips and pulled her close.

  “Hey, you two, stop that!” a laughing voice said.

  Jake broke the kiss, then leaned down and picked up his wife. “We’re out of here,” he said.

  “Great idea,” Kane said, picking up Charity.

  “Way ahead of you,” Randy said, heading for the door with Faith in his arms.

  The gathered friends and family laughed, cheered and cleared a path as the three men escaped with their wives.

  Once they were outside, Hope stopped Jake and said, “I want to say goodbye to my sisters.”

  “You’re all going to be living right here in town,” Jake pointed out.

  “I know, but...we’re all going to be living separately from now on.”

  “All right,” Jake said.

  “You can put me down,” Hope said.

  “Not on your life. You can say your goodbyes just as easily from where you are.”

  Hope laughed. “You’re being silly.”

  Jake lifted a brow and Hope realized it was a gesture she was likely to see often over the years to come. “All right, Jake,” she said. “Faith, Charity,” she called.

  The other two men turned with their wives in their arms.

  “I told Randy I wanted to say goodbye,” Faith said.

  “And I said the same thing to Kane,” Charity said.

  The three men converged, allowing the women to say, “I’ll see you—”

  “In a week,” the three men said simultaneously.

  Hope turned to Jake and said, “What’s going on?”

  Jake grinned and said, “Shall we tell them?”

  “I suppose this is as close to a surprise as we’re going to get,” Randy said.

  “What surprise?” Hope asked.

  “We realized you three probably wouldn’t want to be separated so soon after finding one another,” Randy said.

  “So we arranged a honeymoon for all of us in the same spot,” Kane said.

  “Where is that?” Charity asked.

  “We’re all going to Mexico,” Jake said. “Actually, we’ve rented a villa in Playa del Carmen.”

  “A villa? Where we can see each other every day?” Hope said, eyeing Faith and Charity. “That’s wonderful!”

  “We thought you might like it,” Jake said.

  “When do we leave?” Hope asked.

  “Tomorrow morning,” Jake replied. “Which leaves all of us one night—”

  “At home,” Hope said, smiling at Jake.

  She turned to Faith and Charity and said, “See you tomorrow morning. My husband and I are going home.”

  “That sounds wonderful. I think we’ll do the same thing,” Faith said.

  “We’ll be at Kane’s home, if you’re looking for us,” Charity said.

  There was no limousine with tissue roses and shaving cream. No boots and beer cans tied to Jake’s truck. They were both too grown-up for that.

  But Jake was adamant about carrying Hope over the threshold. “It’s for luck,” he said.

  Hope grasped him around the neck and planted a kiss on his jaw. “For luck,” she said as they crossed the threshold to the home they would share.

  Jake stopped just inside the door. “I love you, Hope.”

  “I love you, too, Jake. Let’s go make a baby.”

  Jake laughed. “All right, love. You’re the boss.”

  Hope smiled at him. “I’m glad to see I’m going to get my way when it comes to making babies.”

  Jake sobered and said, “As many as you want. That’s how many we’ll have.”

  Hope grinned. “All right,” she said. “You asked for it.”

  Jake lifted a brow. “How many do you want?”

  “Lots,” she said. “Lots and lots.”

  EPILOGUE

  FAITH, HOPE & CHARITY

  JAKE WATCHED AS HIS WIFE NURSED THEIR newborn son, Russell James Whitelaw. He brushed a hand over her smooth breast above where the child suckled. Hope glanced up at him and grinned.

  “He’s one hungry son-of-a-gun,” she said.

  Jake sat gingerly on the bed beside Hope and brushed
Russ’s tiny fingernails. His son’s hand opened and closed on his finger, refusing to let go. Jake was amazed at the strength of the baby’s grasp. “He’s so strong for someone so tiny.”

  Hope snorted. “For your information, Jake Whitelaw, eight pounds seven ounces is not tiny. Your son is twenty-three inches long, for heaven’s sake.”

  Your son. The words still had the power to make Jake’s chest ache with pride and with joy. “I suppose he’ll end up as tall as I am.”

  “Even taller, maybe,” Hope said. “He’s certainly chowing down like a champ. Ouch!”

  “Are you all right?” Jake asked, his eyes anxious as he searched Hope’s face.

  “I’m fine, Jake. Just a little sore from all this nursing. It’ll get better.” She reached out a hand and touched his stubbled jaw. He hadn’t been home in the past twenty-four hours to shave. “I’m sorry I scared you like that during the delivery.”

  Everything had not gone exactly as planned. After Hope had delivered Russ, she’d started bleeding. Her blood pressure had dropped and the doctor had threatened he might have to do a hysterectomy if she didn’t respond soon to the treatment he’d given her.

  Jake was beside himself, uninterested in even seeing the son he’d wanted so badly, too worried that he might lose the wife he’d come to love more than his own life. “Do whatever you have to do,” he’d said. They could always adopt more children. But life without Hope wouldn’t be worth living.

  “I’m fine, Jake,” she said, caressing his cheek. “Really.”

  “I don’t ever want to go through that again.”

  “The doctor says I’ll be fine. What happened during the delivery shouldn’t keep me from delivering other healthy children.”

  “We can adopt,” Jake said.

  Hope laughed at him. “If you insist, we can,” she said. “But I’m hoping we’ll have a few more of our own to join the brood.”

  The door to Hope’s hospital room swung open and Faith walked in, a babe in arms, Randy by her side. “How’s the new arrival?” Faith asked.

  “Russ is fine. How’s Cindy?”

  Faith patted the fussing baby that rested against her shoulder and said, “Growing like a weed.”