But when she opened the door, her breath caught. “Wade…” His eyes held an odd gleam.
“Hi, Dee.”
She gripped the doorknob tighter to steady herself. If he’d come to her house, the news must not be good. “Have you…heard anything?”
Expressionless, he held up a hand and turned toward the street where his pickup was parked. Putting two fingers to his mouth, he let out an ear-piercing whistle. “Hey, guys,” he shouted. “She’s home.”
The passenger-side door burst open, and Beau and Lacey and Danica spilled out onto the lawn.
Her heart swelled as she understood the sparkle in his eyes. “Oh, Wade! They’re here! You found them!”
He beamed as the kids scrambled up on the porch.
She caught his eye over their heads. “Oh, Wade… I’m so glad they’re all right!” Thank you, Lord.
Lacey caught Dee in a hug from one side, and Dani snuggled on the other. She bent to hug them back.
“Hey, you guys! How are you?” She struggled to contain her emotions.
Looking up, she noticed Beau standing to the side, an embarrassed grin on his face. She straightened and put a hand on his shoulder. “Look at you, Beau. You’ve gotten so tall!”
He shrugged, but his grin grew into a full-fledged smile. “Oh, it’s so good to see you guys. I’ve missed you!” She glanced up at Wade, hoping he knew how much those words were meant for him.
A meow sounded from inside the door, and they all turned to look. Dee reached back and opened the screen door to let Phog out. The cat sauntered onto the far end of the porch under the swing. The kids ran to pet him.
“Be nice to him, now,” Wade called after them.
She turned to Wade, angling her head toward the kids, who had the cat stretched across all three of their laps in the swing. Dee could hear him purring from clear across the porch. “What happened?” she whispered.
His voice dropped. “They’re mine, Dee.”
“What?” Her breath caught.
He nodded. “Parnell literally dumped them on my doorstep this morning.”
“You’re kidding?”
He told her what had happened, a smile blooming on his face, as though he were hearing it himself for the first time. “Darrin left me with an envelope full of legal papers that basically say the kids are mine.”
“Oh, Wade, that’s unbelievable. That’s wonderful!”
“Starr’s life insurance money is conspicuously absent from the envelope, but I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me.”
“You’re not going to fight him for it?”
“No way. The money is probably long gone by now, anyway. And the last thing I want to do is end up in another legal battle with him. We’ll get by okay.” He studied her for a moment. “I’m never going to be a rich man, Dee. Just so you know.”
“I think you’re already a rich man,” she said quietly.
He closed his eyes and nodded. “Yes…I am.”
“You’re not worried that he’ll…come back for them.”
“No, I think he knows he doesn’t have a chance at them now. Not after what’s happened.”
“Oh, Wade, this is so incredible!” It was all she could do not to throw her arms around him. Instead, she folded them in front of her and glanced over at the kids. “Are they…doing okay?”
He shook his head. “I think so. I’m sure we’re not out of the woods yet, but so far this day has felt like they never even left.”
“I am so happy for you. Thanks for coming by to tell me.”
“Thanks for all your help.”
She waved him off.
He looked at the kids, and back at her. “We won’t stay long,” he said.
She grinned. “Yeah, that’s what you said.” She wanted to invite him in. Oh, who was she kidding? She wanted to propose to him right here and now. But she wasn’t about to jeopardize the eight months she’d already invested in waiting for him. “I’m so glad you came by.”
As if he’d read her mind, he shuffled his feet and took a step back. “Well, I guess we should go. But…the kids wanted to see you.”
“I’m so glad, Wade,” she said again. “I…I’ve missed them.”
“That’s good,” he said. “Because… Well… when you’re considering this over the next sixteen months…it’s a package deal now. You get all of us.”
A tingle worked its way up her spine at the vulnerability in his eyes. She risked her next words. “You’re still waiting?”
“Yes. I’m still waiting.” He held her gaze. “And not as patiently as I once claimed.”
Something stirred inside her. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to collect herself. “You’d better go.”
He grinned. “I’m going. But…we know our way back.” He went to the swing where the kids were still fussing over the cat. “Hey, guys, it’s time to go. Tell Dee good-bye.”
“Aw! Do we have to go now?” Dani said. “We just got here!”
“I told you we weren’t staying long. We have to go get the house cleaned up for tonight.”
Dani looked over at Dee. “We’re havin’ a party tonight. With pizza.”
“Oh, that sounds like fun.” Dee suddenly felt lonelier than she had in a long time.
Wade reached out and touched her arm briefly. “I wish you could be there.”
She shivered under the warmth of his hand. “Yeah. Me too.”
He looked toward the ceiling of the porch. “Lord, help the next sixteen months to fly.”
“Amen,” she whispered.
He rounded up the kids, and she watched from the porch while he buckled them into their seatbelts. As he opened his door and started to climb in, a blanket of gloom settled over her.
But then Wade turned and jogged back to the house. He stood on the step below her, grinning. “I almost forgot,” he said. He dug in the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a stainless steel spoon. A spoon with a curvy S engraved in the handle.
“For you,” he said, placing it in her hand. A glint lit his eyes. “Maybe you should practice.” He turned and jogged back to the truck.
