She loved him. It seemed a miracle, an incredible gift, and he was fairly certain his heart would burst with happiness. He smiled, not concerned in the least.
At least he would have a good doctor around when it happened.
Epilogue
“If you don’t stop sniffling, she’s going to hear you.”
“I’m trying,” Lauren whispered back to Daniel. She pulled out the handkerchief she had at least had the foresight to bring along, dabbed at her teary eyes, then shifted on the hard bleacher seats of the high school gymnasium trying to find a comfortable spot.
It wasn’t an easy task for anyone—forget a woman who was six months pregnant.
Beside her, Daniel canted his hips slightly and tugged her against him so she could use his solid bulk as a backrest.
“Better?” he murmured as the commencement speaker talked of lessons learned and the road less traveled.
“Much.” She leaned into him gratefully, feeling the tight muscles in her lower back ease. After three years of marriage, she still couldn’t understand how he instinctively seemed to know exactly what she needed before she even figured it out herself.
He did this kind of thing all the time, these quiet acts of consideration that always seemed to take her breath away. Her heart bubbling over with emotion, she reached for his hand, linking her fingers through his.
She would never have believed she could come to love him so much. She thought of the aching loneliness in her life before that January that had changed every thing, before she acknowledged the feelings that had been growing inside her most of her life. She thought she had been content building her medical practice, living her life as best she could, trying to repair all that her father had done.
The contrast of these last three years to her earlier life only illustrated how starkly empty that world had been. Marriage to Daniel had been filled with everything she might have wished—laughter and joy and the peaceful assurance that this strong, wonderful man was crazy about her.
Not everything had been easy. Their early months together had been tempered by heartache as she had helped Rosa deliver her baby and then a day later handed the beautiful dark-eyed girl to the adoptive couple Rosa had selected.
More tears bubbled out now as she remembered Rosa’s courage—and pain. Lauren was a physician, trained to help people heal, and she had hated knowing she couldn’t make everything right for Rosa. Giving the child up for adoption had been the right choice. She knew it. But it hadn’t been an easy one for any of them.
As an adopted child herself, she knew Rosa had been giving her daughter a better life than she could provide as a fifteen-year-old single mother with little education.
She and Daniel had talked long and hard about the possibility of adopting the girl themselves. In the end, Rosa made the decision for them, with a wisdom and strength that still amazed Lauren.
Here in Moose Springs, Rosa said, there would always be rumors swirling around her daughter. Everyone knew of the trial, of Rosa’s violent rape and the attempts on her life. She wanted her child to grow up where she would never have to know the ugly circumstances that had created her, where she could be free to thrive and grow.
“My daughter is innocent of what happened to me and she should not have to live with that burden. No child should,” Rosa had said firmly.
As it had been her choice, Daniel and Lauren stood by her and helped her find the right placement for the child. Rosa had finally selected friends of Daniel’s sister Anna in Oregon, a wonderful, loving couple who had been childless for eight years.
Seeing their utter joy at their new daughter had eased some of the heartache, but not all. Still, the whole experience had given Lauren a new appreciation—both for the unknown woman who gave birth to her and for her own parents.
As the young speaker finished her speech with an enthusiastic plea to the graduates to grab all life had to offer, Lauren forced her attention away from the past back to the present.
“She’s next,” she whispered.
She didn’t realize she was squeezing Daniel’s hand so tightly until he laughed slightly and slid his hand away to cover her fingers with his. “Easy, sweetheart. She’ll be great.”
Jim Fordham, the principal of the high school, stood to introduce the next speaker and Lauren’s heart kicked up a notch.
“Every year the senior class at Moose Springs High School votes on the most inspirational graduate of the year,” the principal began. “It has been a tradition at this school since I attended, back in the Dark Ages. Never before could I say how wholeheartedly I support their unanimous selection.”
He smiled as the crowd applauded. “This student exemplifies courage and strength under difficult conditions. She came into this country with barely an elementary school education but in two years, despite her circumstances, she has thrived. She does not have the best grades of anyone in her graduating class, but every teacher she has ever had at this school tells me no one tries harder to succeed. She is never without a smile, she is kind to everyone she meets, and she will be greatly missed by students and faculty alike when she leaves to attend nursing school on a full scholarship in the fall. Your choice as inspirational graduate of the year, Rosa Vallejo.”
The graduating seniors jumped up and began clapping. Beside Daniel, Lauren thought her heart would burst with pride as Rosa walked to the microphone, her long dark hair gleaming against the glossy white of her graduation robes.
The frightened, battered girl she and Daniel had found in the back of Dale Richins’s pickup was now a strong, beautiful, confident young woman. Rosa smiled at the crowd, though Lauren thought her gaze lingered on them for just a moment as she waited for the applause to fade and the crowd to sit again before she launched into her speech.
As Rosa began speaking in her accented but clear English, Lauren followed along in her head with the speech they had practiced for two weeks. It was a wonderful message and though Lauren had heard it dozens of times, she was still touched as Rosa talked of life’s challenges, and how people can choose to wallow along in their adversities or they can reach out to lift others. She talked of the bright future and of possibilities in a speech punctuated several times by applause.
Close to the end, Lauren waited for the big inspirational finish. Instead Rosa’s voice faltered. She paused for several seconds, long enough that Lauren began to fear she had forgotten the words they practiced.
“I wish I had better English,” Rosa said after a moment. “Maybe then I could find the words to thank the two people who have given me everything. They have given me help and courage, friendship, understanding, love. They have given me a home and they have stood with me through my darkest hours.”
Rosa gave a watery smile and Lauren sniffled in response. Beside her, Daniel gripped her hand tightly. “Most of all, they have given me hope. My mother died in Honduras when I was thirteen. I did not know when I came to this country I would find two new parents but I have been so blessed. My heart is full of gratitude and love for them. To Daniel and Lauren Galvez, thank you. From the very, very bottom of my heart, I thank you. Because you reached out to help a stranger when you could have turned away, my future is a bright and wonderful place.”
She stepped away from the podium and began to clap. Around them, others stood and clapped as well. This was her town, Lauren thought as she looked around at the smiling faces looking back at her. Her neighbors and friends and patients, and she loved them.
Daniel slid an arm around her and pulled her close and she risked a look at his strong, rugged features. Suspicious moisture leaked from his eyes and she handed the extra tissue she had brought along.
He would be a wonderful father to this child she carried. She had no doubt at all, because she had seen his quiet guidance with Rosa these last few years.
As the principal returned to the podium to begin reading off the names of graduates to hand out diplomas, Lauren touched her abdomen. Rosa was right. The future was a bright an
d wonderful place.
She couldn’t wait.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-0230-0
SHELTER FROM THE STORM
Copyright © 2007 by RaeAnne Thayne
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