She nodded. She hadn’t planned to tell him in the middle of church, but the moment was the right one—now, when her heart soared and the love she had for this man filled her.
“Yes, Thornton. I’ll marry you.”
His eyes widened, and then he grinned. “You will?”
Carys nodded.
He closed his eyes for a moment, whispering a prayer of thanksgiving. Then he hugged her. “I love you, Carys Shaw.”
“I love you, too.”
When he returned to the pulpit, Thornton faced his congregation. “Carys and I used to sing together in the choir in college. You can hear why she was a soloist. Sometimes our lives take different turns. We all walk paths that seem fortuitous, but paths that are really ordained by God.
“After graduation, we went our separate ways, but the Lord saw to it that our paths were headed in the same direction. Sometimes we’re blessed with second chances.”
His solemn tone had every person riveted. Thornton heard a few gasps as the direction of his comments dawned on people.
“Through the years, a lot of you have asked me why I never got married. Well, you can stop asking. Carys has agreed to be my bride.”
Hundreds of people jumped up cheering and applauding. Melva Kimberly and three of her friends got up and left. The moment belonged to Thornton and Carys though, as the musicians riffed on a jazzy improvisation of “Here Comes the Bride.” Thornton looked back and laughed, shaking his head, but when his gaze connected again with Carys’s, his breath caught.
He’d waited a lifetime to claim her heart, now the music between them would be a love song to last forever.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5955-7
HOW SWEET THE SOUND
Copyright © 2005 by Harlequin Books S.A.
The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual works as follows:
MAKE A JOYFUL NOISE
Copyright: © 2005 by Jacquelin Thomas
THEN SINGS MY SOUL
Copyright: © 2005 by Francis Ray
HEART SONGS
Copyright: © 2005 by Felicia L. Mason
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How Sweet the Sound Page 25