The engine revved and he pulled away from the curb. The pickup disappeared down the street. But she stood on the porch for a long time, rubbing the smooth, cool metal against her palm, tracing the S again and again with her finger, a soft smile caressing her face.
Epilogue
“You guys be good now. Don’t give your aunt Sophie any trouble, you hear? And go to bed when she tells you to.” Wade winked at Sophie over the kids’ heads and opened the door to leave. “Thanks, Sophe, I owe you one.”
“You owe me more than one,” she said with a teasing smile. “Now, get out of here. You’ve got better things to do than stand here and make small talk with the baby-sitter.”
Wade gave her a quick hug, closed the door behind him, and jogged through the leaf-strewn lawn to his pickup.
The October air was laced with the scent of woodsmoke, and he breathed in its sharp chill. He felt as nervous as he had on his first date the night of his senior prom. A wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he thought of his gangly, awkward seventeen-year-old self. He sure hoped this night ended better than that one had.
Fifteen minutes later when he turned onto her street, his pulse quickened. The lights were on in the windows. Good. She was home.
He parked his pickup along the curb in front of her house and walked across the lawn and up onto the front porch.
Sixteen long months had passed since the day he’d first brought the kids here.
He smiled to think of the covert front porch visits they’d made since that long-ago day in May. They never talked about it, never made a date. He hadn’t wanted Dee to feel responsible for breaking the code of ethics that bound her. But once in a while, every few weeks or so, when he couldn’t stand being away from her another minute, he would load up the kids and bring them to see her.
He’d knock on her door, and the kids would yell “surprise!
” Then they’d play in the yard or on the porch while he and Dee talked. He’d never stayed more than an hour. They’d never gone inside her house––even one January day when it was so cold he feared they’d all get frostbite standing on the porch, watching their breath form clouds in the air.
He’d never touched her––except in his dreams. Their conversations were always punctuated with “I really should go,” and “Yes, you really should.” Yet they’d learned more about one another in those precious stolen minutes than they had in all the hours they’d spent at his house.
And he grew more in love with her every time he saw her.
It had been almost two months since he’d been here last. He felt almost sad that this would be the last time he’d sneak up on her porch. It was the first time he’d come alone, without the kids.
He wiped sweaty palms on his jeans, raised his hand to knock, and almost fell through the doorway when the door swung inward.
Dee stood there with a serious expression on her face. “Yes,” she said. It wasn’t “yes” with a question mark. But simply yes. As though it were an answer to a question he was pretty sure he hadn’t asked yet.
“Huh?” he said.
“I said yes. Whatever your question is, my answer is yes.”
He wondered if the grin splitting his face looked as silly as it felt. Apparently so, because she started laughing.
He cocked his head and grew sober. “Are you sure, Dee? Because my questions are pretty serious.”
“Yes.” She said again. She gave an exaggerated bob of her chin that made him think of an old I Dream of Jeannie rerun. “Yes. I will. I am. I do… Does that about cover it?”
Now it was his turn to laugh. “I’d say that pretty well covers it. So… I take it you know what day today is?”
“Yes, I do. And you’re eight hours, seventeen minutes and”––she looked at her watch––“forty-three seconds late. You had me worried.”
He seemed unable to do anything but stand there and beam like an idiot.
Suddenly, her eyes misted. “Oh, Wade, I can’t believe you’re really here. I thought this day would never come. And then I was afraid when it did come, you’d somehow forget or maybe you’d change your mind or––” Her face crumpled and she started to cry.
He reached for her hand and pulled her out onto the porch. Gently, he pressed his fingers over her lips. “Shhhh. I’m here. How could I ever forget you?” he whispered against her hair. “I didn’t wait this long for nothing.”
He pulled her into his arms then, felt her heart beat against his. And though he had never touched her like this, never held her before, it felt as though she belonged here. Like she was made for him. And he for her.
“You’re sure about this, Dee? I’m asking you to share my life with three noisy, rowdy, ornery kids. I’m asking you to be a pauper with me. I…I want you to be sure.”
She reached up to caress his face, and her eyes locked with his. “I’ve had two years…two long, lonely years to think about this, Wade. I know exactly what you’re asking, and I’ve never been so sure about anything in my life.”
He pulled her closer and took her face in his hands. As they shared their first kiss, all the long months of waiting melted into nothing. Pulling away, he looked into her eyes, then placed the palm of his hand on her head, the way he had with each of the children that day they’d come home to him. He felt the warmth of her hair against his skin, the realness of her.
And suddenly, he knew that she, too, had finally come home to him.
About the Author
DEBORAH RANEY dreamed of writing a book since the summer she read Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books and discovered that a Kansas farm girl could, indeed, grow up to be a writer. After a happy twenty-year detour as a stay-at-home mom, Deb penned her first novel, A Vow to Cherish, which won a Silver Angel Award and inspired the acclaimed World Wide Pictures film of the same title. Since then, her books have won the RITA Award, HOLT Medallion, ACFW Carol Award, National Readers' Choice Award, as well as three times being finalists for the Christy Award. Deb teaches at writers' conferences across the country. She and her husband, Ken Raney, recently traded small-town life in Kansas ––the setting of many of Deb's novels––for life in the (relatively) big city of Wichita. They have four children and a growing brood of precious grandchildren who all live much too far away. Visit Deb on the Web at:
www.deborahraney.com
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