For Sure and Certain
Page 29
“I wanted this to work, I wanted this to be forever.”
“I know, but, Marigold, forever is a very long time.”
“Bekah is going to be so upset.”
“She’ll be fine, look,” Mrs. Miller pointed out the window. She saw Joshua meet Bekah at the back door, wrapping her in a stolen hug. They’d have each other, they’d take baptism vows, and they’d be married, and they’d figure out life together. “And you, Marigold, you’ll be fine too. More than fine, you will be back. The family in your locket is not the only one you have.”
Marigold hugged Mrs. Miller again, relieved to still be accepted.
She’d go back home, try to be like her great-grandmother, a woman she didn’t know at all, but a woman she’d clung to when finding herself. For some reason she never believed the words before her father spoke them, you don’t have to be the same to be a family. Holding that truth tight to her chest, her wings stretched once more.
Chapter 19
Abel
* * *
He knocked on the front door and it signaled an official start to this new chapter in his life. He breathed deeply, a sense of courage filling him. He had made the choice, and now standing on this familiar porch it felt final.
The door swung open and confusion flashed over his face. The last thing he expected to see, the ghost-girl of his dreams, was before him.
“Marigold?”
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“What are you doing here?” he asked at the same time, dropping his bags, suddenly exhausted. Suddenly only wanting one solitary thing. Her to hold him. The weight of the last day suddenly pressed down, and he felt weak. He needed her to steady him.
“I just got here, literally five minutes ago.”
“I thought.” He stopped. He didn’t know what he thought. “Aren’t you supposed to stay in Lancaster until your vows?”
“I’m not taking them. I decided to move back home. I thought you were moving home, too.”
His chin quivered, his head fell back, his body unnerved. The wishing well angel was here. She reached out for his hand. “Are you okay, Abel?”
“I think so,” he said, clutching her fingers. Not wanting to let go.
Lily popped her head out the door, interrupting them. “So, this is a strange turn of events,” Lily said, grabbing his bags, her eyes gleaming. “Abel, come in, Marigold literally just got here, which no one expected, and Mom and Dad are in the living room. They want to talk.” She grimaced, but Abel could hardly comprehend what she was saying.
Marigold was here.
Here.
With him.
“Okay,” Lily said, beaming. “I’ll stall for five minutes, but then they’re gonna want to see you both. This was not what they expected when they told Abel he could live here.” She squeezed the arms of the bewildered pair and shut the door on them.
Marigold
Abel’s fingers pressed tight against her own, as if he feared he’d fall over if she didn’t hold on.
“Living here?” she asked, processing her sister’s information.
“Uh, yeah … I couldn’t be at the dorm anymore. My roommate kept having sex, which is actually worse than it sounds.”
“It sounds pretty bad.”
“I can’t do what I need to do on campus. It wasn’t a good fit.”
“And what is a good fit?” Marigold asked, realizing it was finally time to finish their game of twenty questions. She thought moving back to D.C. meant giving everything up, yet somehow, minutes after coming home … here he was. “That was question fifteen, by the way,” she added, her voice suddenly filled with hope.
The memory seemed to dawn on Abel, and he gave her a knowing nod and answered seriously. “Last night I told my parents that my father’s condition didn’t change anything. I won’t let them define who I am no matter how much I love them.”
“Wow.” Marigold stood breathless. When she decided to move home, never in a million years did she think it meant she would have another chance with Abel. “Yesterday afternoon I told them I was leaving. I’m surprised they didn’t say a word about it to you.”
“That makes sense, they are Amish, after all. Private, respectful.”
“And generous,” Marigold added. “Your mom’s letting me run her business from D.C., I’m gonna make an Etsy shop.”
Abel shook his head.
“What?” she asked. Sixteen.
“I asked my dad the same thing. If I could take over a bunch of the farm, but streamline the accounts. By working there a few weekends a month I could do the rest online.”
“He’ll let you?” Seventeen.
“Ja, I mean other Amish farms contract out like that. It’s just a different route than he ever expected to take. But life is full of the unexpected, isn’t it”? Abel took Marigold’s other hand, and she let him. She wanted him to. “But you, why are you here?” Eighteen.
“Being there wasn’t an act, but it also wasn’t forever,” she answered.
“What is your forever?”
“I don’t know, but I want to find out … without any pressure on myself for changing my mind down the line.” She offered him one of her secret smiles before adding, “That was question nineteen. You better make the last one count.”
His mouth curled into a knowing smile, as question twenty formed on his lips. “If you don’t yet know your forever, what do you know, Marigold?”
“I know there is no such thing as coincidence,” she answered, knowing this was the end she had been looking for, without even knowing it. Her eyes glistened with tears as she explained, “As I left this morning, your mom told me, providence has a funny way of working out. I didn’t know what she meant … but now I do.”
“Us, together, ending up in the exact same place. We are providence,” Abel said, pulling her close.
“Kiss me.”
Standing on the front porch of Marigold’s house, with his lips on hers, their worlds could finally collide, for sure and certain.
Not how either of them expected, it seemed in the giving up of what they thought to be true, they found out what really was. They’d let people down. They’d let one another down. They had so much to discover about what creating their own little universe meant. What it would mean. They would find out what sacrifices came with choosing to live their lives for themselves, but together they would create a life completely theirs.
* * *
~The End~
Acknowledgments
I offer my sincerest thanks to my critique partners, Eryn Carpenter, Kristi Rose, GL Snodgrass, and Rick Soper. You are my industry superheroes.
I want to thank my children, Phoenix, Isabela, Moses, Maisey, Lincoln, and Atticus for giving me the time and space I needed to get this book into the world. I am so proud to be your mother.
Lastly, I give my thanks to Jeremy for always believing in me. For holding my hand and my heart since I was a girl the same age as Marigold. It’s a unique privilege to learn how to be an “adult” with the love of your life by your side. Happily-ever-afters don’t just happen in books…we got ours too, IRL. Meeting you and falling in love the summer I graduated high school is the best thing that’s ever happened to me. My life is complete because you are my partner, my champion, the LOML. For sure & certain.
About the Author
Anya Monroe likes to write stories and paint words on her walls. She believes in love at first sight and fights for happily-ever-afters. As a wife and mom to six kids, she carves out time to write between carpool pick-ups and date nights because words are her heartbeat.
She lives a ferry ride from Seattle and is a total Pacific Northwesterner who drinks chai lattes and wears Birkenstocks. She’s a cliché, but doesn’t mind it. Not even a little.
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